Jul 4, 2008 - 1:20 PM
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KENT, England (Ticker) -- Sergio Garcia loves his golf, but he loves his tennis too and it was a great day for him on both fronts today.
First he burst into contention at the European Open with an 8-under-par 64, his lowest round of the year.
Then it was off to Wimbledon - for the third time this week - to see Rafael Nadal power his way to another final showdown with Roger Federer.
This could be some summer for Spanish sports fans, of course.
Thanks to Fernando Torres, the Euro 2008 soccer title is already in the bag, Nadal has already won another French Open and in two weeks' time, Garcia hopes to make up for the huge disappointment of last July by capturing the British Open at Royal Birkdale.
Without Tiger Woods in the field, he has as good a chance as anyone.
First, though, the 28-year-old wants another title to his name. He goes into the weekend in third place, four shots England's Ross Fisher, who added a 68 to his course record 63 and leads by one over Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell.
McDowell, two behind overnight, moved ahead with a morning 67, then Fisher, having played the Kent lay-out "blind" on Thursday, had four more birdies in his first 10 holes, bogeyed the 14th and 16th, but then closed with another birdie.
Garcia, who paired with McDowell had a better-ball 60, finished eagle-birdie and afterwards spoke about his growing friendship with Nadal.
"When you see a friend of yours doing well it makes you happy and you want to do well too," said the world 's eighth-ranked player who used to date women's tennis player Martina Hingis.
"It's always nice to talk to a friend and ask him how things went. It's been fun - we've been sending messages to each other and congratulating each other. "I hit with him last year in Mallorca. It was awesome, great. Actually he was quite impressed with my tennis - he thought I was going to be a little bit worse - and I was very impressed with his golf when he played the pro-am."
This is Garcia's last outing before The Open. He opted for the European Open rather than next week's Scottish Open because there is more of a links feel to the course.
"I'm trying to make sure that I get myself comfortable and some of the shots I've been hitting this week I'm going to be using at The Open," he stated.
"You don't want to find your swing going into a major. I'll just get some good practice at home and just try to get myself as ready as possible."
