One week after becoming the clay master Nadal proves he is a grass act

Emphatically, yes. That outcome is far from certain, but following an Artois Championships victory of bone-jarring intensity against Novak Djokovic there can be every expectation that this year's extravaganza at SW19 will be the closest run in years.

Happy man: Spain's Rafael Nadal with the Artois Championship trophy

Lest anyone get too carried away by Nadal beating the world No 3 7-6, 7-5 it should be pointed out that, in less than the time it took the Spaniard to wrest yesterday's first set, Federer dispatched Philipp Kohlschreiber to win the concurrent ATP tournament in Halle, Germany.

So it will be the man who cannot lose on grass - the Swiss has not been defeated on it since 2002 - against the man who has been looking unbeatable on any surface.

As he headed back last night for a few days R&R in Mallorca, Nadal might ponder on that same 2002 being the last time the winner at Queen's Club, Lleyton Hewitt, went on to win Wimbledon.

Omen or not, this was a mightily impressive statement about the improvement of Nadal, who became the first player to win this event in the week immediately after the French.

Emulating Bjorn Borg in becoming the first man since the great Swede to win at Wimbledon straight after Roland Garros will be even harder.

His growing grass court assets, such as a more comfortable slice, volley and a serve that swings away, back up his belief that all is possible.

'I can win it for sure, I got to the final last year,' he said. 'But it's a lot of hard work. You've got to be calm, humble and relax. The second Sunday of Wimbledon, we know who is gonna be the favourite, no?'

Federer, who will no longer start as a racing certainty, will have his own ideas but he and Nadal will be united in waiting anxiously for Friday's draw.

While they are guaranteed to be kept apart, both will be praying that third seed Djokovic is not in their half of the draw.

Just champion: Nadal celebrates his win

The Australian Open champion has got better and better recently and is another who is clearly superior to this time 12 months ago.

As Nadal pointed out: 'The difference between us is very small, only two or three points. When you are playing against the best, only two or three points decide the match.'

Djokovic castigated himself for not being aggressive enough at crucial junctures: 'I had a lot of chances, you know. This is not the first time I've had a lot of chances against him.'

That indicates the sheer mental resilience of Nadal, which is probably his biggest asset alongside his bearish physical strength.

It has been enough this week to claim Ivo Karlovic and Andy Roddick as victims alongside Djokovic, a most dangerous triumvirate who all have horrendous serves to deal with.

Whatever Federer was doing at the same time, the above list shows how much stronger the week's field was at Queen's, which produced a fitting end to the 30-year sponsorship under the Artois banner.

If Nadal is to win Wimbledon, it will be predominantly from the baseline and although he is more comfortable at the net these days, certainly happier there than Djokovic, yesterday was still mainly a battle of ferocious groundstroking from the baseline.

Wimbledon will probably be slower than Queen's so do not expect much change from them over the big fortnight.

The Serb moved his opponent around impressively at the start with his accuracy and depth and had a point to go to a surely unassailable 4-0 lead in the first set.

But Nadal is like a huge great dog with a bone and would not let him go, pulling him back with astonishing retrievals at the back of the court and forcing a tiebreak.

Djokovic had a set point, but lost the baseline exchange when he fell and did the splits behind the baseline. With the 7,000-capacity centre court filled to the gunwales, the slight underdog recovered from an early break in the second to win five out of the next seven games, only to go into his shell a little when he was serving for the set.

Nadal broke back and did so again in his next return game to abruptly finish the match and claim his first grass court title.

Within an hour, he was off to fly home for a few days and he will hope that the trip does not break the spell.

Another to win a first title yesterday was former Wimbledon junior champion Kateryna Bondarenko who claimed the Sony Ericsson WTA tour singles title.

The 21-year-old Ukranian gained a 7-6 , 3-6, 7-6 victory over Belgian teenager Yanina Wickmayer in an epic final of the DFS Classic in Birmingham.

British No 2 Alex Bogdanovic came through three rounds of qualifying to make the main draw for the Slazenger Nottingham Open, which begins today.