Australian Open Anyone else psyched? I'm pretty excited, cause it seems like an open field on both sides and it's always exciting when there's a potential for a new slam champ.
Re: Australian Open Hmm... On the men's side: Rafa is set to come back, but he hasn't really made any waves recently, I would count Federer as the favorite here, but Rafa will probably give him a run for him money. The Federer win though is farr from assured, unlike a few years ago, where it was definitely going to be Federer unless something insane happened (like 90-95% chance Fed was going to win), now it's more like out of all the people, Federer has the greatest chance, still probably less than 50% though. In terms of challengers, Djoko won here two years ago thanks primarily, imo to a lucky draw, thought he did defeat Fed along the way, but he is a threat to win, and you can't count him out. JMDP is coming up high off his US Open win, where he beat Fed in the final, so he's also a threat. Andy Murray is going to want to win one of these eventually, and he's due, but I'm not so sure the AO is going to be the one, I'm thinking more along the lines of USO or Wimbledon, but... can't count him out either. Though Roddick hasn't won one recently, I wouldn't really count him entirely out either, he's a threat to do some major damage, but probably won't win, he won Brisbane, but his H2H with Federer is abysmal. And finally, as a dark horse, Tsonga had a freak run here three years ago, which was absolutely brilliant! Don't know if he can do it again, but he can also do major damage. On the women's side: I think for sure Clijsters and Serena are the favorites to do win. Henin is a wildcard, she's back, she did well in Brisbane, but she pulled out of Sydney (probably a good choice), since she cited a potential injury sustained in Brisbane. The Open is longer and tougher than Brisbane, so I'm not so sure anymore about if she can take it, but she's certainly a contender and will probably do well, it'll also depend on her draw since she's a WC. On the outside, then there's Sharapova and Dementieva, who I think both have a decent shot, hopefully Dementieva will finally win one of these. :/ And Safina recently was reported with a back injury, so I don't know anymore about her, though typically she would be up there as well, and she also needs to win one of these eventually... And you can never really count Venus out of slams. Betters also like Wozniacki and Azarenka, but, I'm less inclined to believe it's their time yet- especially against these vets, but who knows? And then there's always the floaters, Zvonareva, Kuzzy, Jankovic, Ivanovic, who while they probably won't win, all have the potential to do major damage. All in all, as usual there are always favorites, but they're not as heavily favored as they have been the past few years AND there are so many people bubbling just under, someone new is going to start making a breakthrough either this year or next. So it'll be exciting to see who it'll be.
Post your predictions for the winners of tonight's 4th round matchups: Roger Federer vs. Leyton Hewitt Fernando Verdasco vs. Nikolai Davydenko Novak Djokovic vs. Lukasz Kubot Jo-Wilfred Tsonga vs. Nicolas Armagro My predictions are: Federer-The obvious choice for anyone who knows anything about tennis, hasnt lost to a player outside of the top 10 in so long Davydenko-playing unbelievably at the moment, beat both Nadal and Federer in their last meetings Djokovic-Novak always does well at the Aussie, and is playing an unseeded player that should have lost on friday night/saturday(in austrailia) but got a walk over Tsonga-Tsonga made it to the finals of the aussie a few years ago b4 losing to djokovic and i expect him to do well again. i also think that the final will be davydenko vs. nadal or roddick, and davydenko will win.
Im sry to disagree, but davydenko has been too good recently, he has beaten both rafa and federer twice in a row. But yes, rafa needs to stop wearing pink.