Wimbledon: Nadal v Fish - Live Game-by-game!

First set: Nadal 2-2 Fish* "Have the Countryside Alliance crowd pushed off to relax in post-coital reverie after the Henman epic, or are they staying to watch The Bull vs The Fish?" asks Mr obo/mbm/gbg/blahbblah Gary Naylor, just as I was about to inform you that attendance on centre court has tailed off faster than the Ordinary Boys' post-Chantelle music careers. Fish is holding his own here - Nadal can only watch his last serve fizz by off the ridiculously lush grass as the American holds to 15.

First set: Nadal* 2-1 Fish John McEnroe has just pointed out - rather astutely, that Fish was next in line to be seeded, and wouldn't have had to worry about facing Nadal in the first round if Andy Murray had just pulled out a little earlier. Tough break - Nadal's looks to be well into his stride already, dropping just the one point this time around.

First set: Nadal 1-1 Fish* Fish is coming in hard on his serves and flying to the net, but Nadal find a return before delivering a beautiful passing forehand down the line for 15-30. Mardy learns his lesson quickly and stays back for the rest of the game, mixing in a first ace to tie up his first service game to thirty.

First set: Nadal* 1-0 Fish Impressive start from Nadal, strong serves and a couple of typically ferocious baseline forehands tying up the game to love.

Oh How Fickle We Are dept: Henman has apparently come in from 160-1 to be sports personality of the year to 75-1 in the space of the last 24 hours. Lewis Hamilton will still win it though. Fact.

Thrilling BBC exposes 1 & 2: Rafael Nadal says that he would quite like to win Wimbledon. But that Roger Federer is better than him on grass.

Preamble: Good afternoon gents and ladies, and welcome to what should be a far less preposterous game than Tiger Tim just gave us. We all know everything there is to know about the flowing locks, gorilla's arms and relentless baseline power of second seed Rafael Nadal, so why not let's take a moment to check out his victi... sorry opponent in round one - Mardy Fish.

Twenty-five years old and World No38, Fish cites Wimbledon among his favourite tournaments yet has never gone beyond the third round (which he reached in 2003 and 2006). Bizzarely he has been also been known to claim clay as his favourite surface, yet acknowledges that his old-school serve and volley approach is better suited to grass. Most perplexing of all, he purports to enjoy watching movies, yet cites Notting Hill as his cinematic work of choice.

A riddle wrapped in an enigma packaged in a chiselled all-American jaw then? Probably not - rather just a poor man's Andy Roddick. He had a good 2006 after coming back from a wrist injury the year before - winning the Houston ATP title (clay) and two Challenger tournaments (at Surbiton and Talahassee, on grass and hard courts respectively) - and played well at the Australian Open this year, reaching the quarter-finals, but ultimately he is limited. Although he beat Ivan Ljubcic in the first round in Melbourne, he looked out of his depth when he came up against Roddick in the quarters, losing in straight sets.

So can he threaten Nadal today? Maybe, but only if Rafa is off his game. Fish's approach is indeed better suited to grass, but Nadal is simply more talented, so unless he's complacent, or particularly wiped out from recent exertions, it should be relatively straightforward. Nadal has already won all three of their previous ATP matches dispatching Fish in straight sets at each of Madrid, Queen's Club and Indian Wells last year. Fish is also coming off fresh injury trouble after knacking his ankle kicking American football field goals when visiting NFL Europa's Rhein Fire, and had to miss Roland Garros as a consequence.