How They Got Here<\/em> Ivo Karlovic won his first-round match against Slovakian Lucas Lacko in straight sets.\u00a0 But, Lacko did something that no one else has done yet against Karlovic–he earned a break point.\u00a0 In fact, Lacko had 4 break points in that match.\u00a0 He was 0-for-4.\u00a0 Since then, Karlovic has gone through three more rounds, including matches against 9-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and 7-seed Fernando Verdasco, without facing a single break point<\/em>.\u00a0 Yes, you read that correctly–IVO KARLOVIC HAS NOT BEEN BROKEN IN 79 SERVICE GAMES AND HAS ONLY FACED 4 BREAK POINTS ALL TOURNAMENT, ALL IN THE FIRST ROUND!\u00a0 He has made 71% of his first serves (and they are bombs)\u00a0and won 91% of the points on that first serve.\u00a0 Unbelievable!\u00a0 Needless to say, Karlovic is on an absolute roll with his serve.\u00a0 However, this is not to say that he has cruised because his lack of an all-around game makes it difficult for him to break.\u00a0 He broke Tsonga once in the third round, winning 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, and Verdasco once in the fourth round, winning 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6.<\/p>\n The Pick<\/em> #4 Novak\u00a0Djokovic vs. #24 Tommy Haas On the other side is Tommy Haas.\u00a0 Maybe because it is a great story, but it seems like Haas has been all over this tournament.\u00a0 Like Djokovic, Haas dropped the first set of the tournament to an unseeded player, before winning in four.\u00a0 Haas basically had a walkover against Michael Llodra in the second round, as the Frenchman retired after only 7 games.\u00a0 And, that break turned out huge for Haas, as his third-round opponent, 11-seeded Marin Cilic went five sets with American Sam Querrey in the second round.\u00a0 Haas, the more rested player, came out and won the first two sets 7-5 and 7-5.\u00a0 But, Cilic did not roll over, winning the third 6-1 and the fourth in a tiebreak, setting one of the more exciting sets of the 2009 Wimbledon, one where Haas survived 10-8 (staving off two match points) to advance to the round of 16 in just under four and a half hours.\u00a0 Haas then handled #29 Igor Andreev in straight sets to get him to his first Wimbledon quarters in 11 chances.<\/p>\n The Pick #3 Andy Murray vs. Juan-Carlos Ferrero Ferrero, a wild card entry, knocked off Mikhail Youzhny in the first round and Fabrice Santoro in the second (both of which were money-making wagers for Yours Truly), but then it looked like the fun would end, as he drew 10th-seeded and red-hot Fernando Gonzalez in the third round.\u00a0 Gonzo won the first set, 6-4, but Ferrero rallied to win sets two and three.\u00a0 After Gonzalez took the match to a fifth set and just when it looked like he would survive, Ferrero stepped up, won the fifth and moved on, winning the fifth set 6-4.\u00a0 But, another test awaited the veteran Spaniard in the round of 16 in 8th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon.\u00a0 But, Ferrero won the first set in a tiebreak and then just cruised after that, winning in straight sets with surprising ease.<\/p>\n The Pick How They Got Here<\/em>\u00a0 Roddick made a habit of winning two sets, dropping the third, and then winning in four through the first three rounds of this tournament.\u00a0 He had that exact result against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the first round, Russian Igor Kunitsyn in the second round, and 30th-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer in the third round.\u00a0 He stepped up his game in the round of 16, winning in a dominating straight sets against #20 Tomas Berdych.<\/p>\n The Pick Juan-Carlos Ferrero?\u00a0 Tommy Haas?\u00a0 Lleyton Hewitt?\u00a0 Andy Roddick?\u00a0 Roger Federer?\u00a0 Ivo Karlovic? This sounds like a run-down of 1995’s\u00a0Future Stars of Tennis.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or the quarterfinals of a major in, say 2003.\u00a0 But, 2009???\u00a0 No chance.\u00a0 Well, that is the case, as … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/colunistas.ig.com.br\/paulocleto\/files\/2008\/12\/ivorochus.jpg\")
#2 Roger Federer vs. #22 Ivo Karlovic<\/strong> <\/u>
\nIn the first match on Centre Court tomorrow, the five-time Wimbledon champ will take on a throwback to the days where groundstrokes were few and rallies were short, who, by the way, happens to be 6-foot-10.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThe Federer has not exactly been as overwhelmingly dominant this year as he has in year’s past, but he still\u00a0has only dropped one set–a third-set tiebreak to 27-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.\u00a0 He is coming off a straight-set win over 13-seed Robin Soderling in a rematch of the surprising French Open finale.\u00a0 Soderling had chances in both the second and third set tiebreaks, but Federer showed exactly why he has won 14 Grand Slams and made an astonishing <\/em>20 consecutive Grand Slam semis–he wins big points.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.tennis.com\/uploadedImages\/Editorial\/General\/2006_04_14_roger_federer.jpg\")
Wednesday’s Matchup<\/em>\u00a0
\nNeedless to say, we will probably see a tiebreak or two.\u00a0 I will at least go out on a limb and say that Karlovic will NOT <\/em>break Federer–that much is pretty sure.\u00a0 So, it is going to come down to the big points in a tiebreak or a Federer break.\u00a0 In both cases, I like Federer, but not easily.\u00a0 I could see Dr. Ivo winning at least one tiebreak and making Federer really work for his 21st straight semifinal.\u00a0 Federer is 8-1 against Karlovic all-time, but the one win was on hardcourts in Cincinnati last year, where Karlovic beat Fed without a single break, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.<\/p>\n
\nFederer in 4.\u00a0 Look for Federer to break once and win a pair of tiebreaks (the big points), but it will not be a walk in the park.\u00a0 Karlovic is serving as well as anyone ever has, and, as boring as it is to see no breaks, it is pretty incredible to see someone do something better than any else does in the world.\u00a0 Then\u00a0again, the game is tennis, not\u00a0“serving,” and Federer is better at tennis than anyone else in the world, so we will go with him to win this one.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>The youngest player left versus the oldest player left in the first match on Court 1 on Wednesday.\u00a0 Djokovic was only 12 years old when Tommy Haas burst onto the scene as a 21-year old semifinalist in Australia.\u00a0 Now, ten years later, Haas\u00a0is in the middle of a career\u00a0revival, while Djokovic, the\u00a04th-ranked player in the world,\u00a0is trying to\u00a0win\u00a0his second Grand Slam.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.clevelandleader.com\/files\/TommyHaas.JPG\")
How\u00a0They Got Here<\/em>
\nDjokovic dropped the first set of his tournament here to Frenchman Julien\u00a0Benneteau, before rattling off\u00a012 straight sets\u00a0(Benneteau, Simon Greul,\u00a0Mardy Fish, and Dudi Sela) to get to this point.\u00a0\u00a0Djokovic really has yet to be tested at all since the Benneteau set, not even needing a tiebreak in the past three rounds, beating Sela in the round of\u00a016, 6-2, 6-4,\u00a06-1.\u00a0 It almost seems as if Novak has not even really been in this tournament–usually a good sign.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/ffximage\/2008\/01\/21\/PM_djokovic_narrowweb__300x383,0.jpg\")
Wednesday’s Matchup
\n<\/em>Well, these two played three weeks ago in the grass-court tune-up tournament in Halle, Germany (Haas’s native country–and his first ever grass title, having won on all other surfaces), and Haas defeated Djokovic in the tournament’s final.\u00a0 Haas has been one of the hotter players of this year’s grass-court circuit, but Djokovic has cruised through this tournament.\u00a0 It should be interesting as Djokovic loves to pound away at the baseline, while Haas has reincarnated the Stefan Edbergs and Patrick Rafters, with a true serve-and-volley game on both first and second serves.\u00a0 Either way, the contrast of ages, styles, and career arcs makes for a very interesting match on Court 1.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Djokovic in 4.\u00a0 As much as we here at BSB want to pick Haas in the upset, Djokovic’s game is just too good right now, and he hits some of the best passing shots in the business, so Haas’s serve-and-volley game should not cause as much trouble for Djokovic than it did for someone like Cilic.\u00a0 I do think, however, that if it goes five, I like Haas’s heart a lot more than Djokovic’s.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Just as someone dusted off David Duval at golf’s U.S. Open two weeks ago, it seems someone has also dusted off “The Mosquito” in this year’s Wimbledon.\u00a0 Juan-Carlos Ferrero\u00a0was one of the best all-court players in the world in the beginning stages of this decade, but injuries have really derailed what was heading to be a great career.\u00a0 Now, only in the tournament on a wild card entrant, he is back to playing some great tennis and has reached another Grand Slam quarters.\u00a0 And, now, he has the opportunity to crush the hopes on an entire kingdom, who has not seen a “native son” win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.universalsports.es\/tenis\/wp-content\/\/juan-carlos-ferrero.jpg\")
How They Got Here
\n<\/em>Andy Murray, carrying all the hopes of the United Kingdom on his racket strings, dropped a set in the first round, but cruised rather easily through the first three rounds, including an easy win over #30 Viktor Troicki in the third round.\u00a0 But, then…he found himself in an absolute war with #19 Stanislas Wawrinka–one of the best matches of the tournament this year.\u00a0 Wawrinka dominated the first set against a lost-looking Murray.\u00a0 But, Murray recovered, won the second and third, and was up a break in the fourth, before Stan rallied, won the fourth set and battled hard in the fifth, but fell 6-3, under the roof, in the latest Wimbledon match in history.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/newsimg.bbc.co.uk\/media\/images\/40758000\/jpg\/_40758946_murray_celeb.jpg\")
Wednesday’s Matchup<\/em>
\nIt just goes to show the arc of Ferrero’s career in that, until three weeks ago, he had never played Andy Murray.\u00a0 Ferrero was very good when Murray was in the juniors, and Ferrero has been a complete non-factor since Murray has been relevant.\u00a0 Murray beat Ferrero easily on the grass at Queens three weeks ago, in a semifinal match on his way to the title.\u00a0 Plus, with grass being possibly the best surface for Murray and the worst for Ferrero, it seems like a mismatch, until you remember that a Brit has not won Wimbledon since before the second World War, so Murray has tolose in one of these rounds, right?\u00a0 Plus, the last wild card entrant to Wimbledon that has gotten this far was Goran Ivanisevic in 2001, who beat the other British hope, Tim Henman, en route to winning the whole thing.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Murray in 3.\u00a0 As much as I LOVE curses and misery and the like, this matchup just does not look good for The Mosquito (one of my all-time favorite players).\u00a0 Murray should move on to the semis–and maybe even the finals–before breaking every British heart.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.ruggedelegantliving.com\/a\/images\/Andy.Roddick.Wimbledon.2004.jpg\")
#6 Andy Roddick vs. Lleyton Hewitt
\n<\/u><\/strong>The second match on Court 1 is, at least for BSB, the most anticipated match of this year’s tournament thus far.\u00a0 It is hard to express how excited I am in the resurgence of my favorite all-time athlete, Lleyton Hewitt, so it is about time for Lleyton to break my heart again–just when I started to believe again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSeveral commentators said that if Hewitt lost to #5 Juan-Martin Del Potro in the second round, it might be the final match of his career.\u00a0 But, fortunately\u00a0for me (and the BSB readers who would have to put up with a long, passionate post about the end of the career of an athlete that only I seem to like), Lleyton swept right through Del Potro in straight sets.\u00a0 He had done the same to American Robby Ginepri in the first round and then to German Phillip Petzschner in the third round.\u00a0 Then, the bulldog in Lleyton was awoken in the round of 16 when #23 Radek Stepanek took the first two sets.\u00a0 But, Hewitt, the ultimate fighter, flipped the switch and hammered Stepanek one, two, and two in the final three sets to move on to a quarterfinal date with Mr. Roddick.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/newsimg.bbc.co.uk\/media\/images\/42456000\/jpg\/_42456859_hewitt3_getty_300.jpg\")
Wednesday’s Matchup<\/em>
\nWell, both players have been number one in the world.\u00a0 Both have 27 titles.\u00a0 Both are former U.S. Open champs, and both have been finalists here at the All-England Club (Hewitt is a former champion).\u00a0 And, most importantly, both are so incredibly entertaining with tennis rackets in their hands.\u00a0 No matter what happens, this match is going to be one for the fans.\u00a0 Both men have an incredible competitive spirit and will not ever <\/em>give up on any point in the match.\u00a0 Over the courses of their careers, Hewitt leads the all-time series 6-5, but Roddick has won 4 in a row, including a 7-6, 7-6 win on grass three weeks ago.\u00a0 The big matchup in this match is going to be the Roddick serve versus the Hewitt return.\u00a0 When Lleyton was the best player in the world, he did so mainly because he was such a great returner of serve.\u00a0 When Roddick was the best player in the world, he did so mainly because he was such a great server.\u00a0 Wednesday’s match may just come down to whether or not Lleyton can break Roddick in any consistent manner.\u00a0 On the other side, Roddick’s return of serve is probably his biggest weakness, but Lleyton’s serve has always been inconsistent.\u00a0 If Hewitt is hitting his first serve with consistency, Roddick may have trouble breaking him.\u00a0 All I want, personally, is a five-set war.\u00a0 Is that too much to ask?<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Hewitt in 5.\u00a0 Honestly, can I really pick against Lleyton Hewitt?\u00a0 No, no, I can’t.\u00a0 This is going to be a war, but I can see Hewitt winning a classic, so I am going to pick this one with my heart, not necessarily my head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"