TENNIS, Wimbledon // SOCCER, Europe // GOLF: Tiger Woods.

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

TENNIS:  SPAIN’s number four player in world tennis, Rafael Nadal, is now off the court at Wimbledon, and the year’s French Open winner, Maria Sharapova, is gone, too, and Serena Williams had to bow out---favorites least expected to be shut down early at a Grand Slam event. Left as a possible women’s champion at Wimbledon, is Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, having beaten Sharapova during Wimbledon’s fourth round. Among possible men’s tennis winners at Wimbledon, are the game’s number one player, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Switzerland’s Roger Federer, and the United Kingdom’s Andy Murray.

If Djokovic wins at Wimbledon, it will be from his incredible endurance and his ability to keep the ball in transition with enormous power, placing physical strain on his opponents. Not that Djokovic isn’t a chess player on the court; he’s been able to surprise with clever set-ups capped by power shots that no player could return; rather, Djokovic’s endurance and power can be the X factor for winning when up against equally smart, or smarter, opponents. 

If Federer wins at Wimbledon, it will be from his still being the game’s most tactically skillful active player, with those skills prevailing against the endurance + power of players like Djokovic. Federer’s quality of endurance and strength hasn’t weakened considerably, but his is less than the endurance + power that in recent years has brought much success to the game’s new regime of winners (in today’s world tennis, strategy and tactical implentation often takes second place behind “staying power and the consistency of speed accomplished within”).

If Andy Murray dominates and takes the Wimbledon title, it will be from the upticks that he’s gained since being coached by former tennis champion, Ivan Lendl, getting more aggressive and stronger in his serves and return of serves, his volleying and a backcourt ability to shift quickly from defense posturing to maintaining the offense. Thus far at Wimbledon, Murray has been showing a better mix of the tactical + power game, still needing to extend his range of consistency.

SOCCER:  A country isn’t doing very well; it could go broke and have to borrow huge from others in order to survive, and one of its heroes, a young and world class tennis player, Rafael Nadal, had that bad day at Wimbledon, having lost to a player seeded 100. Apathy surfaced in Spain, but a reason for national pride erased that quite quickly, for, on Sunday, Spain proved that its soccer club is Europe’s best, defeating Italy’s also exceptional soccer team, 4-0, in this year’s Euro championship finals. In soccer, a 4-0 victory is super triumphant, like a 12-0 win in baseball.

Noteworthy is that Spain’s team gained two of its four points early in the first half, and the last two as if having postponed the gain deliberately, so as to tie a blue ribbon around the competition, which Spain’s team accomplished as though it had been choreographing the finals from moment one.

For Spain, Euro 2012 was its third big soccer title, having won the game’s World Cup in 2010, before that, Euro 2008, in each case and on Sunday winning mostly from three basic elements, (1) fast regaining of the ball from Italy’s struggling offense, (2) exploitation of openings for horizontal, backward and wide angle passing, which guaranteed a large number of scoring attempts, (3) outstanding goalkeeping.

Ask many an aficionado of soccer and they’ll suggest that what’s best about the game is observance of coordinated mastery of the three basic elements cited above, as team-members stay mission-oriented: “Score that goal with least amount of wasted movement!”  

GOLF:  On Sunday, Tiger Woods won the AT&T National at Bethesda, Maryland, doing so two under par, leaving with a score of 69, his 74^th major career win and his third such for 2012, placing him just below the great Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus for most career wins, adding legitimacy to the question, “Can Woods regain eminence as number one in world golf?”

The year is already a Woods comeback story; he’s positioned himself as number four in the annual PGA run, with two world class events to go. Necessary to be numero uno will be Woods playing better than he’s ever played, as the odds are within mathematical probability but unlike having assurance that the sun will rise tomorrow. Woods hasn’t been pure for 36 holes straight---but then neither has anyone else on the circuit.

Since golf is a game during which one’s best efforts can be minimized by players less skilled having their very best day for reasons they will never again encounter, Woods’ chances of 2012 supremacy will remain a bettor’s quandary.

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