Pierre's Tennisrulz Blog (get your own blog here)

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Wimbledon is finally there!

Hello everyone! It is with great happiness that I bring to you this column because it means that the next 2 weeks will be once more filled with tennis, this time from SW19 in London, England. You probably know it under the name Wimbledon. In fact it is to football what the World Cup or the Super Bowl is (depending on what type of football you're talking about), it's the tournament that defines tennis. You know, when everyone thinks Roger Federer is desperate to win the French Open, he goes on to repeat that in 2007 as in past years, he has only two major goals, remaining the world #1, and winning Wimbledon.

On the ladies side, the draw is fairly open. It's not like in Paris where you have pretty much the whole field fighting for a chance to get Justine Henin on a bad day. No, indeed, many players have a decent shot here. In the men's draw, it's a very different story. It might have been 2 or 3 years ago that John McEnroe had said that only 4 or 5 players had a shot of defeating Roger Federer, and that was of course if they were playing their absolute best tennis on a bad day for the Swiss.

So without further wait, here is what I anticipate for the ladies draw:

Early matches of interest:

1st: Daniela Hantuchova(10) def Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova - tricky match for Daniela, and a very dangerous one, this soon to be known Russian is filled with talent, she statyed a bit longer than most in juniors, but she's ready to take on everyone...
3rd: Jelena Jankovic(3) def Lucie Safarova(26) - Jelena's gotta be tired by now (right?), and Lucie seems to have a game for these big matches... but not this time around
3rd: Venus Williams(23) def Dinara Safina(13) - wow, could be a good match, I don't think Dinara moves well enough to get this to 3 sets though...

4th round:

Justine Henin(1) def Patty Schnyder(15)
Serena Williams(7) def Daniela Hantuchova(10) - who would really want to face Serena in SW19? Certainly not Daniela who has a 1-5 record against her....
Jelena Jankovic(3) def Marion Bartoli(18)
Anna Chakvetadze(8) def Martina Hingis(9) - similar games, but Anna has more weapons
Ana Ivanovic(6) def Nadia Petrova(11) - Nadia just doesn't seem to have much going well in 2007
Nicole Vaidisova(14) def Amelie Mauresmo(4)
Svetlana Kuznetsova(5) def Elena Dementieva(12)
Maria Sharapova(2) def Venus Williams(23)

QF:

Justine Henin(1) def Serena Williams(7) - just a lack of consistency from Serena
Jelena Jankovic(3) def Anna Chakvetadze(8)
Nicole Vaidisova(14) def Ana Ivanovic(6)
Maria Sharapova(2) def Svetlana Kuznetsova(5)

SF:

Justine Henin(1) def Jelena Jankovic(3)
Maria Sharapova(2) def Nicole Vaidisova(14)

F:

Maria Sharapova(2) def Justine Henin(1)

ATP:

4th:

Roger Federer(1) def Dmitry Tursunov(21)
Fernando Gonzalez(5) def James Blake(9)
Andy Roddick(3) def Ivan Ljubicic(15)
Richard Gasquet(12) def Andy Murray(8)
Nikolay Davydenko(6) def Marcos Baghdatis(10)
Lleyton Hewitt(16) def Novak Djokovic(4)
Thomas Berdych(7) def Jonas Bjorkman(19)
Mikhail Youzhny(14) def Rafael Nadal(2)

QF:

Roger Federer(1) def Fernando Gonzalez(5)
Andy Roddick(3) def Richard Gasquet(12)
Lleyton Hewitt(16) def Nikolay Davydenko(6)
Mikhail Youzhny(14) def Thomas Berdych(7)

SF:

Roger Federer(1) def Andy Roddick(3)
Lleyton Hewitt(16) def Mikhail Youzhny(14)

F:

Roger Federer(1) def Lleyton Hewitt(16)

# posted by Pierre : 9:31 AM  0 comments