The weaker top-half of the men's singles draw sets up for Roger Federer to play in his fifth straight final at Wimbledon.
I keep striving for pure genius, but I apparently have a ways to go. My top-half picks were only fair to middling, with my sleeper in the top-half, No.15 seed Ivan Ljubicic, getting put to sleep by Paul-Henri Mathieu, whom I did predict would take out David Ferrer. I thought Ljubicic was ready to do some damage on the lawns after his grass-court win in the Netherlands. Instead the Croat croaked on me after winning the first set. I did predict a good match though.
Federer Looking Like Five in a Row
I thought Roger might come out a bit shaky, after his loss to Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, but quite frankly the guy looks like he has amnesia. French Open? Rafael Nadal? “Talk to me when I’m finished wrapping up my fifth Wimbledon in a row on my march to making tennis history.” At least that’s what Fed has looked like thus far.
Taking out Safin in straights when Safin is playing well will go a long way toward restoring anyone’s confidence much less the best grass court player in the world. Only facing some dude in white capris is likely to shake it any.
Blake Gone as Expected
So I called James Blake’s exit to Juan Carlos Ferrero, but I definitely wasn’t expecting Tommy Haas to make the fourth round. I mean the guy had lost his first match in three of his last four events. Haas hadn’t played since he bowed out with an injury the first week in May. Now he’s beating a guy, Dmitry Tursunov, who’s ranked No.23 and who reached the semis of his last grass court tune-up? Gimme a break! I can’t see Haas stopping the “Fed-Express” though but he might take a set.
Tattooed Serb Getting Ink
Unseeded (and unmentioned in my preview) Janko Tipsarevic took out the No.5 seed Fernando Gonzalez, and Gonzalez has a better grass game than Ferrero. If the moment doesn’t get to the multi-tattooed Serb, who has had his best results over the past seven weeks, he should be facing Federer in the quarters. He’ll pocket a nice Czech, uh check, and be happy that he got bounced by the best player in the world, against whom he’s 0-1.
Mathieu Will Beat Roddick
Looking at the most interesting quarter of the top-half of the draw, I’m going on record here and picking Paul-Henri Mathieu to upset Roddick tomorrow. Mathieu has been playing well and getting better, finally getting over the third-round hump he’s been crashing into his past three events.
A Match to Watch
The intrigue match-up of the day is between two Frenchmen. Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will serve ‘em up for the chance to face the Roddick-Mathieu winner. Both have won all matches in straight sets, and this will be a shot-maker’s slugfest, with both players hitting big on all shots, especially the serve for Tsonga. No clue on who will take this, so I’ll go with the seed and pick the No.12 Gasquet.
Federer in Final Again
After thousands of balls have been hit and all the good matches have been played in the top-half of the draw, the bottom line will still be the same: Roger Federer awaiting the survivor of the more difficult bottom-half.
