WIMBLEDON DAY 9

Kvitova,Pironkova,Zvonareva not household names you would expect appearing in a Grand Slam semi final.Serena Williams is the only high ranked seed to appear in the Wimbledon Ladies semi's.Serena was pre tournament favourite and is now virtually unbackable and no doubt will defend her title unless she gets the Venus "shakes".Below are our winners from Day 8 .Ladies Day at Wimbledon!

Today is Men's Quarter Final Day and there are some great matches as we get closer to the Main event.Below are my selections and previews .

MEN'S 

Roger Federer vs Tomas Berdych

Head to Head Federer leads Berdych 8-2.Berdych has struggled so far against less accomplished players than the "King of the grass".Federer has showed in his last two matches why he is the GOAT (greatest of all time.)Berdych is in with an outside chance after all he has nothing to lose and can throw everything he has at Federer.And this is what happens in situations like these players lift their game to above expectations eg Lu against Roddick.Federer should prevail and anything below his best Berdych will take advantage.This year a guy with a Big game serve and solid ground strokes have done very well.

Novak Djokovic vs Yen -Hsun Lu

I am afraid the fairy tale story of the boy who used to catch chickens will be brought to an end by the Djoker, unless the mystery ailments return to haunt Djokovic.You have always got a chance that the Djoker may retire .... on no less than seven matches previous he has yielded.The Djoker will return serve far better than A ROD and should get the job done here.Keep you shirt on Novak.

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga vs Andy Murray

This will be a big test for Andy Murray.Tsonga can be a spoiler to higher seeds at this end of the tournament.If he has the adrenalin flowing and playing with emotion he will beat Murray,simply he has a bigger game than the "scot".Now England is out of the world cup football then the British sports public are well an truly on Murray's shoulders.Tsonga to cause the upset here.

MATCH OF THE ROUND

 

Looking at Nadal's previous matches he has struggled against Guy's with a big serve and huge ground strokes!Does this sound like Soderling? Nadal will have to be at his best and must fire early! Do not give Soderling a "sniff".Soderling does not have the fight Nadal has and does crack under tight situations.Soderling only won in five against Ferrer and the Spaniard does not have the class on grass as Nadal.Nadal will have to serve at a high level, he has thrown in some very loose service games in previous matches and can not do so here.One slip can mean the set difference with serve being harder to break on grass.Can Soderling get around on his forehand as much as he can on clay will be the Key.Both Players use this ploy a lot.Nadal has the better back hand and can slice so more variety on this side than Soderling.Nadal is also the better mover of the two.And that just might be the difference in what shapes up as Nadal's most important match do date.Nadal in a tight one.

Just an update on the Junior Wimbledon events also that are being played.Both New Zealand representatives Ben Mclachlan and Sebastian Lavie both went out first round. Australia head the round of 16 with four players still left in the draw.Kubler(AUS) the top seed will be tested by promising British player Oliver Golding.In saying the Aussie boys have done well ,Australia had no girls in the Main draw singles..... disappointing to say the least! All eyes will be on Laura Robson(England) who was a late entry in the juniors can she win her second Junior Wimbledon Title?

MINI WIMBLEDON COMPETITION.

Yesterday we lost Kimmy and the Brown eyed Bomb shell from the competition,and those that must make selection for Men's Matches should do so on this post.

Day 7 Roland Garros Picks

Well yesterday 8 out of 10 in the men's, my long shots failed namely Baghdatis and Bakker!Below are my picks for today.

Victor Hanescu(ROU)[31] vs. Novak Djokovic(SRB)[3]
Is it not time Djokovic takes a dizzy spell or something or is that next round so Ill go for Novak today.

Lleyton Hewitt(AUS)[28] vs. Rafael Nadal(ESP)[2]
By the time Sky NZ switches to the tennis Hewitt will be done and dusted ,Nadal was injured last year and beat him so what will he do to the Aussie Battler this year.!

Andy Roddick(USA)[6] vs. Teimuraz Gabashvili(RUS)
Roddick trying for his best French Open ever! Surely he must run into a name soon and send him off across the channel.

Fernando Verdasco(ESP) vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber(GER)
This is a tricky match up cant under estimate the German and Vedasco has been just scrapping through.Will go with the lefty from Spain.

Jurgen Melzer(AUT)[22] vs. David Ferrer(ESP)[9]
Ferrer is in good form and should be to tough for Jurgen

Juan Carlos Ferrero(ESP)[16] vs. Robby Ginepri(USA)
Ginepri still around! Time for him to go via Juan Carlos

Ivan Ljubicic(CRO)[14] vs. Thomaz Bellucci(BRA)[24]
Ivan seems to have been around for yonks! Cant see him backing up after the Fish match.

Nicolas Almagro(ESP) vs. Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr(UKR)

This is going to be close I think but Almagro to get there just.

Women

The Chinese where sent packing yesterday along with defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.Picks most correct, and happy I finally backed the South African Chanelle Scheepers.

Serena Williams(USA)[1] vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova(RUS)[29]
The Willams machine will keep moving .

Maria Sharapova(RUS)[12] vs. Justine Henin(BEL)[22]
MATCH OF THE DAY FOR SURE. THIS WILL BE AN INETERSTING MATCH FOR SURE.I have to go with consistency so Henin for me.

Shahar Peer(ISR)[18] vs. Marion Bartoli(FRA)[13]
Not many players like coming up against Marion.....not too many friends against peers! sorry for the pun.

Jelena Jankovic(SRB)[4] vs. Alona Bondarenko(UKR)[27]
I guess its going to be Jankovic............BUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jarmila Groth(AUS) vs. Anastasia Rodionova(AUS)
How ironic a match up with "true blue Aussie's" NOT .No doubt Tennis Australia will jump on the fact that an Aussie will be in the 4th round........what development program did the come through again?

Anastasia Pivovarova(RUS) vs. Samantha Stosur(AUS)[7]

Stotsur has looked shaky! I have a gut feeling she is going out this round or next.



Above Maria Kirilenko who put out the Defending Ladies Champ

The French Open Tennis

The premier Clay court event starts next week,The men's winner will come from the below list which makes up the top 20 clay courters for the past year.
1 2 Rafael Nadal (ESP) ...My tip for the title
2 1 Roger Federer (SUI) ........will be hard to beat
3 11 David Ferrer (ESP) .......a threat except for the top 2 seeds
4 7 Robin Soderling (SWE) ......last years finalist and I think has had his moment in the sun
5 9 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) ....flashy and cant go all the way in a grandslam
6 18 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) ...past winner no threat to the top seeds
7 6 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) out with injury
8 14 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) hasnt has the best year so far
9 30 Juan Monaco (ARG) ....a pretender
10 37 Victor Hanescu (ROU) ....a pretender
11 22 Nicolas Almagro (ESP) ....good recent form
12 28 Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) ....a pretender
13 24 Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) ....wont win it
14 27 Ernests Gulbis (LAT) ....a wild card and has great form ...may have discovered how to win.
15 5 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) injured
16 38 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) ..... pretender
17 3 Novak Djokovic (SRB) ...... average form hasnt done much since his service action changed
18 4 Andy Murray (GBR) ....setting for wimbledon no doubt ...a little beyond him here in Paris
19 34 Albert Montanes (ESP) ..... pretender
20 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) ......contender but will struggle with tough matches and longer rally's

The first number is Clay court ranking and the second is ATP ranking.I havnt even rated Andy Roddick , in fact where is Andy Roddick?I think he will be good for a couple of rounds at best and then re-group for Wimbledon.Here is a couple of names to watch out for with major rises in ATP rankings, Thiemo de Bakker (NED) from 76 to 50 and a player thats been around for a while Juan Ignacio Chela 82 to 48 and Santiago Giraldo (COL) 83 to 55.

I'm on the Catwalk!

The Montreal Fashion show preceding the tournament is always a highlight.Novak Djokovic provided a real highlight when he removed his coat to reveal nothing but the above!

So Which Male Tennis Player has the Form on the Board

Please find a chart which shows how many events ( excluding davis cup and teams events) for the top 8 ranked ATP men and number of matches played since the Australian Open until the start of the French Open.Simon the French player and World ranked number 7 leads the most tournaments played with 10.Djokovic has the most wins with 39 playing 9 tournaments.In brackets on the chart is the number of events each player has played.



Federer has played the least but enters the tournament with a recent win over Nadal in his last match.Verdasco and Roddick have both played 6 events with Roddick having 22 matches to Verdasco's 20 .Murray has also an impresive 28 matches from seven events.