Thursday, June 26, 2008

Wimbledon 2008

They are dropping like flies.

Well unlike Mary Margaret the resident tennis genius, I am a moron.
Maria Sharapova was bounced in the second round by fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva (#154 in the world – never heard of her) in straight set 6-2, 6-4.
So my back-up Ladies pick is now Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, the #1 seed.

My gentlemen’s pick, Nadal, moved on but he did drop a set and look human at times. He beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia (#48) 5-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-3. I missed a lot of the match because ESPN2 kept showing the James Blake vs Rainer Schuettler match. Now I realize Blake is an American who is ranked #9 but Nadal is #2 and a bigger draw from my viewpoint. Btw-Blake lost in five sets. It was a good match too. I just wish they would have shown a little bit more of Nadal.

American Andy Roddick (#6 in the world) was upset by Janko Tipsarevic (#40) of Serbia 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6.

In other matches of interest (to me). Venus Williams advanced in straight sets over the scrappy Anne Keothavong of the UK 7-5, 6-2.

Jelena Jankovic (#2) of Serbia beat Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-1, 6-3.

Lindsay Davenport ‘lost’ in a walkover to Gisela Dulko of Argentina.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, still going with the tennis genius thing here. I think you are way out in left field here with Ivanovic. She coulda, shoulda, lost to Dechy. Net saved her, but it is unlikely to save her down the road as the competition gets stiffer. I don't think that grass suits her game very well. If I had to go out on a limb, I would probably pick V Williams as the most likely champion.

I'm still with you on Nadal. Rafa almost always starts slowly, and Gulbis is a future top ten player. The difference between Nadal and a Roddick player is how they handle adversity. Almost invariably, Andy (and also James Blake) loses his composure. Andy plays way too far behind the baseline to impose his game on his competitor. He really needs to move up a bit and learn to handle the ball a little more early--he should have kept Gilbert as his coach, IMHO.

I would not bet any money on Marat to reach the semis. I might bet a few bucks on his little sister to make the semis. Dinara is starting to show some world-class tennis and the ability to play through the rough spots. Unlike Marat, she is rarely losing to a lesser player. (If I get this right, you can continue to call me a tennis genius!)

Rob said...

TG (tennis genius),


The Ivanovic pick is based purely on the 'cute-ness factor'. With Maria out she was next inline...

Anonymous said...

Clearly I AM a genius! Ivanovic is gone.

Rob said...

the match has been over for an hour…what took you so long to point out your genius? LOL

i was just writing a new post about your genuis-ness