I've taken a loooonnnnngggg break from blogging, a break that was not motivated by illness but malaise. I don't think the tennis world will fall off it's axis if one lone fan, me, is totally disgusted with it. In the end I'm still a fan and as a fan I feel my opinion, never forget that this is an opinion blog, deserves to be heard. So whether you like it or not I'm back bitches. Deal with it.
I didn't get to talk about Wimbledon but with the release of the draws yesterday I think the same issues are relevant.
On the men's side Wimbledon was meant to be a coronation and it was. With the Monogram not having to face any serious competition on his cakewalk to the final where he knew his nemesis would not be waiting my opinion that a soft draw doesn't make a champion was disproved. I think it's about to be disproved again unless something drastic happens. Here is the men's singles Olympic Draw.
Switzerland FEDERER R vs Colombia FALLA A
France BENNETEAU J vs Russian Federation YOUZHNY M
Romania UNGUR A vs Luxembourg MULLER G
Uzbekistan ISTOMIN D vs Spain VERDASCO F
United States of America ISNER J vs Belgium ROCHUS O
Taipei (Chinese Taipei) LU YH vs Tunisia JAZIRI M
Slovakia LACKO L vs Croatia KARLOVIC I
Argentina NALBANDIAN D vs Serbia TIPSAREVIC J
Spain FERRER D vs Canada POSPISIL V
Germany KOHLSCHREIBER P vs Slovenia KAVCIC B
Czech Republic STEPANEK R vs Russian Federation DAVYDENKO N
Australia TOMIC B vs Japan NISHIKORI K
France SIMON G vs Kazakhstan KUKUSHKIN M
Poland KUBOT L vs Bulgaria DIMITROV G
Italy SEPPI A vs United States of America YOUNG D
Croatia DODIG I vs Argentina DEL POTRO JM
Czech Republic BERDYCH T vs Belgium DARCIS S
Colombia GIRALDO S vs United States of America HARRISON R
Russian Federation BOGOMOLOV JR A vs Argentina BERLOCQ C
Serbia TROICKI V vs Spain ALMAGRO N
France GASQUET R vs Netherlands HAASE R
Japan SOEDA G vs Cyprus BAGHDATIS M
India DEVVARMAN S vs Finland NIEMINEN J
Switzerland WAWRINKA S vs Great Britain MURRAY A
France TSONGA JW vs Brazil BELLUCCI T
Japan ITO T vs Canada RAONIC M
Russian Federation TURSUNOV D vs Spain LOPEZ F
Belgium GOFFIN D vs Argentina MONACO J
Croatia CILIC M vs Austria MELZER J
Australia HEWITT L vs Ukraine STAKHOVSKY S
United States of America RODDICK A vs Slovakia KLIZAN M
Italy FOGNINI F vs Serbia DJOKOVIC N
Notice that Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick are all in the bottom half. What's that? You say David Ferrer is in the top half? Yeah and? Ferrer's head to head versus Federer is 0-13. Yes you read that right. Ferrer has never beaten the Monogram in 13 meetings. Don't believe it?
Here's where I got the information. So I repeat there is absolutely no one in the top half who, on paper, can stop Monogram from reaching the final. They'll all be in the bottom half knocking each other off. With no Rafael Nadal looming Monogram can high step his way to the final.
Yes I saw that Julian Benneteau played him tough during Wimbledon and in a best of three format until the final there won't be a three set comeback. Can Benneteau do it again? Who knows?
As for the women there are some interesting matches. Then again it's always a crap shoot with the ladies isn't it?
Belarus AZARENKA V vs Romania BEGU IC
Spain MARTINEZ SANCHEZMJ vs Slovenia HERCOG P
Georgia TATISHVILI A vs Liechtenstein VOGT S
People's Republic of China ZHENG J vs Russian Federation PETROVA N
Italy ERRANI S vs United States of America WILLIAMS V
New Zealand ERAKOVIC M vs Canada WOZNIAK A
Kazakhstan VOSKOBOEVA G vs Hungary BABOS T
Czech Republic CETKOVSKA P vs Germany KERBER A
United States of America WILLIAMS S vs Serbia JANKOVIC J
Germany BARTHEL M vs Poland RADWANSKA U
Italy SCHIAVONE F vs Czech Republic ZAKOPALOVA K
Sweden ARVIDSSON S vs Russian Federation ZVONAREVA V
People's Republic of China LI N vs Slovakia HANTUCHOVA D v
France CORNET A vs Austria PASZEK T
Spain MEDINA GARRIGUES A vs Belgium WICKMAYER
Great Britain KEOTHAVONG A vs Denmark WOZNIACKI C
Australia STOSUR S vs Spain SUAREZ NAVARRO C
Belgium CLIJSTERS K vs Italy VINCI R
Hungary SZAVAY A vs Great Britain BALTACHA E
United States of America MCHALE C vs Serbia IVANOVIC A
Germany LISICKI S vs Tunisia JABEUR O
Romania HALEP S vs Kazakhstan SHVEDOVA Y
Croatia MARTIC P vs Czech Republic SAFAROVA L
Israel PEER S vs Russian Federation SHARAPOVA M
Czech Republic KVITOVA P vs Ukraine BONDARENKO K
Taipei (Chinese Taipei) HSIEH SW vs People's Republic of China PENG S
Romania CIRSTEA S vs Italy PENNETTA F
Bulgaria PIRONKOVA T vs Slovakia CIBULKOVA D
Russian Federation KIRILENKO M vs Colombia DUQUE-MARINO M
Spain SOLER ESPINOSA S vs Great Britain WATSON H
United States of America LEPCHENKO V vs Paraguay CEPEDE ROYG V
Germany GOERGES J vs Poland RADWANSKA A
It was just announced this morning that Petra Martic has withdrawn and will be replaced with Laura Robson of Great Britain. She'll be in the bottom half of the draw and play Lucie Safarova in the first round. If Lucie shows up that will make for an interesting section of the draw since Sabine Lisicki, and Maria Sharapova along with a hungry Yaroslava Shvedova will all be fighting and clawing to get out of that section.
Serena Williams vs Jelena Jankovic isn't the gimme it may seem to be. Their head to head is 4 -4. JJ has been miserable for awhile now but everyone rouses themselves to play Serena and I think the same thing will happen here. I hope Serena leaves her inner Glamazon in the hotel and comes to play.Venus Williams is also in the top half and while she's been playing very well in World Team Tennis and looks strong I still don't want to say she'll be fine here. Of course I'll be happy if she is especially since she's psyched for the Olympics going as far to have red, white and blue braided into her hair. I hope her body cooperates with her.
On the women's side I feel I have to say Maria Sharapova will reach the semi's. I'm hesitant to pick Victoria Azarenka again because of her temperament. Petra Kvitova may rise to the occasion playing for her country not that that is less pressure on her. To be honest I won't be surprised if Shvedova does very well. Except for the American women some of whom were playing World Team Tennis everyone is coming in rested.
When all is said and done though it's still the Olympics and it's Olympic tennis. Shit's gonna be real y'all.
2 comments:
The men's draw is, well, uh, bizarre.
But the absence of Rafa can be blamed on no one but Rafa, and then, not even on himself. Part of the curious amalgam that is the AAGOAT (Arguably Almost the Greatest Player of All Time) is that he is his own kryptonite.
Savannah, Federer was taken to four sets in his 2nd and 4th round matches, he was 2 points away from losing in his 3rd round match, he played the no.1 player in the world in the semis, who had beaten him in 5 of their last 6 meetings, and to top it all of, he faced the no.4 player in the world, who had a winning record agaist him in the final in front of a home crowd. So would you mind elaborating on how this was a cakewalk? I know you dislike Federer, but at this point even if he had played 7 5-set matches to win the title you would have come up with some theory to discredit him. What's next, he used magic powers to cause Nadal to lose early, or Berdych? You cannot blame him when his draw openes up, because other players are not living up to their seeding.
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