The US hard court season kicks into gear next week with the women in Stanford and the men in Atlanta along with three other tournaments. Before then, we have semi-finals and finals to wrap up on this week’s clay court tournaments. Nicolas Almagro v Fabio Fognini (Hamburg, SF) Nicolas Almagro Fabio Fognini is enjoying a…
It was a mixed day of predictions today as my best two predictions (Pennetta and Verdasco) both came via retirements. Hamburg hasn’t been a great tournament for my predictions, but Bastad has been good and could be one of my best of 2013 so far if Flavia Pennetta can make the final and Mathilde Johansson…
1. Petra Kvitova v Ekaterina Makarova Petra Kvitova Black Wednesday, as it was so aptly coined, saw a wave of shocks and withdrawals, which has certainly weakened Friday’s schedule. The highlight in the womens draw features Petra Kvitova, who remains the one player who can save the integrity of the bottom half. She played flawless…
An all-Spaniard final graces Barcelona tomorrow as Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Almagro will do battle on the clay. Nadal was terrific today, winning a second set bagel against the serving juggernaut of Milos Raonic in a 6-4 6-0 win. He was standing so far behind the baseline to receive Raonic’s serves, but he had an…
1.Rafael Nadal v Milos Raonic Philipp Kohlschreiber The one thing I have managed to predict correctly this week was Milos Raonic repeating his 2012 semi-final run in Barcelona. Raonic had an excellent day as he took out the in-form Ernests Gulbis, saving a set point in the second set breaker to win, 6-2 7-6(6). He…
Rain decimated the Barcelona schedule so we have just one quarter-final match to preview for Friday. The remainder of the third round matches will kick off the schedule with the yet-to-be-decided quarter-finalists having to play two matches in one day. 1. Nicolas Almagro v Juan Monaco Juan Monaco Straight set wins for Nicolas Almagro and…
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 1. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Nicolas Almagro The French hopes of a home champion will be high this week with a depleting draw offering an abundance of opportunities to the remaining French players in the draw. The highest ranked of those is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who overcame a tough second round match with Julien Benneteau,…
Almagro is out of Shanghai I have updated my prediction chart for Shanghai where I have made a very solid start by correctly predicting 12 and 13 winners on the first two days of action. Today saw Tommy Haas caused the first minor upset with a come-from-behind victory to take out the number 9 seed…
The Top 4 for Day 8 Andy Murray 1. Andy Murray v Milos Raonic Andy Murray looked a spent force in a third round thriller with Feliciano Lopez, but found a way to progress to the 4th round. He plays the night match with Milos Raonic, who produced easily his best performance of the tournament…
The Top 4 on Day 5 Heather Watson 1. Agnieszka Radwanska v Heather Watson From a British angle, this is my number one match on Friday as the young Brit, Heather Watson takes on the world number three, Agnieszka Radwanska. Watson is the first British woman to make the third round at Wimbledon in ten…
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