Australian Open Men’s Preview - The Unstoppable Federer
I know some people are getting tired of hearing how great Roger Federer is but you will miss him when he’s gone. Luckily, he will stick around long enough in Australia to take another Open title.
Federer starts against Diego Hartfield (yawn) and is hoping to play John Isner in the second round because the other option is Fabrice Santoro. *Side note* I know the Americans are high on Isner but I don’t think he will amount to much as a pro, I can’t see him as a top 10 player. People are pegging him as the next Ivo Karlovic but you would think that they would set the bar a little higher. Even Ivo Karlovic doesn’t want to be Ivo Karlovic, he wants to be the next Goran Ivanisevic but that ain’t gonna happen. I digress, Federer will cruise through his quarter where he will most likely face James Blake in the quarters, not exactly a big threat.
Novak Djokovic will have a much harder time where in the third round when he could face Sam Querry, Dmitry Tursunov or Xavier Malisse. Of those three, Malisse should scare Djokovic the most as Xavier has been playing great as of late and is desperate to do something in a Slam since he reached the Wimbledon semis years ago. Others in Djokovic’s quarter are Marcos Baghdatis, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian and David Ferrer. That is a damn tough quarter and as much as I love Djokovic, he hasn’t been inspiring lately after going 0-3 in the Masters Cup he didn’t have tough competition in the Hopman Cup and turned in passable results there.
Richard Gasquet is the standout in the third quarter. If he plays half as good as he did against Roddick at Wimbledon last year, he should cruise. His “roadblocks” are Andy Murray, Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko. Those guys aren’t going to do much in Melbourne, Gasquet won’t have to do much to get through here.
Andy Roddick highlights the last quarter partly because there isn’t much standing in his way. His potential fourth round match is against Tommy Robredo. The big match here could be a rematch of the Chennai epic semifinal when Carlos MOya could face Rafael Nadal in the fourth round. Still, Roddick should advance out of this group.
Quarterfinals
Federer vs. Blake
Hewitt vs. Ferrer
Gasquet vs. Youzhny
Roddick vs. Nadal
Semifinals
Federer vs. Hewitt
Gasquet vs. Roddick
Finals
Federer beats Roddick
Highest Seed To Lose In The First Round Not Named Davydenko
Look for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to beat #9 Andy Murray. Murray doesn’t impress me though some people are really high on him. SI.com tennis guru picked Michael Llodra to upset #4 Nikolay Davydenko but that is too easy, I had to make it more interesting.
The First Round Match You Just Can’t Miss
Xavier Malisse vs. #32 Dmitry Tursunov, I’m hoping for a great 5 set thriller.