Murray played sensationally against Haas and sent out a message that he is in serious form.
The German tested Murray in the second set before the British number one upped his game in the third and fourth set.
Gasquet is another step up in class in my opinion and has been playing brilliant tennis this week. He is one of my favourite players on tour and has the ability to hit a winner from anywhere on the court as well as having a very decent serve.
Murray will need to do some serious defending against the Frenchman who will attack from start to finish using his majestic backhand to dictate points.
If I get this wrong, Murray will have certainly proved to me and everyone he has what it takes to go all the way to the final but at the moment I think beating an on form Gasquet is a step too far for him.
This match will be no walk in the park for Andy Murray like his previous two rounds.
If Haas hadn’t been injured so much over the last couple of years he would be a top 10 player so his world ranking of 38 can be cast aside.
They currently have a head to head record of 1-1 with Haas winning the last encounter in March in a tight three set encounter.
The German is masterful from the back of the court and can hit winners from both wings as well as being gifted at the net. Murray as we know has a range of shots available to him also so this match will be very even.
Its difficult to pick a winner here and although I want Murray to win I think Haas could steal a win in five sets.
Andy Roddick went out in the second round of Wimbledon yesterday which isn’t a big shock in my opinion. His preparation for the tournament wasn’t brilliant as he had only played two competitive matches since a back injury sustained on May 5th ruled him out of Hamburg and the French Open.
As a result he simply wasn’t match tight against a very talented opponent. As I said in my predicition Tipsarevic was going to cause him trouble as the Serb is a better player from the back of the court.
It seems strange when people act like this result was an un-thinkable shock. Tipsarevic has had a string of good results this year after his five setter against Federer in the Australian Open which seemed to make him believe he could be one of the best players in the world.
This year Tipsarevic has beaten Fernando Verdasco, James Blake, Mikahil Youzhny and Paul Henri Matheiu which tells everyone he is some player.
It is fair enough to say Roddick was not at his best today but the Serb took advantage of this and got the job done.
Novak Djokovic’ loss to Marat Safin on the other hand is a bit more of a surprise. Again similar to Roddick’s case, you could say Djokovic wasn’t at his best but Safin didn’t give him a chance to play and get into his stride.
Safin put pressure on the Serb constantly and instead of responding in his typical impressive fashion, Djokovic on this occasion wilted under the barrage of power and precision from the strong Russian. It was like watching a heavy-weight versus a light-weight.
Djokovic couldn’t come up with any answers during the match but he did reveal he was mentally tired after the match. Nadal has won three tournaments in a row and is currently on a 19 match winning streak. Shouldn’t he be playing a poor match soon then where he does two double faults to lose the match? I’d put my bank on the Spaniard not losing as easily as this during Wimbledon.
I’m afraid Djokovic just didn’t show up for this match and was outclassed by a past master who may just have re-found that winning feeling.
I must add that James Ward, the British Number 8 who blogs for this website won a set off Marat Safin at Queens, something Djokovic could not do!
These predictions are for matches to played on Thursday 26th July. The player in bold is my selected winner. I will update the post to include if I got each prediction correct or wrong.
Andy Roddick vs Janko Tipsarevic – Although I think Roddick will win, this will not be an easy ride for the American number one. He did not look all that comfortable on the grass during the warm up tournament for Wimbledon, Queens, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in the semi-final. Roddick also hasn’t played a lot of tennis recently since withdrawing from two clay court tournaments in May with a back injury. Tipsarevic has an all court game and is a brilliant shot maker. He is better than Roddick from the back of the court but I feel that the American’s serve will guide him through the match. – Wrong
Chris Eaton vs Dmitry Tursunov – Eaton beat Boris Pashanski, 500 places above him in the rankings in the first round. Eaton used his impressive serve to get him through the match which frustrated the Serbian journeyman. I would be very surprised if he beat Tursunov here as he looked limited from the back of the court. The Russian is sure to put more balls back in court than Pashanski and should go through in straight sets. – Correct
Nicolas Almagro vs Guillermo Garcia Lopez – Wrong
Rainer Schuettler vs James Blake – Wrong
Paul Henri Mathieu vs Jeremy Chardy – Correct
Marin Cilic vs Jarko Nieminen – Grass is Cilic’ best surface and I really fancy him here against Nieminen. Since his exceptional performance at the Australian Open at the start of the year the Finn has lost in ten first round matches and is very much off form. Cilic on the other hand has had an encouraging year and got to the semi final of Queens. – Correct
Jurgen Melzer vs Jesse Levine – Correct
Arnaud Clement vs Benjamin Becker – Clement beat Bjorkman in the first round as I predicted. Becker beat Davydenko in a minor surprise as we know the Russian is not comfortable on grass, especially against such a big hitter. Becker also has a big serve which i think Clement will have trouble returning and I make him the favourite here. Clement actually beat Becker last week in a tight three setter but a five set match in a Grand Slam is a very different prospect and the German will be full of confidence after a straight sets victory over the world number four. - Wrong
Richard Gasquet vs Sebastian Grosjean – Gasquet was sublime in his first round match and I expect him to cruise through against Grosjean who is not the player he once was. Grosjean hasn’t had a brilliant year and has withdrawn due to injury from three of his last four tournaments previous to Wimbledon, a sign perhaps that age is catching up with him. Theres no doubt though that the pint sized frenchman will still pull off a few amazing shots and keep Gasquet on his toes. – Correct
Augustin Calleri vs Giles Simon – Correct
Tommy Robredo vs Tommy Haas - Providing Haas is 100 percent fit he will win here. He has struggled with injuries this year however a four set win over Canas in the first round should give him a fair amount of confidence. Robredo is solid from the back of the court but I feel a lot more is needed to beat the talented Haas who can hit flashy winners off both wings. – Correct
Xavier Malisse vs Andrew Murray – Correct
Ernests Gulbis vs Rafael Nadal – Gulbis is a very talented player clearly with a bright future. He took down the one dimensional John Isner in the first round and dealt with his serve well. However I can’t see him troubling Nadal who is without a doubt on the form of his life. – Correct
I was hoping this shot would pop up on Youtube. I happened to be watching it live and I could not believe my eyes.
Had a better known player hit this winner, it would have been talked about for years.
It happened in the first round match between Dominic Hrbaty and Roger Federer. Hrbaty is lobbed by the world number one and from nowhere he comes up with something really special.
On May 7 I wrote a post about how badly Richard Gasquet had performed in Rome against Luis Horna. It was hard to watch as he made virtually no effort in the second set against the Peruvian journeyman.
It seemed the whole of France was on his back after he refused to play in the crucial early stages of a Davis Cup match and his form suffered for weeks. This was a player in a real rut however just over a month later the real Gasquet is back.
The pressure is now off in England and the Frenchman really turned on the style against Mardy Fish. I thought he would struggle considering his recent results but he absolutely outclassed the hard hitting American in straight sets.
Fish wasn’t playing his best but Gasquet didn’t give him a chance to get going as he executed a string of flashy winners off both wings. Everyone was expecting a dip in form during the match from the French number one but it just never came and Fish could do nothing about it but look in amazement at some of shots that flew past him.
In other action today Andy Murray came through in straight sets against Fabrice Santoro as I predicted. It was a solid display from the British number one as Santoro really tested his patience by using a lot of slice.
However Murray played a near perfect match showing his class as he picked the correct moments to attack and wasn’t phased by the Frenchman’s unique style.
Here are the stats from the 22 first round matches I predicted. There were three retirements so they have been left out. In total I got 13 out of 19 correct. Read the post here.
There are 64 first round matches so there’s no way I could get through every one in detail but here are my quick selections. The man in bold is my predicted winner. I will edit this post when matches are completed so you can see how many I got right…
Albert Montanes vs Carlos Berlocq – Correct
Alex Bogdanovic vs Simone Bolelli – Bolelli has been on brilliant form this year and his playing style suits grass well. Bogdanovic will try and use his serve to good effect but I think the Italian will prevail here. – Correct
Robby Ginepri vs Fernando Gonzalez – They played in this tournament last year and Gonzalez won in four sets. Gonzalez in three this year. – Correct and in three sets.
Tomas Berdych vs Evgeny Korolev – Correct
Alexander Peya vs Mishca Zverev – Correct
Thomasz Bellucci vs Igot Kunitsyn – Wrong
Florent Sella vs Yen -Hsun Lu - Correct
Lleyton Hewitt vs Robin Haase – Correct
Dudi Sela vs Olivier Rochus – Wrong
Filipo Volandri vs Bobby Reynolds – Correct
Marc Gicquel vs Kei Nishikori - Nishikori retired injured
Chris Guccione vs Gael Monfils - Monfils withdrew due to injury
Victor Hanescu vs Alejandro Falla - Correct
Philipp Kohlschreiber vs Fernando Verdasco – A very even match up as both players are known for their flashy shot making. It’s difficult to pick a winner and I wouldn’t be surprised if this went to five sets however the German has been coming into the form as of late and I expect him to use this momentum to drive into the second round. – Wrong
Igor Andreev vs Jiri Vanek – Correct
Sergiy Stakhovsky vs David Ferrer – Correct
Marat Safin vs Fabio Fognini – Correct
Richard Gasquet vs Mardy Fish – Gasquet has not been playing well lately and here he has a massive test against big hitting Fish. The American’s gung ho approach will cause the French number one problems and this match is another I think could go to five sets. – Wrong
Benjamin Becker vs Nikolay Davydenko – Wrong
Viktor Troicki vs Nicolas Lapentti – Lapentti retired injured
Kevin Anderson vs Augustin Calleri – Wrong
Jonas Bjorkman vs Arnaud Clement -A very interesting match. Clement plays a lot more doubles these days and has struggled this year in singles competition. However Bjorkman has also been very much out of form and I favour Clement here on his favourite surface. – Correct
For a full set of results and live scores go to the official Wimbledon website.
Nick Bollettieri wrote on his blog that he could not decide who will win this match. I feel there will be only one winner, this being Andy Murray.
He will drop a set at most to the unorthodox Frenchman who will be attempting to grind out points by chipping all day long. There’s just no way that Murray won’t adapt to and then counter this style of play throughout the course of the match.
Santoro warmed up for Wimbledon with a hapless 6-3 6-1 defeat to Del Potro last week which can only add to the appeal of Murray here.
I also can’t see the 35-year-old getting much of a look in on the Scotman’s serve which is one of his most improved shots.
Murray on the other hand will be looking to attack at every possible opportunity when recieving as Santoro’s serve isn’t the strongest anymore.
I am sure there will be a few long drawn out nervous rallies because as Nick said Santoro will look to keep the ball low and tempt Murray into mistakes and this will without a doubt happen at various points in the match, but I think the British number one has too much class not to advance into the second round.
Ivo Karlovic showed the world his angry side today in his 7-6 7-6 semi-final victory over Frenchman Gael Monfils in the Slazenger Open which made for some great viewing!
During the second set Monfils had an injury time out to get some attention on his shoulder.
Karlovic obviously not impressed by the delay was up pacing around at one end of the court before the time out had finished.
He then lost the next game despite Monfils serving at half pace and was then broken in his next service game.
This was a truly horrible few points from Karlovic as he served two double faults and missed a standard volley to drop his serve for the second time in the match.
He then threw his racket on the ground like a mad man, picked it up, threw it under his chair and then onto his bag. He then picked up his drink, had a sip and threw it on the ground. Finally a ball boy gave him his towel and he threw it on the grass all to the sound of ‘wheyyy’ for each throw from the crowd… Brilliant!
I found this little cameo very amusing and it was interesting to see such a quiet and gentle man go beserk obviously attributing the two poor games to Monfils’ timeout.
After the tirade Karlovic sat in his chair still irate and said: “Give him, give him, just give him everything.
“Faking injuries all the time.”
Monfils was clearly not faking injury as he was serving at about 80 MPH and started coming to the net at every opportunity to ensure quick points.
Clearly this behaviour is not acceptable on court and not for any up and coming kids to see however this Mcenroe-esque performance from the big Croatian was ten out of ten for entertainment value.
The Eurosport commentators also uncluded a bit of humour of their own with this sequence in the first set.
“Karlovic will be looking to attack this second serve using his big forehand.”
Karlovic has a massive swing and shanks it into the crowd.
“Oh yes, he’s hit a six!”
Despite the drama, Karlovic will be hoping to defend his Nottingham Open title against Fernando Verdasco in the final tomorrow.
James Ward was unfortunately knocked out in the first round of Nottingham by Alex Bogdanovic 6-3 6-4.
Ward played well but was not able to overcome the experienced British number two.
I think the grass suited lefty Bogdanovic’ heavy groundstrokes and big serve and if they play again in the future on a different surface there might be a different outcome.
Bogdanovic served 12 aces and won 32/40 of first serve points and despite these impressive stats Ward was able to break his serve in the second set.
Ward’s first serve percentage improved from 45 percent against Safin to 61 percent here so this was another positive aspect to take away from the match.
