Saturday, July 3, 2010

Nadal and Berdych stroll into the finals

This makes for a very interesting Wimbledon final. Berdych, has continued, to defy the odds, by dethroning yet another top seeded player. This time in straight sets. I thought for sure Djokovic, would have finished him. Albeit probably in a close five setter. But it surprises me, to see Berdych, getting the better of the #2 and #3 ranked players in the world. I think in this case, it was Djokovic's, second serve that was his downfall. He had 8 double faults in the match and won only 42% of the points on his second serve. No where near good enough, for the later stages of a grand slam.

Berdych, did a very good job of consistently applying pressure to Djokovic through out the match. This was a well deserved victory for him.

The other semi-final, turned out to be fairly routine as well. Andy Murray, was attempting to become the first British man, in a billion years to reach the finals of Wimbledon and to his credit he played a solid match. He just got outplayed. Nadal's level was very, very good. Not up to his 2008 level, perhaps but still excellent. Rafa, got lucky in the tie-break, at 6-all. His return clipped the net and just barely tipped over. Making it impossible for Murray, to return it. This set up, a set point for Rafa, which he won and in doing so sealed Murray's fate.

Furious, over losing the second set, Murray, played the third set, with full aggression. Breaking Nadal straight away and giving the crowd, a slight hope of a comeback. Unfortunately, for Andy, he wasn't able to maintain that level long enough to serve out the set. Nadal got the break back, a few games later and then broke again one final time to win the match 6-4, 7-6(8), 6-4.

Now for the finals: I think Berdych's dream run, is going to come to an end. He's played great and deserves to have gotten this far. I don't see what advantage he has on Nadal, except for the serve. Both have great forehands, good backhands. Nadal is much better on the run and mentally stronger than Berdych in pivotal moments. I predict the finals will go to 4 and that Nadal will be the 2010 Wimbledon champion.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Wimbledon: Quarters

Federer is out. Can you believe it. For the first time in 8 years, there will be a Roger-free final at Wimbledon. Love him or hate him, this is going to be weird. It feels like Roger is as much a part of Wimbledon as the all white dress code, the strawberries & cream or the unpredictable weather. While, I'll miss watching Roger play for the title, it's also kind of refreshing to know that someone else is finally going to get a chance to win.

Berdych, has had a phenomenal year. For a guy that looked washed up when he was 23 years old, he's had quite the turn around. I'm very excited to see how he does against Novak, this should be a great match. I predict it'll go the full distance but I'm giving a slight edge to Nole. He's a little more familiar with the later stages of slams and it might give him enough of an edge that he'll pull it out. Again, I expect this will be very close.

Djokovic, beat out, Yen Hsun Lu, in a very easy straight setter to reach the semis. He's gone up several levels, since his first round struggles with Rochus.

Nadal, looked great against Soderling. Even though he lost the opening set, he was able to come back and tear right through Soderling, sending him packing with a breadstick (6-1.) Nice stuff, from Rafa. Going to be tough on Andy Murray, who was able to come through a relatively competitive quarter-final match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Intersting fact, is that despite the head-to-head being 7-3 in Nadal's favor. Murray holds even when playing Nadal in slams. Their record is 2-all.

So with only 4 players left in the draw it's time for me to make my pick for the finals.

I'm going with the top seeded Rafael Nadal to play Novak Djokovic, for the title.