And I'm strongly considering staying up until 3:30 AM to watch Rafael Nadal play. The Australian Open started Sunday, and it's shaping up to be a good tournament.
-Nadal is still ranked #1 in the world, which makes me happy. It'll be interesting to see how he does here. Traditionally, Nadal does alright at the Aussie Open, he's made the semis once and the quarters a few times I believe, but he's never played the type of tennis he brings at Roland Garros or Wimbledon.
-Novak Djokovic is starting his first Slam defense and he looked pretty good dispatching Stoppini in the first round.
-Roger Federer won his opener in straight sets as well, but he played a lot of long games in the second and third set and still does not look like the player that dominated the tennis world for the better part of four years. He's still better than any player ranked below #4, but I think he'll lose to Djokovic in the semis again this year and he'll eventually slip to #3 in the world this season.
-Can Andy Murray finally break through at a Slam? He made it to the finals of the U.S. Open, but was man-handled by Federer, so I'm guessing he's still not quite ready to win.
-Conversely, James Blake and Andy Roddick need to come up big in this tournament or I'm pretty much writing them off as afterthoughts in Slams from here on out.
Predictions:
Quarterfinals:
1 Rafael Nadal vs. 12 Gael Monfils
4 Andy Murray vs. 9 James Blake
3 Novak Djokovic vs. 7 Andy Roddick
2 Roger Federer vs. 8 Juan Martin del Potro
Semifinals:
Rafael Nadal vs. Andy Murray
Roger Federer vs. Novak Djokovic
Finals:
Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic
Winner:
Novak Djokovic
14 years ago
5 comments:
Yeah, tennis! Woo-hoo, Rafa!
I notice a distinct lack of Ladies' tennis review. Anything coming for that or are you ignoring the Williams, Sharapova, whoever show?
I just don't know as much about the WTA. I mean, I know Jankovic is #1 (and I cannot stand her, she's arrogant and a choker) and Serena wins the Aussie in odd numbered years ('03, '05, '07)and Sharapova is injured... but usually the draws are littered with upsets. You could have all the top seeds out after the first week, or the top 4 could make the semis in any given tournament. It's quite often you see one player dominate set one, and then the other dominate set two, and then the third set is a crap shoot. It's just hard to watch, or have a casual rooting interest in. That's why I stuck to just the Men's draw this time.
Two people on Talk About Tennis with Flyers blogs (I'm there as oohsalmon)
http://flyerfrequent.blogspot.com
Awesome! I'll add you to the blogroll. I really don't post much about the Flyers until the playoffs. Mostly because I can't watch games out here at Penn State unless they're playing Pittsburgh. It looks like you're much more in depth with your blog though haha.
Heh, and it's happening just like usual. Jankovic and Ivanovic are out before living up to their seeding. Venus is gone. Safina is about to go. Serena could take it all?
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