Well, the first two round of the 2010 major tennis season have been completed and it is shaping up to be another great season on the men’s tour.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at the goings-on in Melbourne so far with a bit of a third-round preview and then more of a look-ahead to this weekend’s Round of 16, as we will pick the\u00a08 players\u00a0that we think we still be standing after the next two rounds of play.<\/p>\n
Federer Bracket – Top<\/strong> (22) Lleyton Hewitt vs. Marcos Baghdatis<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Federer Bracket – Bottom<\/strong> (6) Nikolai Davydenko vs. (30) Juan Monaco<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Djokovic Bracket – Top<\/strong> (20) Mikhail Youzhny vs. Lukasz Kubot<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Djokovic Bracket – Bottom<\/strong> (26) Nicholas Almagro vs. Alejandro Falla<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Del Potro Bracket – Top<\/strong> (11) Fernando Gonzalez vs. Evgeny Korolev<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Del Potro Bracket – Bottom<\/strong> (4) Juan-Martin Del Potro vs. Florian Mayer<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Nadal Bracket – Top<\/strong> (12) Gael Monfils vs. (33) John Isner<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Nadal Bracket – Bottom<\/strong> (2) Rafael Nadal vs. (27) Philipp Kohlschreiber<\/em> BSB’s Prediction<\/em> Recap<\/strong> Well, the first two round of the 2010 major tennis season have been completed and it is shaping up to be another great season on the men’s tour.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at the goings-on in Melbourne so far with … Continue reading
\n(1) Roger Federer vs. (31) Albert Montanes<\/em>
\nFederer, who is still working on one of the most amazing streaks in sports (21 straight Grand Slam semifinals), just does not lose early in a major.\u00a0 He did, interestingly enough, drop his first set of this tournament to a rather tough unseeded player, Igor Andreev, but then turned it on and won in 4.\u00a0 He then swept right through Victor Hanescu in the Second Round.\u00a0 Federer’s third round opponent, Albert Montanes, won in a walkover in Round 1, but needed all of five sets in Round 2 to knock off Frenchman Stephane Robert.\u00a0 Montanes, not commonly\u00a0a seeded player, now has the biggest match of his life against Federer in the Third Round.<\/p>\n
\nProbably the Third Round match that we here at BSB are most looking forward to.\u00a0 Not only does it involve the great Lleyton Hewitt (my favorite all-time tennis player), but it also involves one of the most charismatic and charming players of our generation, the Cyprian Marcos Baghdatis.\u00a0 Baghdatis, after dispatching Paolo Lorenzi in straights in the First Round,\u00a0got here with an epic 5-set win in the Second Round over 17-seeded David Ferrer (another BSB favorite, by the way).\u00a0 Lleyton, on the other hand, had a couple of easy victories along the way, crushing Ricardo Hochevar in the First Round and knocking off young American Donald Young in straight sets in the Second Round.\u00a0 Hewitt is playing great tennis in front of an adoring fan base, but Baghdatis is tough to beat anywhere.\u00a0 This one is must-see tennis.<\/p>\n
\nClearly, we are going to take Federer to handle Montanes in straight sets in the first matchup of this part of the draw, but the other one is a bit tougher to predict.\u00a0 We are going to go with Hewitt because, well, how could I not pick him?\u00a0 But, with some objectivity, I would say that the 5-set marathon with Ferrer probably has the aching Baghdatis a bit fatigued.\u00a0 We will take Hewitt in a black-and-blue 4-set war.\u00a0 And, if Baghdatis brings his A-game, Hewitt will need everything in his tank, which will probably leave him without the necessary ammunition against the World’s #1.\u00a0 Not to mention that Federer has absolutely owned Hewitt for many years now, so we are going to take Federer over Hewitt in 4 sets.<\/p>\n
\n(9) Fernando Verdasco vs. Stefan Koubek<\/em>
\nThe 9th-seeded Verdasco lost his first set of the tournament, but has won six straight since then, cruising in a Second Round win over Igor Sergeyev, 6-1, 6-2,\u00a06-2.\u00a0 Koubek caught a bit of a break when, after a 5-set First Round victory over American Rajeev Ram, he watched unseeded Ivan Dodiq take out 23-seed Juan-Carlos Ferrero in a 5-set war of their own.\u00a0 Koubek seemed the fresher player in Round 2 and beat Dodiq in straights.\u00a0 Now, he gets his first big test of the tourney, facing a top 10 player in Verdasco, who is really playing the best tennis of his career.<\/p>\n
\nThe Professional.\u00a0 That is Nikolai Davydenko.\u00a0 He plays a ton of tournaments and always seems to go pretty far, without really being a true contender.\u00a0 Well, he is well on his way again, as his consistency and balance is such a great recipe against non-elite players.\u00a0 Davydenko only lost 9 games in his first two matches against unseeded players, so he enters this match fresh.\u00a0 On the other hand, Juan Monaco, after winning in straights in Round 1, had to battle back from two sets down in the Second Round against a tough opponent, Michael Llodra.\u00a0 Monaco won the third set in a tiebreaker and then went on to win sets 4 and 5 to get himself to the Third Round, matching his best ever result here at the Australian.\u00a0 Monaco did get to the Round of 16 in both the French and US Opens in 2007, so he’s vying to equal his best ever Grand Slam result.<\/p>\n
\nWe like Verdasco in an easy straight-set win in the first match, which would make it 5 straight Grand Slams in the Round of 16 for the Spaniard.\u00a0 And, not as easily, but still in straights, we believe that Davydenko will use his experience at this stage to knock of Monaco.\u00a0 This would set up one of the better Round of 16 matches between #6 Davydenko and #9 Verdasco.\u00a0\u00a0Here, we are going to take the mild upset and go with Fernando Verdasco to\u00a0surprise Davydenko and move into the Quarterfinals–we’ll call it a four-setter.<\/p>\n
\n(3) Novak Djokovic vs. Denis Istomin<\/em>
\nWatch out, Novak, this one\u00a0could be\u00a0dangerous.\u00a0 I know that this young Uzbek is\u00a0ranked exactly 100\u00a0places lower than you in the world rankings, but he is just getting his career going and is gaining experience and confidence with every step.\u00a0 Istomin, in his first full year on the tour, won 4 Grand Slam matches last year, including reaching the Third Round of the US Open.\u00a0 He also smoked 32nd-seeded Jeremy Chardy in the First Round here this year and then followed that up with a straight-set win over Michael Berrer in the Second Round.\u00a0 He is clearly playing the best tennis of his young career.\u00a0 Djokovic, on the other hand, never seems to do well when there is any adversity, and the Australian heat is burning this week.\u00a0 Novak struggled to beat Marco Chuidelli in the Second Round because of the heat.\u00a0 So, if this match is played in the middle of the day, Istomin has a real shot at pulling off what would be the biggest win of his young career.<\/p>\n
\nYouzhny, another solid, consistent pro, had to come back from two sets down to beat veteran Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the First Round, but he bounced back nicely, with a smooth 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 Second Round win over Jan Hajek.\u00a0 Kubot, the young Pole, got a break in the Second Round when he got to face Santiago Giraldo instead of 16th-seeded Tommy Robredo.\u00a0 Kubot beat Giraldo in four set, giving him his second Third Round Grand Slam result (2006 US Open).\u00a0 So, here in a spot where it could have been Youzhny-Robredo, it’s actually Youzhny-Kubot.<\/p>\n
\nWe wanted to pull the trigger on an Istomin upset of Djokovic, but we just couldn’t do it.\u00a0 We will take Djokovic, though we do expect him to struggle, probably dropping a set, maybe two.\u00a0 In the end, however, he is just a far better player, at this stage in their careers, than Istomin.\u00a0 In the other one, we like Youzhny to advance pretty handily over Kubot.\u00a0 That sets up a Round of 16 match between Djokovic and Youzhny, and we are <\/em>going to pull the trigger this time.\u00a0 BSB is going out on a limb and predicting that the 27-year old Russian will regain his ’07-08 form (when he reached as high as #8 in the world) and upset Novak Djokovic in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n
\n(10) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (18) Tommy Haas<\/em>
\nAlong with the Hewitt-Baghdatis match (and Cilic-Wawrinka, which comes later), this is probably one of thebest two or three Third Round matchups in this year’s tournament.\u00a0 And, with the way the draw is playing out, this one might have the greatest ramifications for the later stages of the tournament.\u00a0 That is because, if Djokovic does go out before the Quarters, then the winner of this match will be the highest remaining seed in this entire bracket and be favored to reach the semifinals.\u00a0 These two have had two very different roads to get here so far.\u00a0 Tsonga has cruised, winning both matches in straight sets and not really being threatened by either opponent.\u00a0 Haas, on the other hand, was threatened in both his matches.\u00a0 He was down a set and a break in the First Round against Simon Greul, but came back to win.\u00a0 Then, in the Second Round, he dropped the first and fourth sets to Janko Tipsarevic, before prevailing 6-3 in the fifth.\u00a0 Now, he has to wake back up his aging knees and battle a well-rested, highly-confident Tsonga.<\/p>\n
\nThe 26-year old Colombian, Alejandro Falla, turned pro in 2000, but he\u00a0has now officially reached uncharted territory.\u00a0 He has never been this far in a major, and even before this result, had never been as highly ranked (77) as he is right now.\u00a0 But, he is playing like an old vet.\u00a0 He handled Brazilian veteran, Marcos Daniel, in straight sets in the First Round, and then knocked off Marcel Granoliers in straight sets in the Second Round.\u00a0 But, this result did not come without a bit of fortune, as he was slated to meet 8th-seeded Robin Soderling in the Second Round, but Granoliers pulled off the biggest First Round upset in coming back from two sets down to knock off last year’s breakout, Soderling.\u00a0 Now, Falla is one win away from the Round of 16, and he may have gotten even more fortune.\u00a0 Nicolas Almagro, his opponent for the Third Round, has to be exhausted.\u00a0 The first set he played this tournament, against Xavier Malisse, went to 15-13 in the tiebreak, before Almagro won it.\u00a0 He then won the second set also, but dropped the third and fourth.\u00a0 In the fifth set, he held on to win 8-6 and move on.\u00a0 Needing a quick victory, Almagro won the first two sets against Benjamin Becker, but Becker responded with wins in the next two sets, and Almagro was heading to yet another fifth set.\u00a0 He pulled this one out, 6-3 and now he’s moving on to face Falla.<\/p>\n
\nHere at BSB, we love Tommy Haas, but Tsonga is too rested and, probably, just too good for Haas right now.\u00a0 We think Tsonga will win, but it won’t be easy.\u00a0 Haas is a fighter and may take to 5, but, in the end, Tsonga should win the match and set himself up for a possible run to another Australian Open semi.\u00a0 In the other match, we are going with the fresh legs.\u00a0 This heat is brutal and for Almagro to have played two marathon matches, he might not have the stuff to survive another test.\u00a0 Falla is playing well and with confidence, and we hesitantly are predicting another win here in Melbourne.\u00a0 However, no matter who survives the Almagro-Falla match, the winner of the Tsonga-Haas match (predictably, Tsonga) should advance to the Quarters.\u00a0 We are taking Tsonga out of this part of the draw.<\/p>\n
\n(7) Andy Roddick vs. Feliciano Lopez<\/em>
\nSo far, so good for Roddick, who has had a history of early exits Down Under.\u00a0 But, this year, he has taken care of business with straight set wins over two unseeded players in the first two rounds.\u00a0 His Third Round opponent is not who everyone expected, but is,\u00a0at the same time, not at all a surprise.\u00a0 \u00a0Feliciano Lopez, a solid veteran player, took care of Pablo Cuevas in the First Round and then won a hard-fought win over Rainer Schuettler in four sets in the Second Round.\u00a0 The disappoinment, for the Americans, in this tournament so far, is the First Round exit by 25th-seeded Sam Querrey to Schuettler.\u00a0 Querrey has been playing very well lately, but he ran into a smart, veteran player who took him out.\u00a0 The Americans were looking forward to a Roddick-Querrey Third Round matchup, but instead they get the Spaniard, Lopez.<\/p>\n
\nGonzo, as he is called,\u00a0has transformed his career from a guy with a lot of talent and no consistency to a guy with a lot of talent and just flat-out gets results.\u00a0 Gonzalez needed four sets in a First Round win over Olivier Rochus, but handled Marcel Ilhan in straights in the Second Round.\u00a0 Korolev, who is still only 21 years old, is really starting to put it together.\u00a0 He has two straight-set wins so far this tournament, including an impressive performance in the Second Round against 21-seed Tomas Berdych.\u00a0 He has a real test in Gonzo this round, but maybe this is the breakout performance that Korolev needs to assert himself as a real contender on the men’s circuit.<\/p>\n
\nLopez is an interesting character and, oftentimes fun to watch, but Roddick should have no trouble with him in the Third Round–probably in straights.\u00a0 And, as bright as the future may be for Korolev, his best-ever Grand Slam result is probably going to end here, as we are predicting a straight-set win Gonzalez victory.\u00a0 These two results will set up, what might be, the most anticipated Round of 16 match, between two guys who know each other well and are not afraid to pound forehands at each other, Roddick and Gonzalez.\u00a0 A lot of the advantage of this match may depend on whether or not this is slated as a night match or whether it is during the day.\u00a0 It will probably be during the day, because neither of these two have a top-5 seed.\u00a0 And, in the heat of the day, the guy who can win more free points on his serve (Roddick) will probably be in a better position to last a long, grueling match.\u00a0 This one is really tough to call, but we are going to pick Roddick in four.\u00a0 If it goes five, Gonzalez may have the edge, especially considering there is no 5th-set tiebreaker, so Roddick’s big serve has to hold games, not points.<\/p>\n
\n(14) Marin Cilic vs. (19) Stanislav Wawrinka<\/em>
\nAs we mentioned before, the Hewitt-Baghdatis, Tsonga-Haas, and this one are the three best matches of the Third Round.\u00a0 Both of these guys can flat-0ut hit the ball, and both are playing at a very high level, coming into this tournament.\u00a0 Wawrinka has been the more impressive through the first two rounds, with two easy straight-set victories under his belt.\u00a0 Cilic has had a bit of a tougher road.\u00a0 His First Round match against the elder statesman, Fabrice Santoro, was a straight-set victory, but he needed 7-5 in both of the first two sets to do it.\u00a0 Then, in the Second Round, against Bernard Tomic, Cilic lost the first and third sets, before rallying to win 6-4 in the fifth.\u00a0 If Cilic wasn’t too fatigued by that match, this match with Wawrinka should be fantastic.<\/p>\n
\nAs predicted by BSB at the beginning of the season, Del Potro burst onto the scene last year, culminating with a thrilling US Open win over Roger Federer.\u00a0 Now, he takes the court no longer as an “up-and-comer,” but as the defending Grand Slam champion.\u00a0 It’s hard to say whether he feels any differently now, but he has struggled a bit so far this tournament.\u00a0 His Second Round thriller with James Blake is understandable because Blake has been one of the top players in the world for some time, so it is impressive that DelPo can come back from two sets to one down and win 10-8 in the fifth.\u00a0 However, now that DelPo has arrived, he has to take care of business in the early rounds.\u00a0 He looked like he was going to do that in the First Round against 90th-ranked American Michael Russell, but then threw away the third set and had to go to four.\u00a0 DelPo is still young, so it might not matter, but a lot of times the old adage holds true:\u00a0 “You can’t win a Grand Slam in the early rounds, but you certainly can lose it.”\u00a0 You have to keep your court time down if you expect to have enough left in the second week, when the competition ramps up and every little bit counts.\u00a0 DelPo may have caught a bit of a break, though, in the Third Round, as his opponent, Florian Mayer, needed nine set of his own to reach this point–the farthest he has ever been in a major.\u00a0 Mayer did, however, look good in knocking off 29th-seeded Viktor Troicki in four sets in the Second Round.\u00a0 But, he is going to have to play much better than that against the World’s #4.<\/p>\n
\nThe first match here is really tough.\u00a0 Mainly, we just want to watch two great players go at it, but since we have to make a pick, we are going to go with Cilic, by a nose.\u00a0 Wawrinka is solid and has been playing well, but it is hard to ignore how good Cilic was on hardcourts last year.\u00a0 We like Cilic to move on to the Round of 16 to face…Del Potro.\u00a0 No surprise here, as DelPo should handle the unseeded Mayer.\u00a0 The key for him is to get off the court.\u00a0 I think, with either Cilic or Wawrinka looming, DelPo really needs to give everything he has to win this one in straights.\u00a0 And, if he does that (which we think he will), then we like him to beat either Cilic or Wawrinka in the Round of 16.\u00a0 One of BSB’s favorites, Juan-Martin Del Potro, is predicted to reach the Quarters here in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\n(5) Andy Murray vs. Florent Serra<\/em>
\nI’m not sure that these first two rounds could have broken any better for the World #5, Andy Murray.\u00a0 He had two breezy matches, dropping no sets and only 12 games, while his opponent, Florent Serra had two long 5-set battles in the blistering heat.\u00a0 But, despite the 5-setters, it is not like Serra is struggling against poor competition.\u00a0 He has defeated 28th-seeded Jurgen Melzer and an unseeded, yet strong, experienced player, Jarrko Nieminen.\u00a0 But, who you beat doesn’t help you in the upcoming match.\u00a0 And, Serra has not beaten anyone of the caliber of Murray, well, ever.<\/p>\n
\nIsner, who received the 33rd seed late, after a withdrawal by the 15th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, almost gave it up right away.\u00a0 In the First Round, against Andreas Seppi, Isner won the first two sets rather easily, but then dropped the next two, forcing him to hang on to a 6-4 win in the fifth just to get out of the First Round.\u00a0 He then steadied himself and took out Irishman Louk Sorenson in straight sets in the Second Round.\u00a0 Monfils, like each of the past 3 or 4 years, may be poised to have a breakout season this year, if he can get his head straight.\u00a0 The talent is certainly there, but we will see if the results can match.\u00a0 He has looked good so far, with two straight-set victories, but now he is going to have to face the big-serving Isner, just for a shot at another Quarterfinal appearance.<\/p>\n
\nAs much as we would like to see otherwise, there is no reason to think that Andy Murray will not cruise through his match with Serra, maybe without even breaking a sweat.\u00a0 In the other match in this part of the draw, we are going to continue to believe in Monfils.\u00a0 I think Monfils will be able to handle Isner’s serve and beat him up pretty badly on the ground.\u00a0 Look for another straight-set victory for the Frenchman.\u00a0 Then, we have ourselves a very, very nice Round of 16 matchup between the English and the French.\u00a0 This match is a must-watch match, and we here are predicting an upset.\u00a0 Probably because it is so hard to root for Andy Murray, but even with some tennis reasons, we are picking Gael Monfils to upset Murray and move on to the Quarters for the first time in his Australian Open career.\u00a0 Yes, that pick may have been as much (if not more) of what we want to see happen than what we think will happen, but we’re on the record–Monfils over Murray.<\/p>\n
\n(24 Ivan Ljubicic vs. Ivo Karlovic<\/em>
\nThe guy no one ever wants to see in their draw–Dr. Ivo–has surfaced again here in Melbourne as the land mine of the draw.\u00a0 When this guy is serving well, he is almost impossible to break.\u00a0 And, with his somewhat improved ground game, he is actually getting some breaks of serve himself.\u00a0 So, though he clearly does not have the all-around game of an elite-caliber player, his serve-and-volley ability gives him a shot against anyone on any given day.\u00a0 13th-seeded Radek Stepanek tripped the Karlovic trip wire in the First Round, as Dr. Ivo knocked off Stepanek in\u00a0five sets.\u00a0 Then, solid Frenchan, Julien Benneteau got picked off in four sets in the Second Round.\u00a0 Now, it is 24th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic who has to avoid a similar fate.\u00a0 Ljubicic crushed Jason Kubler in the First Round, and then won a hard-fought four-set match against Andrei Gobulev in the Second Round to arrive here against Dr. Ivo.\u00a0 We will see if he can do everyone else a favor and eliminate the land mine from this year’s Aussie Open.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s been a while now that Kohlschreiber has been dubbed as an up-and-comer on the tour.\u00a0 It might, actually, be too late now to call him that.\u00a0 He may have been projected by some to be a top 10 player, but right now it looks like he has become just what he is–a top 30 player.\u00a0 He has still never reached the Quarterfinals in a Grand Slam, so it’s about time he does something like that.\u00a0 He had\u00a0a decent Grand Slam season in 2009, and has played two decent matches here in Melbourne, easily knocking off Horacio Zeballos in straight sets and then taking care of the South African, Wayne Odesnik, in four.\u00a0 But, now he’s got some work to do, as he wakes up and finds himself staring right down the barrel of Rafael Nadal.\u00a0 Rafa struggled to break his First Round opponent, Peter Luczak in the first set, but dominated the tiebreaker, 7-0 and then rolled through the next two sets.\u00a0 He continued the roll, manhandling Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in the Second Round.\u00a0 Now, he has Kohlschreiber.<\/p>\n
\nAny match that involved Ivo Karlovic is just impossible to predict.\u00a0 If his serve is falling, he’s hard to beat.\u00a0 If not, he’s rather easy to beat.\u00a0 But, for some reason, he brings out the guns in the Grand Slams, and we think that this will continue here.\u00a0 We are going with Dr. Ivo to do it again, and eliminated another seeded player, this time Ivan Ljubicic.\u00a0 In the other match, I don’t think Nadal will win 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 again, but I do think that he will win, and probably in straight sets.\u00a0 Kohlschreiber has a nice game, but Nadal is just too good for him.\u00a0 Bank on Rafa taking care of business and moving on.\u00a0 That leads us to Nadal’s attempt to avoid the land mine.\u00a0 The problem with Karlovic’s game when he runs into one of the top 5 guys is that he just stops being able to ever break.\u00a0 Eventually, Nadal will get a game or two and, with holding every game easily, Nadal should win this match.\u00a0 Not comfortably, but relatively easily–maybe 7-6, 7-6, 7-6.<\/p>\n
\nSo, here is what we have for our potentially fantastic\u00a0Quarterfinal matchups at this year’s Australian Open:<\/p>\n\n