My predictions have gone extremely wobbly this week, but then again some of the results have been very surprising. It is nice to see a few notable mens matches and I enjoyed the end to the Hewitt-Youzhny match tonight. Lleyton Hewitt still managing to compete at the top level is pretty magnificent, but he had…
The third quarter of the women’s draw has lost both it’s top eight seeds promising a first Grand Slam semi-final for either Simona Halep, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci or Camila Giorgi. I think it is always exciting to see a new player reach a big milestone at a Grand Slam and all four are highly…
1. Maria Kirilenko v Simona Halep Maria Kirilenko Many, including me, had picked out Simona Halep as the dark horse to watch at this year’s US Open and she faces her first substantial test of the fortnight against Maria Kirilenko. Halep was rusty in her opener against Heather Watson, but had no such problems against…
1. Sam Stosur v Jamie Hampton Sam Stosur The match top on my viewing priority and that ticks the box for all court tennis will be the second rounder between Sam Stosur and Jamie Hampton. Stosur had a solid first round win over a struggling, Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-1 7-5. There was a lot of effort…
1. Sabine Lisicki v Sam Stosur Sabine Lisicki During the first two rounds, you would be hard pushed to find anyone who played better than Sabine Lisicki. The 2011 Wimbledon semi-finalist blitzed past Francesca Schiavone, 6-1 6-2 in the first round and then lost just one more game to the Eastbourne champion, Elena Vesnina in…
1. Stanislas Wawrinka v Richard Gasquet Richard Gasquet The star of Monday’s schedule is between two of the nearly men who are both a joy to watch at times, but have let their mental frailties from reaching their true potential. Stanislas Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet have both had good, solid seasons and this should make…
1. Novak Djokovic v Alexandr Dolgopolov Novak Djokovic It could have been a rematch of 2013’s finest encounter to date, but Novak Djokovic was spared an Australian Open rematch with Stanislas Wawrinka as the Madrid finalist pulled out before his third round match. Djokovic now takes on Alexandr Dolgopolov, another tricky opponent on his day. …
Today was a real mixed bag of results; it was great to see Laura Robson defeat Venus Williams although the American is really struggling with a persistent back injury right now. The shock result of the day was Simona Halep thumping Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-1 6-1. I lost two womens quarter-finalists as Angelique Kerber also pulled…
1. Rafael Nadal v Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov It has been business as usual for Rafael Nadal in Monte-Carlo with two pretty routine wins over Marinko Matosevic and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Nadal beat Kohlschrieber, 6-2 6-4 in the third round, facing no break points on his serve. Nadal’s next opponent is the unseeded, Grigor Dimitrov, who…
Richard Gasquet v Andy Murray Andy Murray It had been a good start to the season for Richard Gasquet having claimed two titles in Doha and Montpellier in the first two months of the season. However the Frenchman had struggled to beat the big guns with world number 24, Jerzy Janowicz his highest scalp to…
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