2013 US OPEN Day 3: Murray Wins, Venus Loses, Blake Ends Career

By the end of Day 3 of the US Open, the entirety of Round 1 of the men's draw is finally completed. Although 10 of the Top 32 seeds were eliminated, none of them were in the top 10. However some big names (and players I like to watch) departed the last major of the year early: Kei Nishikori, Jerzy Janowicz, Fabio Fognini, Nicolas Almagro, Grigor Dimitrov and Fernando Verdasco. Andy Murray playing his first match at a major tournament where he is the defending champion, looked very sharp with only 5 unforced errors in his dismissal of Michael Llodra in straight sets.
The highlight of Day 3 was James Blake's heartbreaking loss in a 5th set tiebreaker after being up 2-sets against Ivo Karlovic. It was the 33-year-old American's last professional match, since Blake had announced earlier that the US Open would be his last tournament.

On the women's side of the draw, the seeds are not falling as rapidly, with the biggest names to exit being 2-time champion Venus Williams and 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur. Stosur lost a 3-set match to unheralded American Victoria Duval while Venus lost a 3rd set tiebreak to Zheng Jie after a marathon match that lasted three hours and three minutes. Sloane Stephens has reached the third round and will face fellow American Jamie Hampton. The winner could face defending champion Serena Williams who will play her rain-delayed 2nd round match today.

2013 Wimbledon: Women's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2013. Last year I correctly predicted 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] Sabine Lisicki (GER) [23] vs. Laura Robson (GBR) Kaia Kanepi (EST). In a Wimbledon full of shocking upsets, the shock defeat in the fourth round of the 1:4 favorite (the 5-time Wimbledon champion and reigning French Open champion) must clearly be considered one of the very biggest surprises of the tournament. The fact is that it was only Serena's 3rd loss of the year is enough to let you know what an unusual result Sabine Lisicki's victory was. In England, an even bigger story was the ouster of British hope Laura Robson from the tournament by a resurgent Kaia Kanepi. Kanepi was two points from defeat in the second round against last year's semifinalist Angelique Kerber so she must feel that she is playing with "house money." This match should be a nice example of "Big Babe" tennis, where the winner is usually determined by the player with the better mobility and/or the person with more consistent and powerful serve. The German has the edge in both these categories and should win relatively easily to reach her second career Wimbledon semifinal in three years. PREDICTION: Lisicki.

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [4] vs. Na Li (CHN) [6]. This meeting should be the highlight of this round. The Chinese player leads their head-to-head 6-4 but the Polish player has a 2-1 lead in their grass curt meetings. However, Li won their last meeting relatively easily, which was in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open earlier this year. Radwanska has actually been in 8 major quarterfinals compared to Li's 7, but Li has had far more success in those matches, winning four of them while Radwanska has only been tasted success at Wimbledon. Radwanska is clearly the more consistent player, while Li is the more powerful. Radwanska is crafty, while Li is often mentally fragile at key moments. All of these different factors to combine to make this a very hard match to predict what will happen. PREDICTION: Li in 2 sets, Radwanska in 3 sets.

Sloane Stephens (USA) [17]  vs. Maria Sharapova (RUS) [3] Marion Bartoli (FRA) [15]. This is another intriguing match-up reminiscent of the tussle between Radwanska and Li. The two have only met once before, in a meeting on hard courts at the New Haven tournament which was won by Bartoli in three see-saw sets. Stephens has nowhere to go but up in her career, playing in her very first Wimbledon quarterfinal, while Bartoli is now 28 years old and knows all-too well how rare these opportunities come along, having only played in two semifinals her career. Stephens moves better than Bartoli and has to be pleased that she is facing the quirky Frenchwoman instead of the #2 seed Maria Sharapova. Bartoli's main chance to win this match is if she can overpower Stephens and overwhelm her with accuracy to compensate for her inferior ability to move around the court. Stephens is actually not playing that well (she has more unforced errors than winners for the tournament) but she is competing well and that has been enough to get her through to the quarterfinals. But it may not be enough to get her any further in the draw. It should also be noted that Bartoli has had great success in the past winning matches she was not expected (or supposed) to win, such as her 2007 Wimbledon semifinal win against Justine Henin and her 2011 Wimbledon straight set win over Serena Williams in the Round of 16. One key question is will Bartoli's experience outmatch Stephens' youth and confidence? PREDICTION: Bartoli in 2 sets, Stephens in 3 sets. 

Petra Kvitova (CZE) [8] vs. Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [2] Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) [20].  Flipkens is a good grass court player (she lost in the final of one of the warm-up grass-court tournaments) and even though she is playing in the very first major quarterfinal of her career, she has a reasonable chance to win this match. She actually has a 2-1 head-to-head lead against her quarterfinal opponent Petra Kvitova, and has even beaten her this year. However, Kvitova has won this tournament, just two short years ago, lost last year in the quarterfinal to the eventual champion and the year before in the semifinals to the eventual champion. If Kvitova is on then there is no reason to think that she won't reach her 2nd career Wimbledon final.PREDICTION: Kvitova. 

2013 WIMBLEDON Round 1: Nadal(5), Errani(5), Kirilenko(10) Upset

Round 1 of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships is complete. Of course the most significant result of the first two days of play is 2-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal's shocking loss in the first round to Belgian Steve Darcis. However there were other surprising results in the first round on the men's side: Former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt eliminated #11 seed Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. In another curious result Feliciano Lopez beat #17 seed Gilles Simon; this was the second time in three days they had met because Lopez also beat Simon in the finals of Eastbourne on Sunday.

On the women's side of the draw, the #5 seed also went out in the first round when Puerto Rican teenager Monica Puig beat clay court specialist Sara Errani and British hope Laura Robson ignored the pressure of a nation and beat Maria Kirilenko in straight sets.

Top seeds Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, David Ferrer, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all won their first round matches relatively easily. Additionally, on the women's side Serena Williams won her first match in 57 minutes, extending her current winning streak to 32 consecutive matches. She will face talented French youngster Caroline Garcia in the 2nd round. Maria Sharapova, Angelique Kerber, Aggie Radwanska, and Victoria Azarenka all won their first round matches. Azarenka had an injury scare after she went down hard in her match but she was still able to win easily. If she is not 100% she could be in trouble in her second round match against Flavia Pennetta.

Second Round matches to take note of
Li Na [6] versus Simona Halep, Madison Keys versus Mona Barthel [30], Sloane Stephens[17] versus Andrea Petkovic and Marion Bartoli [15] versus Christina McHale.

Feliciano Lopez versus Paul-Henri Mathieu, James Blake versus Bernard Tomic, Tsonga versus Ernests Gulbis and Hewitt versus Dustin Brown.

2013 AUS OPEN Day 4: Robson Upsets Kvitova

Roger Federer's shoes (featuring pink laces)

Day 4 of the 2013 Australian Open (dubbed the "Happy Slam" by Roger Federer) is over and there has been a major upset with 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova losing to up-and-coming 18-year-old Laura Robson of Great Britain. Roger Federer easily dismissed a challenge from former World #3 Nikolay Davydenko and 2012 US Open champ Andy Murray won another straight set match. For the second round in a row Gael Monfils won an epic five-setter, this time 7-6(5) 4-6 0-6 6-1 8-6 against  Yen-hsun Lu, despite double-faulting four times while holding match point. Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka continued their inexorable march through the draw to an expected semi-final clash that should be the best match of the tournament.

The Kvitova-Robson match was on my radar, since it is always difficult when two lefties play each other and Robson, even though she is just 18 (and turns 19 during the tournament) has started to make some noises in major tournaments. At the last one, the 2011 US Open, she took out Kim Clijsters and Li Na in consecutive rounds, eventually losing to Samantha Stosur. Because of the time difference (Australia is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time) I did not expect to see the match live but I happened to wake up and catch the last few games of the 3rd set. At one point Kvitova was up 3-0 after the two split the first two sets but then the wheels came completely off her serve and Robson was able to break back and the two held serve until 9-all. Kvitova was unable to hit more than one first serve in that crucial 19th game and was broken and the 18-year-old showed the grand-slam winner how to close out a match by making four first serves to win the match on an ace and 3 consecutive Kvitova return errors. The British youngster will face American youngster Sloane Stephens in the 3rd round which should be an interesting measure of which player is more advanced. Stephens is seeded #29 while Robson is unseeded. 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm defeated Shahar Peer of Israel to reach her first 3rd round at the Australian Open.

Australian youngster Bernard Tomic set up another 3rd round clash with Federer by winning a surprisingly tight 4-set match 6-7(4) 7-5 7-6 (4) 7-6(8) over the very tall Daniel Brands of Germany. Tomic is the great hope for Australian men's tennis and he is not shy about letting almost anyone within earshot become aware of that. If Federer gets through that match in the 4th round he is likely to have Milos Raonic and in the quarterfinal Jo-Wilfried Tsonga just to reach Andy Murray in the semifinals and Novak Djokovic in the final. Almost certainly the roughest draw the 17-time major champion has faced in a grand slam tournament, possibly ever.

Day 5 will feature interesting Round 3 clashes such as Maria Sharapova-Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic-Jelena Jankovic, Angelique Kerber-Madison Keys and Sam Querrey-Stan Wawrinka, David Ferrer-Marcos Naghdatis and Novak Djokovic-Radek Stepanek.

2012 US OPEN Day 3: Robson Ends Clijsters Career

Kim Clijsters win streak ended at 22 matches when she joined the list of other great tennis champions like Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi who ended their careers at the US Open. Clijsters lost to British mixed doubles silver medalist Laura Robson in two tough sets 7-6(4) 7-6(5) despite leading 5-2 in the first set. Robson is a powerful lefty and she showed why she will be a force in the future as matched and then outmatched Clijsters' power from the baseline, despite not moving as well on the surface as the preternaturally flexible Belgium (well-known for doing splits on the court).

Clijsters leaves the game with a Hall of fame career; she won 4 major titles (2005 US Open, 2009 US Open, 2010 US Open, 2011 Australian Open) and 41 tour titles. She was ranked #1 for 20 weeks and was also ranked #1 in both singles and doubles simultaneously at one point.

You'll be missed, Kimmie!