» Rafa wins: Career Grand Slam –> World further divides into those for whom H2H’s never mattered less and those for whom ‘more’ never means *more*
» Muzz wins: Maiden Slam -->Monkey falls off his back and into a pond with a broken duck in it.
» Fed wins: Only an Open Era USO record….as if anyone cares about that.
» QF Night Match worth staying up for: Rafa/Nalbie
» QF Death Match worth looking out for: Djoko/ARod (Roddick’s won their past 4 meetings and is 5-2 overall)
LEGEND
Top Guns, supposedly
Big Bad Denizens
Britain’s Got Talent
Sympathy Vote
(First Round Fracas underlined)
ATP
| Q1 | Rafa, Istomin, Kohls Feli, Ljubicic | Easy-peasy though I’d still say Rafa’s got no business being around “Upset Merchants” Istomin and Kohls this early in the game. |
| Ferru/Dolgo, Ernie Nalbie, Dasco | Ernie and Nalbie. At least one will be gone by round four. Winner plays Rafa in the Quarters. | |
| Q2 | Muzz, Wawa Querrey, Almagro | Muzz arrives wrecked in the quarters having dropped far too many sets along the way. Maybe. |
| Misha, Xman, Isner Steps/B’teau, L’dra/Berd | Berd surrounded by a bunch of nutters-at-the-net. You can’t always fight madness. | |
| Q3 | Kolya, Reeshie, Bellucci LaMonf, Tipsy, ARod | Half full: Reeshie finds a way to round four. Half empty: ARod doesn’t |
| Baggy, Fish Pico, Blake, Djoko | Djoko breezes through in straights until he has one of those matches against Baggy/Fish | |
| Q4 | Sod, Falla, Gonzo Cilic | Sod to survive a R2 5-setter against Fire, before cutting down Cilic in his subprime. |
| Yoyo, JCF Hewitt, Federer | Fed to avenge Halle convincingly. And to then struggle against Yoyo/JCF – equally convincingly |
WTA
With firm favourite Kimmie coming in with hip concerns and CazWoz your number one seed, expect anything and everything…and nothing at all.
| Q1 | Caz, Navarro, K’vong, Safarova Rezai, Benny, Groth/Masha | Groth could put out Masha in R1. A couple of poor service games, cement-block focus from Groth. BOOM. Could totally happen. |
| Sveta/Date, Kiri Shvedova, AChak, Domi, Li | Remember how Kimiko toughed out a 3 setter over Dina in R1 of RG, and then went out the very next round basically spent? Yeah, try and forget that. | |
| Q2 | JJ, Kanepi MJMS, Wickmayer | I won’t list all the reasons JJ shouldn’t do well here – there’s so many I almost expect her to make something of it. |
| ARad, Petkovic/Petrova Coco, Bepa | Bepa gets her Coco revenge and Nadia goes down to ARad in straights | |
| Q3 | Franny, 'Courage’, ABond Pavs, Vika | Can Vika’s belief' trump ‘Courage’ itself? |
| Peer, Flavs Pironkova, Venus | Will Venus get her Wimby revenge? Does Venus even know what revenge is? | |
| Q4 | Stosur, Kleybs Dani/Dina, Demmie | Can Dina use Demmie/Stosur’s struggles to her advantage? Assuming she emerges in one piece from that New Haven reunion. |
| Bartoli, Ivanovic, Zheng Kvitova, Baltacha, Kimmie | Who wants to be brave and predict Kimmie cleans up? (Hint: Not me) |
(Images: Getty)
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