Last 16 and end of 1st week

Finally we have made it to the players who have deserved to be going into 2nd week. RG is IMO the hardest of the 4 slams to get past the first 3 rounds. There are so many clay lover below top 100 who could take the advantage and get instant fame. Who am I talking about…hmm
Well, there’s Chardy!! That’s the only one who’s left, but there are always a few players who come from nothing and get big wins against big guys.

Let’s go to today’s action and find the man of the day… IVAN LJUBICIC!!!

Why, you say? Firstly he was down 2-0 against the 4th best clay player, the robotic Davydenko. Second, he has fallen down from top 3-4 to #30 very fast and with no good results to show in recent time. Third, he is one of the BIG guys with the big serve as main weapon. History shows that these guys succeed more on hard courts and grass. Fact of the matter is Ljubi played great tennis, few errors and made Davydenko come up with the good stuff. He wasn’t able anymore after the first two sets, and Ivan took over. Great match, great setting and a great result for the big guy from Croatia. Kinda the only surprise left, apart from Chardy in the last 16.

Gonzalez did the same thing today, but you would excpect him to play a lot better than what he showed during the first two sets. Gonzo is a rollercoaster of another dimension and needs stability to get a big title. Wawrinka playing his best is perhaps not as good as Gonzo playing his best. That’s why Gonzo won, I think.

Ok, here’s a breakdown of the remaining candidates:
Federer-Benneteau (Federer just torn Ancic apart, will do it to Benne as well)
Gonzo-Ginepri (is this for real?! If Gonzo loses this, shame on him!)
Ljubicic-Monfils (this could go either way, depending on mental strength+best tennis possible)
Stepanek-Ferrer (probably to of the biggest dark horses to win the entire thing, super match!)
Gulbis-Llodra (big chance for both of them, is Gulbis mature enough to take it? 50-50 IMO)
Mathieu-Djokovic (either Mathieu plays his best and has a chance, or plays poorly and gets humiliated at home)
Chardy-Almagro (bye bye Chardy, Almagro losing this would be a big upset! who knows?)
Verdasco-Nadal (bye bye Verdasco. never beaten him, never even close, except for once on grass..Nadal in 3 I’m afraid)

Roland Garros T-11 days

There are 8 players left in Hamburg and 11 days to another grand slam tournament. What are we seeing?

First of all there are two heros in Hamburg. Montanes is not used to being in QFs of Masters. Better yet, he has not dropped a set yet. Interesting to see if he has a chance against Djokovic. Moya-Nadal is also a classic. Nadal looked far better yesterday and seems to have found the autopilot button. And then there is a NO-seed QF. Local hero Kiefer took out Davydenko in straight sets and Andreas Seppi bageled Monaco. This is without a doubt an important match for both players and might be the one to watch. Last, but not LEAST, Federer-Verdasco. Both players looked far better than they have done so far this year and seem to be on a roll. Verdasco did not play GREAT tennis, but beating Ferrer in straight sets is not bad. Federer on the other hand played one of his best matches this year. He hit 24 winners and only 10 unforced. That’s GOOD on clay for him.

So who will advance?
Federer surely will
Kiefer should be able to get his home crowd to cheer him into a SF.
Nadal should be quick against Moya
Djokovic shouldn’t get too much trouble against Montanes

Conclusion: Federer will be in the final, unless Kiefer is able to pull off an incredible win. The only uncertainty at this point is who will win the other SF? Djokovic or Nadal? I say Nadal….

Ferrer qualifies

leaving two open spots. These are up for grabs at Paris and there are still several players who are in reach. I think Gonzalez might hold on to at LEAST 8th spot.

Today’s finals:
Federer-Nieminen
Murray-Verdasco
Grosjean-Giquel

I’m gonna watch Mr. Federer play

Madrid Day 3

Nadal is back in action and back in winning action. He was down 1-3 in the first, but as the rust was cleaned off he got in full control and took the match in 2.
Djokovic struggled a bit against Verdasco. He took the first set in the breaker, which I was so sure he wouldn’t. Verdasco had so many chances in this match to, not only get important breaks, but get the whole match. 2nd set was even, but Djokovic breaking as he should. Then in the 3rd Verdasco was winning his service games at 40-0 and Djokovic had to face several break points. I think Verdasco had a total of 10 break points. How many did he convert? Not one! That’s where he lost the match. Had he broken at least 4 or 5, he would have won it.

Ancic is back, and playing well. It looked like top 10 play against Blake yesterday. While Ferrer is out, after the WC Lopez won in 2 close sets.
Kiefer defeated Youzhny… Youzhny seems to have problems with Germans?!
Ferrero defeated Moya… ready for the Djoker
AND Canas defeated Calleri in 3, and is ready for Roger. For me, that’s the match to watch today. Don’t think I’ll see it, so I excpect a full report from comments tomorrow!

At around 8pm, Nadal will face the in-form Murray. Murray is a potential Nadal beater. The match in AO was awesome and lets just hope that we see something similar tonight.

No surprises in Tokyo and Mets

Ferrer and Karlovic will clash in SF of Tokyo. Both players have had a good year and will battle it out tomorrow. Ferrer is a very good returner, so I don’t think Karlovic is a favorite at all. Ferrer is getting closer to Shaghai every minute he spends on court. On the other side, Gasquet has beaten Sela and is in the SF. Berdych/Verdasco is still running, but Berdych is a break up in the 3rd. I think we’ll see Ferrer against Berdych in the final. Although Gasquet vs. Berdych will be close I think.

In France the first QF is in progress. Andreev against Mahut. 1 all right now. Third set will be close it seems. There are some real interesting matches ahead. A shame there’s no place to watch them! Tsonga v. Murray, Robredo v. Grosjean, Korolev v. Canas
Maybe we will see Tsonga in his first ATP final? Grosjean winning @ home. Canas returning on the hard stuff? Korolev with a little breakthrough? I don’t know here. Open, open, open!