Men's professional tennis is taking a dump on me. I decided to hang out on a limb and pick the men's winner of the US Open this year. I was pretty confident that some of my picks would come through. I had a couple upsets selected and then some of the tried and true favorites - Nadal, Federer etc. I went so far as to pick the Indianapolis Tennis Championship's winner, Gilles Simon.
Well, I obviously need to start taking tennis lessons or watching is more closely on television.
My original predictions for the quarters:
Nadal, Blake, Simon, Lopez, Roddick, Moya, Tursunov and Federer
Of my choices, the only men still left in the tournament are Nadal, Roddick and Federer.
I knew I should have picked a man named Fish for the "tournament of my life" award. Mardy is coming off some injuries and hasn't played a ton of tennis this summer. It is nice to see him do well in the biggest tennis event all year. Too bad he had to beat my man Blake.
Andy is now being coached by Patrick McEnroe. I met Patrick this summer as was very impressed. He is now charged with developing the young elite players for the USTA. He should do well in that role. Hopefully he can get Andy's tennis game back on track.
General observations from the Open (and now totally unqualified eye): Federer doesn't look strong, Monfils is a breadth of fresh air and Del Porto is proving his summer wasn't all luck.
Posted by: Alli on Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Your quarterfinal picks were actually pretty good for the most part. Lopez lost to Melzer in the first round in a tough 5-set match. Melzer has been doing quite well lately. He was on fire in Kitzbuehl and Beijing. Moya vs. Tsonga really could have gone either way. Moya to beat Djokovic was actually quite workable as well considering their head to head matchup. Blake is always a solid pick. The only one that would have been a massive upset would have been for Tursunov to beat Davydenko. Davydenko seems to have Tursunov’s number. Simon is always a good pick. I figured that Del Potro would be a little fatigued and may lose to Canas first round. The Simon/Del Potro match really came down to one game – which was a bad game for Simon. There’s so many factors that come into play that getting 3 of 8 through to the quarters is actually pretty good for a grand slam. I play tennis and have been an avid fan since I was 12 and that certainly has rarely helped my chances. Who were my US Open quarter picks – Nadal, Nalbandian, Simon, Wawrinka, Roddick, Safin, Gasquet, and Federer. I’m 3 of 8 as well (and the same 3!). I couldn’t have predicted that Nalbandian would have no fire against Monfils. I certainly didn’t foresee Wawrinka making waves squabbling with Cipolla and then being so nervous that he could barely play against Murray. If you don’t already, you should participate in the ATP Bracket Challenge Circuit. It’ll give you plenty of practice and also help you to see that making over 50% qtr final picks are tough!