Previewing the men's and women's quarterfinals
Men's Quarterfinals
Roger Federer is poised to win his first event of 2008 and I think he’ll do just that. He awaits the winner of Andy Roddick (6) and Julien Benneteau. Roddick dropped the first set and Benneteau is playing well so it may be Federer and Benneteau.
Nikolay Davydenko (4) should get past Janko Tipsarevic, who, despite talent, can be erratic. Davydenko is usually solid until he gets to the semis and then he bows out. Such is likely to be the case again.
Both Tomas Berdych (10) and Igor Andreev (31) are playing well, but although Berdych is the higher seed and more talented of the two, I’m going pick Andreev to prevail.
Although Rafa Nadal (2) beat James Blake (9) recently at Indian Wells, it was his first victory over Blake in four tries. Look for Blake to reassert his dominance over Nadal.
Women's Quarterfinals
After watching Serena Williams (8) struggle with her footwork and consistency against Kaia Kanepi, and Justine Henin (1) handle Elena Vesnina with ease, Serena bageling Henin in the quarters didn’t seem likely. But that’s precisely what Serena did (6-2, 6-0).
Serena will be seeking revenge in the semifinal for big sis Venus (6) who fell to Svetlana Kuznetsova (3) 4 and 4 in their quarterfinal. With Serena beating Justine as she did, you’d have to give her a slight edge. Kuznetsova is playing extremely well, though, so this is a toss up.
Elena Dementieva (10) will need to play as well as she did in Dubai to beat Jelena Jankovic (4) in that quarterfinal match-up. I think she will do so to earn a semifinal berth.
Vera Zvonareva (19) has played more consistently this year than her quarterfinal opponent Dinara Safina (13) and should meet Dementieva in the semis.
