Tuesday, June 23, 2009

First round action from Wimbledon

Even without Nadal, I'm really enjoying the matches at Wimbledon. I was happy to see Fabrice Santoro win, his opening round match, especially since this might be his last year on tour. Santoro is probably my favorite player to watch. His shot placement is sublime. He'll be missed for sure when he does retire.

The Andy Murray vs Robert Kendrick match turned out to be very exciting. Kendrick put up a great fight to get to the fourth set, his serve was really good and he had some unbelievable diving volleys that flustered Murray but he didn't get many looks at Murray's serve and despite playing great tennis Murray was way too strong for him.

I was surprised to see how tough Andy Murray's draw is. He's got Gulbis, in the second round and then a potential match-up with Dent and Wawrinka in the third and fourth rounds. I'm guessing Murray, will make it through but don't be surprised if he's pushed to four or five sets in a few of these matches.

Now on to Roger. Well, I know he likes to wear a special outfit at Wimbledon, but could this one possibly be any more over the top? It reminds me of a wrestlers gimmick and I think Roger has taken this way too far. It was bad enough when he came out with the blazer in 2006, since then he's added pants, a vest, and a hand bag and a leisure suit jacket to his image. I hope he doesn't come out next year with a crown and scepter.XP Now I'm not trying to make fun of him but it's hard not to when you see him come out with the leisure suit. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

At least his game is on. Roger, always brings his best game to Wimbledon and he completely dominated his first and second round opponents. The chance of him winning a sixth Wimbledon is very high. We'll see what happens but I strongly feel that Roger will break Sampras's record next week.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Early Wimbledon predictions

Wimbledon, is now just a few days away, along with the 1 year anniversary of my blog.:P I feel like there's a lot riding on this particular Wimbledon. For one thing, Federer will have a chance to regain the #1 ranking if he wins the tournament and Nadal loses before the semi-finals. Unlike last year, I won't be favoring Nadal to win the title, it's clear that his knees are very painful, he said in an interview that they have been bothering him for a while and that he can't go on like this. Nadal is scheduled to play an exhibition match against Hewitt on Thursday, to test out his knees. We'll have to wait until after that match to know how he's doing. If by some miracle he's feeling good and they aren't hindering him too much then Federer should be on full guard. Nadal could easily beat him in the finals, but my guess is that it won't happen this year.

So that leaves us with the other Wimby threats: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and to a lesser extent Ernest Gulbis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, and Andy Roddick. Tsonga, Soderling, Roddick and especially Gulbis are a long shot but I think they'll cause some upsets and go deep into the draw. I'm picking Andy Murray to go all the way to the semi or better this time. I know that McEnroe supports him and says that Murray is in Federer's head. That may be true and Murray has owned Roger in the past but he's never beaten him on grass. He's 0-1 against Federer in grandslams and to be honest I don't think Murray is good enough to beat him on grass. Andy's best surface are the hard courts, he's way more likely to win the US Open than Wimbledon.

As for Novak Djokovic, I think he'll just lose in the early rounds, he said that he's been having a hard time dealing with the loss to Nadal in the Madrid semis. Maybe that partly explains why the 31-year old veteran Haas crushed him in the finals at Halle. That was a huge win for Tommy but it doesn't say much for Nole, if he's struggling against guys like that, what chance does he have of upsetting Roger, or Rafa? I understand that players go through ups and downs. Maybe Novak can turn his slump around, but until he does he's not (in my mind at least) a top level candidate for the Wimbledon title.

Final prediction: Federer wins his sixth Wimbledon title. Andy Murray makes either the semis or the finals depending on what side of the draw he's on in relation to Federer. If Fed beats Murray in the semi-finals, he might face Roddick in the finals.

Hope to hear some feedback from you guys and thanks again for reading my blog. ;)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Federer wins 14th grand slam and ties Pete Sampras


This picture perfectly describes Roger's emotion after winning the French Open. He was nearly sobbing when he got to match point and after firing off one last service winner Roger fell to the ground and broke down in tears. It was like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. So what's next for Federer? Breaking Pete's record by winning one more major? Another chance at the gold medal? Or perhaps setting a new record for grand slams that may never be broken?

Even though Federer played great, in the finals there were a few things that bothered me about the match. I was disturbed by that guy who ran out onto the court when Federer was getting ready to return serve early in the second set. The security was not present and the guy was able to get close enough to touch Federer, he tried to put his hat on Federer's head and took off running when he saw the security guards finally arriving on the court. This should never have happened and it wasn't until the end of the match that the French security was even visable. What the hell is wrong with the French tournament officials?! I know the Seles stabbing was a long time ago but there may be another incident like that if they don't keep their security guards courtside during the matches. The second thing that bothered me was Federer's response in the post match interview, one of the reporters asked him if he deserved the title even though he didn't have to go through Nadal to win. Federer, said that he did because he had beaten Nadal in Madrid a couple weeks ago. Hold on Roger, you're taking a victory in a masters series final and comparing it to a victory in a grand slam final. That's ridiculous there's no comparison. First of all, the Madrid final was best of 3 sets not best of 5, secondly there's no question Nadal would have taken the Roland Garros final more seriously and would have played better than he did in Madrid. It's a major and he was the four time defending champion. You can't compare Madrid to the French Open and this is coming from Roger himself, it makes him sound like a poor sport.

I was happy for Roger when he won the French but I would have preferred a more competitive match. Soderling never had a chance after the first set. He played decently in the second set but he was never able to get his game into the top gear that brought him to the finals.

Does it seem kind of strange that only a year ago Federer was in a slump and Nadal was winning tournaments left and right, after watching Nadal blitz Federer in the French Open finals I and most of the tennis community thought Nadal would win Wimbledon for sure. Now a year later Federer is playing awesome tennis again and despite having complications in his life it looks like he could make a resurgence. Nadal on the other hand has been having problems with his knees and now we're not even sure if he will be able to play Wimbledon, Federer, could potentially regain his title without having to go through Nadal. It's really amazing what changed in a year. I hope this isn't the start of something bad for Nadal but his knee problems are becoming more than a concern, they're more like a hindrance. I've heard that he's been having acute pains in his right knee but there's a rumor going around that it's just an excuse to give him some time off to deal with his RG loss. I'm not sure what the truth is but it would be a big loss if he misses Wimbledon.
With the clay season now at it's end, get ready for a few exciting weeks of grass tennis. Wimbledon is right around the corner and I'll be back to blog about the matches in Queens. Later.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Davydenko and Murray out of the French, Gonzalez and Soderling into the semis

I didn't expect to be saying this but I'm now convinced that Robin Soderling has a legitimate chance of winning the French Open. He completely over-powered Davydenko, during their semi-final meeting, in a similar way to Gonzalez dominating Murray in the other semi today. Assuming he's, able to get over the Gonzo hurdle I think Soderling should at least be in the finals. Federer, had a narrow win over Haas on Monday but I don't think that will stop him from reaching the finals. Of the remaining players Fed still has the best chance but if Soderling plays against Federer like he played against Nadal, he will give Federer all he can handle. Even though their head-to-head suggests otherwise (Federer has beaten Soderling all 9 of the times they played.) Federer's has another advantage as well, he's 38-1 against the other five players still left in the draw. The more I think about it, the more I like Fed's chance of winning his first French Open title.

My new prediction is for Roger Federer to win the French Open over Robin Soderling, in four sets.