French Open: Fourth Round Report

As I type this, the top five seeds are still alive in the draw. Of course 4th seed Andy Murray still has not officially moved on from the fourth round as he is currently 2-sets all with 15th seed Viktor Troicki and will play a one-man-takes-all set. Other top seeds such as Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Robin Soderling notched straight-set and relatively drama-free wins. Nadal beat veteran Ivan Ljubicic while Federer took down countryman and 14th seed Stan Wawrinka. Djokovic and Soderling defeated a pair of Frenchmen, 13th seed Richard Gasquet and 18th seed Gilles Simon.

The only Frenchman left in the draw, 9th seed Gael Monfils, made it worthwhile for his country though as he pushed 7th seed David Ferrer to five sets and winning 8-6 in the dramatic final set after blowing three prior match points earlier on. Fabio Fognini also made a valiant effort against another Spaniard Albert Montanes winning 11-9 in the fifth set after sustaining a muscle injury late in the final set severely hampering his movement. Despite his win, he had to default on his next match giving his opponent, Djokovic, a free ride into the semifinals. Finally, Juan Ignacio Chela also won in five sets against Alejandro Falla.

Quarterfinal Preview
Rafael Nadal vs. Robin Soderling
Andy Murray or Viktor Troicki vs. Nicolas Almagro Juan Ignacio Chela
Roger Federer vs. David Ferrer Gael Monfils
Novak Djokovic d. Mikhail Youzhny Fabio Fognini

As you can see, my predictions were a bit off only getting the usual suspects correct. Now depending on the result of Murray-Troicki, there'll either be all top four seeds in the quarters or there'll be two Serbians. Either way, it's fascinating. Djokovic continues his unbeaten run this year, but it's Federer who probably has the more impressive record of making his 28th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. In the end scheme of things, I'm still predicting a Nadal-Djokovic final with the Spaniard winning.


Not even sure where to start with the women. How about the fact that the top three seeds are gone with 3rd seed Vera Zvonareva going down to 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova? Truly that was the one lone "upset" in terms of the lower ranked player beating a higher one. Perhaps 6th seed Li Na winning against 9th seed Petra Kvitova could be looked at as an upset based on the forms these ladies have shown the past few months, but give all credit to Li Na for gutting this one out. 15th seed Andrea Petkovic continues her meteoric rise reaching the quarters.

The rest of the field look at once expected and at the same time completely surprising. There's Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli who has never done so well here, but move on after Gisela Dulko retired from their match. There is the pair of former French Open champions in 5th seed Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova taking out 10th seed Jelena Jankovic and 28th seed Daniela Hantuchova. And finally, there's 7th seed Maria Sharapova outlasting 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

Quarterfinal Preview
Caroline Wozniacki Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Sam Stosur Marion Bartoli
Francescha Schiavone vs. Vera Zvonareva Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Victoria Azarenka vs. Petra Kvitova Na Li
Maria Sharapova vs. Kim Clijsters Andrea Petkovic

Clearly, I messed up in my predictions, so moving on. Who is the favorite now? I don't even know. I'd probably give the edge to the former slam champions especially as they've all looked pretty good the past week or so. If Sharapova does manage to win here though, she completes a Career Grand Slam. As for the others, they can most definitely win as well and crazier things have ALREADY happened so I wouldn't be surprised about ANYTHING. Right now, I'm rooting for Svetlana.

Soderling Savors Paris Victory, London Next

Robin Soderling must love Paris. The two-time French Open finalist captured his very first Masters title over the weekend in the city of lights beating hometown favorite Gael Monfils in the finals. Soderling and Monfils both nearly didn't make the finals, saving match points in their semifinal matches. Soderling had to save three match points against another Frenchman Michael Llodra while Monfils somehow survived five match points up against Roger Federer.

While Federer, who has been on a roll this fall, was unable to reach the finals, he still had a career best showing, making it all the way to the semifinals. With these results and the early losses of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, Federer locked up the year-end #2 ranking. This means that for an astonishing six years straight, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have occupied the top two spots at the end of the year. That's... ridiculous to say the least.

In less than a week, the top eight players including Soderling, Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Djokovic will join Andy Roddick, David Ferrer, and Tomas Berdych in London for the ATP World Tour Finals to contend the final title of the year. Only Federer (4x) and Djokovic have won the the year-end tournament among the players participating.

US Open Report: Day 10

The wind yet again troubled the players today especially since all of the single matches were held in Arthur Ashe stadium where the wind seems to have a mind of its own. While all of the players found the wind annoying, the top players persevered.

Wimbledon finalist and 7th seed Vera Zvonareva reached her first US Open semifinals beating 32nd seed Kaia Kanepi in straight sets. Zvonareva easily won the first set, but both players could not take a foothold in the second set, both committing errors after errors. In the end it was Kanepi's 60th error that gave the only Russian in the top ten the match. The match between 17th seed Gael Monfils and 3rd seed Novak Djokovic looked to be a blockbuster match, but the more experienced Djokovic tamed the Frenchman in straight sets, giving up only 3 games in the last two sets. After Monfils lost the first-set tiebreaker, he got more desperate hitting a ton of unpractical shots that put him out of position while Djokovic just handled the crazy conditions much better.

The wind got even gustier at the start of the Caroline Wozniacki-Dominika Cibulkova match. Both players lost their serves early trying to adjust to the windy conditions. Wozniacki was able to adjust more quickly and won the first set in no time. It was a closer affair in the second set getting to 5-5. Unfortunately for Cibulkova, she lost her serve in the 11th game and Wozniacki had a chance to serve it out. Cibulkova fought back and had break point, but Wozniacki saved that and won the next two point to win the match and reach her second consecutive US Open semifinals.

Last time they played, 5th seed Robin Soderling defeated 5-time US Open champion Roger Federer in the French Open quarterfinals to end Federer's semifinals streak in majors. So for Federer, this was a revenge match and he more than anyone today really used the wind to his advantage. Though he was broken twice, Federer was relatively superb during his service games garnering 18 aces to Soderling's measly 2. It was the Swede who was clearly agitated with the wind unable to hit his usual array of winners. With Federer already up 2 sets, Soderling had a chance to serve out the third set at 5-3 only for Federer to break him and win the next three games for a straight-set win. Federer is the only other player in the tournament other than Rafael Nadal to not have lost a set.

Men's First and Women's Second Semifinal Preview: Djokovic is a dangerous opponent for Federer, but the numbers speak for themselves. Federer leads their H2H 10-5 and has won all four of their matches at the US Open with Djokovic managing to only win ONE set. With that said, Djokovic has improved as the tournament progressed, but it's probably NOT enough to take out the 5-time US Open winner. As for Wozniacki-Zvonareva, it's actually more of a toss-up than one would think. Their H2H is 2-2 overall and 1-1 this year. Wozniacki is the better player at the moment, so the edge goes to the top seed.

US Open: Men's Fourth Round Preview

Rafael Nadal [1] vs. Feliciano Lopez [23]
Fernando Verdasco [8] vs. David Ferrer [10]
Sam Querrey [20] vs. Stanislas Wawrinka [25]
Mikhail Youzhny [12] vs. Tommy Robredo

Gael Monfils [17] vs. Richard Gasquet
Novak Djokovic [3] vs. Mardy Fish [19]
Robin Soderling [5] vs. Albert Montanes [21]
Roger Federer [2] vs. Jurgen Melzer [13]

With seeds falling left and right during the first week including the earlier-than-expected eliminations of Andy Murray and Andy Roddick, one would think the draw is lacking any star power and yet that is all I see during the fourth round.

There's one thing we know for certain and that is there will be a Spaniard in the US Open semifinals i.e. whoever wins the Nadal-Lopez-Verdasco-Ferrer section. I'm thinking that's going to go Nadal-Verdasco myself, but weirder things have happened. The other two matches in that half are a bit of a toss-up, but this is a great chance for any of them to reach a semifinal berth.

Favored in their respective matches, look for Federer and Soderling to defeat their not-so-easy opponents en route to a blockbuster quarterfinal match-up. There will be at least one Frenchman in the next round with both Monfils and Gasquet setting up an all-French fourth round match. Monfils is higher ranked, but Gasquet has more experience. Finally, the match of the round probably goes to Djokovic-Fish. It might seem like a slam dunk for higher-ranked Djokovic, but Fish is probably the hottest player of the summer and Djokovic will have his hands full especially playing under the hot sun. I'm leaning towards Fish for this one, but I wouldn't bet any real money on it.

Predictions: My earlier predictions before the tournament is a bit messed up due to both Andys getting eliminated. I still think Nadal, Fish, Federer, and Soderling will make it. The other four? Ferrer, Querrey, Youzhny, and Gasquet. We'll see soon enough how wrong I am probably!

Top Four Rusty, Survive

It hasn't been easy for the top seeds, but they're all still through to the quarterfinals in Rogers Cup.


Top seed Rafael Nadal got was forced to two tiebreaks in his first two matches and will now go up against Philipp Kohlschreiber. Even thought their H2H is lopsided in the Spaniard's favor 6-0, the 3 times they have played on hard courts have been contentious affairs.

Second seed Novak Djokovic had a tough time in his first match, but did much better in his second match with a 3-4 straight set win. He will take his 4-0 H2H record against Jeremy Chardy to the quarterfinals where he should comfortably move on.

Third seed Roger Federer, like Nadal, had to win two tiebreaks in his first two rounds. His prize for getting this far? A rematch of this years Wimbledon quarterfinal match with Tomas Berdych. While Federer's leads their H2H at 8-3, this year Berdych is undefeated in their match-ups. This looks to be the match of the tournament.

Finally, fourth seed Andy Murray inexplicably dropped a love set against Gael Monfils in his second match, but came back to win. He will now have to face a resurgent recent title-winner David Nalbandian who managed to defeat Robin Soderling.

Wimbledon Report: Day 1

© Getty

The top half of the men's draw led by Roger Federer played on Monday and to most of the seeded men, it was the longest day of their lives.

Top seed Federer was down two sets to love to Alejandro Falla before he managed to stage a miraculous comeback saving four break points in a crucial game during the third set and then breaking Falla as the Colombian was serving for the match in the fourth set. Federer took care of business in the final set by winning six straight games, but he was only a couple of points away from exiting early. Fellow top ten players, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko also had to come back from 2 sets to 1 down, but both managed to squeezed out a win. Djokovic and Olivier Rochus played under the roof due to bad light.

Top players that weren't so lucky include 11th seed Marin Cilic, 17th seed Ivan Ljubicic, 20th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, and 30th seed Tommy Robredo. Others such as 5th seed Andy Roddick, 12th seed Tomas Berdych, 15th seed Lleyton Hewitt, 21st seed Gael Monfils, among others, moved on much more routinely.

© AELTC

For the women, the bottom half of the draw led by Venus Williams saw a pretty uneventul Monday as most of the seeds went through.

The favorites such as Williams, 4th seed Jelena Jankovic, 8th seed Kim Clijsters, 11th seed Marion Bartoli, 12th seed Nadia Petrova, and 17th seed Justine Henin all moved on without dropping a set. Other seeded winners include 13th Shahar Peer who defeated former number one Ana Ivanovic, 33rd seed Melanie Oudin, 21st seed Vera Zvonareva, and 15th seed Yanina Wickmayer. Kirsten Flipkens join Wickmayer and their more popular Belgian counterparts into the second round.

The lone upset of the day in the woman's side was the ouster of recent French Open champion and 5th seed Francesca Schiavone, losing to Russia's Vera Dushevina. While grass is not her favored surface, this must be quite disappointing for the Italian after her results at Roland Garros and her quarterfinal showing here the year prior. Like Ivanovic, other recent former top players exited early including Patty Schnyder and Agnes Szavay.

French Open: Second Round Report

Rain caused havoc in the schedule of play forcing the tournament directors to extend some second round matches into a third day. Despite an almost wash-out on Thursday, all of the second round matches were completed by Friday due to good weather.

The seeds in the men's side held strong with dominant showings from top ten players Robin Soderling (5th seed), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (8th seed), and David Ferrer (9th seed). Combining their second round results, they only lost 11 games! 6th seed Andy Roddick, 17th seed John Isner, and unseeded Robby Ginepri show Americans can play on clay by moving on to the third round. Another American, Mardy Fish, was this close to joining his compatriots. Instead he lost 8-10 in the fifth and final set to veteran and 14th seed Ivan Ljubicic.

Speaking of fifth sets, 28th seed Lleyton Hewitt was able to grind out a win in a match that had a rollercoaster quality of up and down. The scoreline was 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Fifth setters were less kind to 13th seed Gael Monfils who ended up losing to Fabio Fognini 7-9 in the fifth set. Their match lasted two days, rescheduled due to "insufficient light," which according to reports, was an understatement. They resumed their match 5-5 in the fifth set on Friday. Other seeds that fell in the second round were Fernando Gonzalez (12) and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (32).

For the women, it was business as usual as favorites such as Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Justine Henin cruised to the next round. After upsetting Dinara Safina in the first round, 39-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm was unable to extend her Cinderella run losing to Jarmila Groth of Australia 0-6, 3-6. This score is a bit of a mirror image of the beating that 28th seed Alisa Kleybanova delivered to former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.

Another former French Open champion, last year's champion, 6th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was this close to getting ousted. Her opponent, Andrea Petkovic, had four match points, but got tight and was unable to capitalize on what certainly would've been one of the biggest wins of her career. These seeded players weren't as lucky as Kuznetsova: Agnieszka Radwanska (8), Vera Zvonareva (21), Lucie Safarova (24), and Jie Zheng (25).

French Open: Men's Preview

World no. 1 Roger Federer will try to keep his hopes of a calendar year Grand Slam hopes alive by defending his French Open title. The road will not be easy for him with a possible second round match with Janko Tipsarevic and third round match with Feliciano Lopez. It gets harder still in the fourth round where he might face fellow compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka or 13th seed hometown boy Gael Monfils. The quarterfinal is full of threats with two players who have beaten Federer on clay recently, Ernest Gulbis and Albert Montanes, lurking as well as top ten seeds Marin Cilic and Robin Soderling. The latter would be a rematch of last year's finals.

Struggling 4th seed Andy Murray is on the same side as the Swiss Maestro and might have the easiest draw out of the top four seeds. Unfortunately, Murray is also the most vulnerable on this surface and must contend with a red-hot Richard Gasquet in the first round with the Frenchman recently winning a title in France, on clay. In terms of clay-court specialists, this quarter doesn't have much, although one could never count out any Spanish players especially seeded Tommy Robredo and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The player that might get out of this quarterfinal may just be 8th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or a complete surprise. What do we think of 17th seed John Isner's chances?

On the other end of the draw, former semifinalist and 3rd seed Novak Djokovic is in the same quarter as 6th seed Andy Roddick. Roddick hasn't played a single clay-court tournament and probably has zero expectations for this slam event, while Djokovic will be hungry to disturb the Nadal-Federer dominance. If healthy, Djokovic should cruise to the fourth round where he'll likely meet 16th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero. His potential quarterfinal opponent is 9th seed David Ferrer.

Four-time champion and undisputed clay court king Rafael Nadal will try to dust off his shocking early exit the year before en route to re-claiming this title. Based on current form and known skills, no one looks to bother him all the way through the quarterfinals even with the possibility of going head-to-head with Lleyton Hewitt and 14th seed Ivan Ljubicic. Things get less easy after that with potential match-ups with 7th seed Fernando Verdasco, 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez, or 19th seed Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals.

Semifinals:
Roger Federer d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Rafael Nadal d. David Ferrer

Finals:
Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer

Two More to Go for Federer

Roger Federer is just two matches away from winning his first French Open title as he beat French favorite Gael Monfils in straight sets 7-6, 6-2, 6-4. With this win he has reached the semifinals at Grand Slam tournaments for a record 20 consecutive times. The next best result? 10 consecutive times. Wow. This also means that for the past 4-5 years he has been one of the last four men standing. Just amazing.

Federer faces Juan Martin Del Potro next. If Federer manages to win that, he will take on the winner of Robin Soderling vs. Fernando Gonzalez. All in all Federer has a record of 39-1against these three remaining players, but then again wasn't Rafael Nadal 31-0 at the French Open?

In the women side, likely finalists Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova had to go the distance to reach the semifinals. Safina lost her first set of the tournament while Kuznetsova was pushed hard by Serena Williams. Safina faces Dominika Cibulkova next who ended Maria Sharapova's unexpected run while Kuznetsova takes on veteran Samantha Stosur who reaches her first Grand Slam semifinal.

French Open: Quarterfinal Preview

After an insane fourth round, eight men have made it into the quarterfinals. One of the more surprising fourth round victims is 4-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal yesterday losing in four sets while Roger Federer was two sets down and needed five sets to move on. Crazy indeed.

Quarterfinalists

Nikolay Davydenko [10] vs. Robin Soderling [23]
Andy Murray [3] vs. Fernando Gonzalez [12]
Juan Martin Del Potro [5] vs. Tommy Robredo [16]
Roger Federer [2] vs. Gael Monfils

Apart from predicting Federer to waltz right into the finals en route to finally FINALLY getting his golden fleece, his Holy Grail, his WMDs, his copy of the last Harry Potter book weeks before it was to be published, it's a hard call. Please note my facetiousness here since it will NOT be a waltz for Federer. Yes, it's been five years since he's lost to anybody at Roland Garros not named Nadal, but the other guys cannot be discounted at all.

Davydenko has made the semifinals here twice. Can he take out Nadal-vanquisher Soderling? Can veterans Gonzalez and Robredo use their experience and clay-court savvy to take it to youngs gun Murray and Del Potro respectively? And finally, can Federer survive against Monfils and the fickle and vocal French home crowd? Look what it did to Nadal just days before!

Predictions: Federer will face Robredo in the semis while Davydenko and Gonzalez or Murray (can't decided!) fight it out on the other end. Federer will then face winner of Gonzalez/Murray for the French Open title.

For the women, Safina, Wiliams, and Sharapova continues to astound. For Safina she's lost a total of 5 games (!) in four rounds. That's complete and utter domination. For Williams, it's been a rollercoaster, but she's through like the champion she is. And finally Sharapova keeps exceeding her and everyone else's expectations by still being alive in the draw. A few noteworthy losses during the fourth round are the two Serbian women, Jelena Jankovic and defending champion Ana Ivanovic.

Quarterfinalists

Dinara Safina [1] vs. Victoria Azarenka [9]
Dominika Cibulkova [20] vs. Maria Sharapova
Samatha Stosur [30] vs. Sorna Cirstea
Serena Williams [2] vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova [7]

Can Sharapova and Stosur continue their storybook runs? Will first time quarterfinalists Cubulkova and Cirstea find it deep within themselves to defeat the veterans? Can Azarenka and Kuznetsova derail the Safina and Williams flood of dominance?

Prediction: Safina will face Cibulkova in the semis while Williams take on Stosur. Safina and Williams will then contend for the title with Safina winning her maiden Grand Slam title.

Let's just see how wrong I am, shall we?