#RG13

Roland Garros 2013 (aka the French Open) has just started today. We've already had a match where the winner came back from two sets down to win in 5 sets ([15]Gilles Simon, FRA def. Lleyton Hewitt, AUS), and a teenager upsetting a seeded player (Monica Puig, PUR def. [11]Nadia Petrova RUS)

Anyway, here are my predictions for who will make the quarterfinals in the men's and women's side:

[1]Novak Djokovic, SRB vs [12]Tommy Haas, GER
[3]Rafael Nadal, ESP vs [9]Stanislas Wawrinka, SUI
[5]Tomas Berdych, CZE vs [4]David Ferrer, ESP
[6]Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs [2]Roger Federer, SUI

Winner: [3]Rafael Nadal, ESP

[1]Serena Williams, USA vs Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
[14]Ana Ivanovic, SRB vs [5]Sara Errani, ITA
[6]Na Li, CHN vs [3]Victoria Azarenka, BLR
[7]Petra Kvitova, CZE vs [2]Maria Sharapova, RUS

Winner: [1]Serena Williams, USA

I'm also predicting that our winners will be defeating the #2 seeds on their respective draws pretty easily in the finals.

I'm not seeing any huge upsets for this tournament (although Kuznetsova is not seeded, Roland Garros is one of the two grand slam titles she has won, so a sudden QF run for her shouldn't be *that* surprising. Ivanovic, another former winner here, looked shaky in her first round match, but I expect her to go through that part of the draw over the struggling #4 Radwanska. Of course, this is Ana, so she could lose in the very next match.

I'm hoping Dimitrov pulls of another upset over Djokovic in the 3rd round, just as he did in Madrid a few weeks ago. But beating the world #1 in a grand slam tournament is a totally different thing, and I expect Djokovic to be sharper and be better prepared this time. 35 year-old Tommy Haas is having a great resurgence, and while he has generally underperformed in grand slams (he's never been past the 4th round in RG, and has "only" been to 4 grand slam semifinals), the former #2 is playing as well as he has ever been the past year.

So by the end of this tournament, I think we'll be seeing Rafa winning his record 8th Roland Garros title, and Serena finally adding to her lone Roland Garros title from 2002(!).

Split Racket and Some High/Lowlights

LOL. I bet Marat is jealous this never happened to him.

The first two rounds of the Australian Open is now done, and we've seen some pretty great matches so far. The best one yet is the 4 hour, 48 minute Nalbandian vs Hewitt first round match. I'm not a huge fan of either players (and I particularly dislike Hewitt's special brand of annoying-ness.), but this was a really high quality, high-tension match. On the opposite side of the spectrum is the first round match between Kim Clijsters and Dinara Safina, which lasted 44 minutes, ending with the score 6-0, 6-0. It's definitely a heartbreaking loss for Lil Sis Dinara, who less then 2 years ago was the world #1. Now, after her 1st round loss, she's projected to drop out of the top 100. To give Dinara a break, let's just focus on Ana Ivanovic's heart-breaking loss to Russian Ekaterina Makarova. Ana started the match well, winning the first set, but Makarova started to find her shots and went on to upset Ivanovic, 10-8 in the 3rd set. It was a shame since Ana's form is definitely starting to pick up. She was hitting huge forehands winners and was really going for riskier shots. Unfortunately for her, so was Makarova and on the crucial points, Ana just fell short while Makarova remained solid.

The match highlights (or lowlights, in Dinara's case) are here:

Tween.

And that in-betweener from Roger Federer signals the start of the 2011 tennis season!

Tons of tournaments in the first week of the year: there's the men's tournaments in Qatar and Chennai, the ladies' tournament in Auckland, and the mixed tournament in Brisbane. There's also the exhibition in Hong Kong featuring the WTA players and ATP legends, and the always awesome Hopman Cup in Perth. It's so awesome that Nicolas Mahut wore Kristina Mladenovic's tennis dress:

The Australian Open starts in about a week!

2010 Sports

2010 sports was definitely dominated by the World Cup, and while the teams I rooted for fell by the wayside one by one (France, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands...) Spain was undeniably the best team in South Africa. Of course, in the last few weeks, our own Philippine Azkals also made waves here in Southeast Asia. Maybe it's too soon to think about seeing our boys play in Brazil 2014, but hey, there's nothing wrong in dreaming of seeing them maybe in the next World Cups in Russia and Qatar, right?

Since my blog is tennis-dominated, my year-end sports review will mostly focus on tennis.

Male Player of the Year: Rafael Nadal

Now, you probably know that I'm a die hard Federer fan, but 2010 was Rafa's year. He won 3 of the four grand slam titles, including his first US Open, which put him in the very exclusive group of players who have won all four Grand Slam events.

Female Player of the Year: Kim Clijsters

Caroline Wozniacki may have won the most WTA titles and ended the year as #1, and Serena may have won the most Grand Slam titles among the women, but Kim won two big titles (the US Open and the WTA Year End Championships) and managed to be significant for the better part of the year. So by process of elimination, she's my player of the year.

Saddest News of the Year: Elena Dementieva retires :(

Elena took the tennis world by surprise by announcing her retirement after playing her last match at the WTA Year End Championships, without any hints or advance warning whatsoever. She's had a great career, where she won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, and ended each year ranked inside the top 10 for about a decade(!) An update on Elena's facebook page earlier today just said that she's been hired as the Vice President of the Russian tennis federation, so it looks like her post-pro tennis career is going to be great.

Match of the Year: Wimbeldon, First Round: John Isner def. Nicolas Mahut, 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(9–7), 7–6(7–3), 70–68

70. 68. Nuff said.

Breakthrough Players of 2010: Petra Kvitova and Ernests Gulbis

Kvitova made the semis of Wimbledon where she made Serena work hard before eventually losing. If she can play in 2011 like she did there at Wimbledon, she could be a contender. There has always been some buzz about the talent that Gulbis has, but it really was only this year that he showed what he can do on the court, which is to beat Federer and take a set of Nadal on clay. Too bad an injury stopped his momentum at the French Open. I was thinking that he was ready to make a serious run to the top 10 during the second half of the year. Maybe in 2011.

Players to watch for 2011: Grigor Dimitrov and Laura Robson

I've been following Dimitrov's career for a couple of years now ever since I heard people calling him Federer Jr, and found out that he was being coached by Roger's previous coach, Peter Lundgren. He has loads of talent, and went on to win 6 ITF titles the past year. He's now knocking on the door of the Top 100, and I expect big things to come from him next year. Robson, like Dimitrov, won the Wimbledon juniors title back in 2007. I saw her playing at the Hopman Cup in Australia last January and was very impressed by what I saw. She played great for a then 15-year old girl. I don't think she'll be breaking into the top 10 in 2011, but it'll definitely be fun seeing her rise up the rankings.

And of course, closer to home, props to our Asian Games gold medalists (all coming from the 3 B's, naturally): Boxing's Rey Saludar, Bowling's Biboy Ramirez, and Billiards' Dennis Orcollo.

At siyempre, kay Manny Pacquiao. :D

A New Wilson

I just bought a new tennis racket:

Let's just hope this won't end up like the time I signed up for our company-sponsored gym membership, but never actually went to the gym except for those two times when I spent 10 minutes on the treadmill.

I've got 2 other tennis rackets here at the house (a purple Wilson and a green Prince), but I haven't touched them in about 6(??!?) years (actually, I have touched them, when I play shadow tennis, but I guess that doesn't really count.) I decided to buy a new one since a tennis group has been established at our office, and I'm not sure if the old rackets would still hold up, since I've used them since I was around 11.

I'm thinking of taking lessons again, since my serve was pretty shitty the last time I played. I serve using an old school technique, where my right foot lands on the ground first, just like Karol Kucera. It's the only way I can make the serve go in on the ad court. My 2-handed backhand was better than my forehand, but both shots probably suck now. I loved practicing my volleys, but I never really learned how to hit a slice, a drop shot, or a lob. I would probably need to learn those things since I'm not sure if the brainless baseline bashing and bludgeon-your-opponents-to-submission tactic would actually be possible for me to do.

Anyone up for a hit in Las Pinas? :-)

US Open Catch Up

I have some catching up to do.

Rafael Nadal completes his collection of grand slam trophies by taking his first ever US Open title, after he defeated Novak Djokovic, who remains a one-slam wonder. Kim Clijsters increases her US Open title count to 3 by beating Vera Zvonareva, who is suddenly a 2-time grand slam finalist after also reaching the finals earlier at Wimbledon.

I was predicting a Roger win, since he usually does so well at the US Open (5 straight wins followed by a finalist showing last year), but he didn't play up to his level in the semi against Novak. On the women's side, I predicted a Caroline Wozniacki-Victoria Azarenka final, with Vika taking the win, since they both played so well on the US hardcourt tournaments right before the US Open. But Vika fainted during her second round match (due to a mild concussion she sustained before the match), while Caro was upset by Vera in the semis after decimating the draw from the 1st round to the quarterfinal (with an impressive win over Maria Sharapova.) Oh well... Maybe the blonde BFFs can take the grand slam rivalry at next year's US Open.

Meanwhile, Rafa has a rare chance to hold all four grand slam titles if he wins at the Australian Open. The last player to do that was Serena Williams, last 2002-2003. With his new serve, Fed on the "bonus stage" of his career, and contemporaries Djokovic and Murray unable to consistently contend at grand slams, looks like he's got a good chance to do so.

Congrats, Kim and Rafa!

Other winners:

• The Bryan Brothers, Mike and Bob, won the men's doubles over India/Pakistan's Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
• Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova and American Vania King won the women's doubles, their second consecutive grand slam doubles title
• Liezel Huber and Bob Bryan won the mixed doubles
• On the juniors side, American Jack Sock won the boys title and Russian Daria Gavrilova won the girls title.
• Shingo Kuneida won the men's wheelchair event, while Esther Vergeer won the women's wheelchair title. Vergeer's records will put Roger's to shame. She has been unbeaten since 2003, and is currently on a 394-match winning streak.

June/July Tennis Catch Up

I got lazy blogging about the rest of the French Open and Wimbledon...

So Rafa won both tournaments on the men's side, upping his grand slam count to 8 and putting him safely on top of the rankings. Roger, on the other hand, lost in the quarterfinals of both tournaments, sending his ranking spiraling down to a tragic #3 (tragic for Roger's standards, anyway.) While I don't think this is the end of Roger winning grand slam tournaments, I do think that he'll have a very hard time getting the #1 ranking back, given that he's turning 29 next month (that's old in tennis years), and the rest of the top 5 are all 25 years old and younger.

Good thing Roger's already won the French Open as well 15 other grand slam titles before, so this doesn't feel like we're watching the decline of a career of a should've, would've, could've been has-been. It's like a glory lap for the all-time champ. Although Roger probably has more plans than turning the next few years into a glory lap, seeing that he's hired Paul Annacone, as his new part-time coach. Annacone coached Pete Sampras from 1995 to 2001, during which Pete won 8 grand slam titles. He also worked with Tim Henman, another serve and volleyer, after coaching Pete. So it looks like Roger is looking to beef up his serve and volley game by hiring Annacone the same way that he was looking to beef up his clay-court game by hiring Jose Higueras a couple of years ago.

As for Rafa, he's regained his French Open crown from Roger, and added another Wimbledon title after some convincing wins over Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych in the semifinal and final, respectively. The next milestone for him is the US Open, the only grand slam that he has yet to win. Rafa's never reached the final at the US Open because he usually gets overpowered on hardcourts, or his body is usually not in its best state after the grueling US spring/clay season where he plays a lot of matches. A factor that swings in his favor is that there hasn't been much reports about any injuries (especially on his knees.)

Anyway, we had a first-time grand slam champion in last year's US Open, so if Roger and Rafa can't sort their stuff out by August, we might get another one this year.

On the women's side, Serena won her 4th Wimbledon title, and her 13th grand slam title overall, over surprise finalist Vera Zvonareva. Actually, the semifinal line-up on the women's side was filled with surprises, after Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova upset Venus in the quarterfinals and up-and-coming Czech Petra Kvitova beat the just-as-young but higher-ranked Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.

The best moments of Wimbledon for me though would have to be 1) Federer's 1st round match against Colombian Alejandro Falla, where Roger had to claw his way back after losing the first two sets and then going down a break in the 3rd set to win in 5 sets (6-0 in the fifth) to avoid the biggest upset in Wimbledon history, and 2) the epic, historic, record-breaking 11-hour first round match between American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. The quality of play really wasn't as high as any of the matches in the later stages of the tournament, they were basically just trading aces and service winners... But they were doing it for 11 HOURS! That's a 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(9–7), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 scoreline! That's like 3 marathons! The sheer determination and will to win (not to mention the stamina and athleticism) displayed by both players just to survive the 11 hour match was just amazing to watch.

On to the US Open!

Francesca Schiavone, That's Who.

Francesca Schiavone is the 2010 Roland Garros Women's Singles Champion.

Two weeks ago, probably just a handful of people would've written those words seriously (namely, Frankie herself, her coach, and close friends and family. Maybe.) But Franny did the improbable and sliced through the upset-filled draw to win her first Grand Slam title. Along the way, she also becomes the first Italian woman to ever win a grand slam (Adriano Pannata won the French Open in 1976, thanks google), the second Italian woman to ever be ranked in the top 10 (she debuts at a career high #6, fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta was #10 last year) and the second oldest first-time Grand Slam champion as she turns 30 in less than a month (after some more googling, it was Ann Jones who won Wimbledon in 1969 at 30 years old.)

Schiavo definitely goes against the grain of up-and-coming prospects. She's got a one-handed backhand, which she alternates between a topspin and a mean slice. She also likes throwing uppercuts after winning big points and rolling on and kissing the dirt after winning a grand slam.

And there's the turning 30 thing that I'm sure will be mentioned a lot when articles about her are written.

I was rooting for Sam Stosur to win, just because of her upset wins over Justine, Serena and Jelena, but FranSchiav just threw about everything she had on her shots, so while Sam's groundstrokes and serves were generally not hitting the mark (probably due to nerves), FraniSchavi just kept on excitedly pumping her fist and playing fiery, aggressive tennis that surprisingly overwhelmed Sam.

So Francesca Schiavone, 2010 Roland Garros Champion, congratulations on an unlikely but deserved final win.

Justine/Rafa 2010

The French Open will be starting later today and this one's gonna be all about comebacks, I think.

Rafael Nadal will be looking to reclaim his title after shockingly losing (for the very first time) at Roland Garros last year to Robin Soderling. Rafa hasn't lost a match on clay this year, and it looks like he'll be keeping that trend up in the next two weeks. And just like the past 4 years, I'm expecting to see Roger Federer on the other side of the net versus Rafa in the finals, but he won't be winning back-to-back French Open titles over the best player clay court player of all time, who also happens to currently be in top form after suffering from injuries last year.

The other great comeback that I can't wait to see is from Justine Henin, who came out of retirement at the start of this year and then displayed a more aggressive game all the way to the Australian Open final, before losing to #1 Serena Williams in a tight match. Justine was the queen of Roland Garros, she was a 3-time defending champion from 2005-2007 (she also won it in 2003) before deciding to abruptly retire from tennis two weeks before the 2008 French Open while ranked #1 in the world.

Justine's draw this year is actually really, really tough. She's seeded #22, and could potentially face #12 Maria Sharapova (who just won in Strasbourg a few hours ago) in the 3rd round, and #7 Samantha Stosur (who won at Charleston and then reached the final in Stuttgart last April) in the 4th round, and then #1 Serena Williams (who, you know, is Serena) in the quarterfinals. That's a really difficult set of players to get through just to reach the semifinals of a tournament.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see how Justine does. I predict that whoever wins the Justine-Serena quarterfinals will go on to win the whole tournament. And that match should be fun!

The Era of Roger/Serena

Roger Federer won his 4th Australian Open, and 16th grand slam title overall, after beating Andy Murray in dominant form, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(13-11). Roger played great tennis in the semis vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and carried that form through to the finals. Murray just couldn't find any openings to break down Roger's game. And honestly, when Roger is playing his best (or close to his best), Murray's best just isn't gonna be good enough on the day. So with Rafa struggling with a knee injury, will this be Roger's year to win THE grand slam? We'll just have to see. One down, three to go.

Better luck next time other Andy, at least you didn't bawl your eyes out like last year's losing finalist.

The women's final ended with Serena Williams winning her 5th Australian Open title and 12th singles grand slam title (She also won her 11th doubles grand slam title with Ate Venus) by beating Justine Henin in 3 sets. Serena is slowly inching her way to the Steffi Graf/Martina Navratilova/Chris Evert group of Best Ever. She's gonna have to survive Justine's return from retirement to get close to the 22/18/18 grand slams that the 3 aforementioned legends have won.

Justine made an impressive comeback at Brisbane on the first week of January, where she lost a brilliant final to fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters. She then followed that up by making the Grand Slam final in only her 2nd tournament after more than a year off of tennis. She couldn't quite replicate Kim's run at the US Open (and Serena fortunately didn't have a line judge-related meltdown too), but with a more aggressive game and the same Allez-screaming, fist pumping, never-say-die attitude, Justine will probably add a few more grand slams to the 7 she already has.

Also, big props to:

1. The Chinese ladies Jie Zheng and Li na who both made it to the semifinals. This is the first time that two Chinese players (heck, two Asians) ever made it to the semifinals of a grand slam.

2. Croat Marin Cilic, who survived several 5 set matches against Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Roddick to reach his first grand slam semifinal. Cilic is having a great year so far. He has played in two other tournaments besides the Australian Open, and won both of them.

3. Blonde Eastern Europeans - Maria Kirilenko, who followed up her upset win over the other Maria by making it all the way to her first grand slam quarterfinals, and Victoria Azarenka, who made her first Aussie Open quarterfinals and had a 6-4, 4-0 lead over Serena before succumbing to an avalanche of Serena's aces and winners.

*pictures courtesy of the Australian Open website/Getty Images

Aussie Open Seed and Upset Report

The first week of the year's first grand slam is done, and that means the we've got the Final 16 and we've gotten rid of 87.5% of the players in the singles draw. Here's a rundown of the seeds and big names that are part of that 87.5% (a.k.a the early round losers.):

First Round Losers:

(14)Maria Sharapova (RUS) - the very first casualty, losing to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko in the very first match on Rod Laver Arena.

(8)Robin Soderling (SWE) - last year's French Open finalist is on 0 wins in 2 matches this year after losing his opening match to Marcel Granollers.

(13)Radek Stepanek (CZE) - Lost to Croat Ivo Karlovic

(16)Tommy Robredo (ESP) - Lost to Colombian Santiago Giraldo

And the lower seeds:

Men: (23)Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP), (25)Sam Querrey (USA), (28)Jurgen Melzer (AUT), (32)Jeremy Chardy (FRA)

Women: (18)Virginie Razzano (FRA) (23)Dominika Cibulkova (SVK), (25)Anabel Medina-Garrigues (ESP), (28)Elena Vesnina (RUS)

Unseeded:

Richard Gasquet (FRA) - He's getting a mention here because I thought he was gonna make a surprise run. Lost in 5 sets to Mikhail Youzhny in a great match that STAR SPORTS DID NOT FINISH. Your turning into an also-ran fast, Reeshard.

Melanie Oudin (USA) - Had stellar runs at Wimbledon and the US Open, and got tremendous hype from the US media. Gives fodder for her critics that says she only got lucky at the US Open.

Second Round Losers:

(5)Elena Dementieva (RUS) - lost to former #1, 7-time grand slam champ, making-a-comeback-from-retirement Justine Henin of Belgium. Not really an upset, but still, too bad for Elena.

(12)Flavia Pennetta (ITA) - lost to world #16, US Open semifinalist, making-a-comeback-from-unfair-suspension Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium. Not a huge upset, but still, too bad for Flavia.

Lower seeds:

(17)David Ferrer (ESP) - lost to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in 5 sets after leading 2 sets to 0. Baghdatis then pulled out from his third round match just to irritate Ferrer.

(20)Ana Ivanovic (SRB) - lost to Gisela Dulko. Ana's ball toss has gone on to hiding after being thrown awkwardly into the air one to many times. The said ball toss is still currently missing upon this writing.

(21)Sabine Lisicki (GER) - lost to Alberta Brianti. Hasn't tweeted since loss.

(21)Tomas Berdych (CZE) - lost to Anna Kournikova's cousin Evgeny Korolev.

(24)Maria Jose Sanchez Martinez (ESP) - lost to China's Jie Zheng.

(29)Viktor Troicki (SRB) - lost to German Florian Mayer.

(26)Aravane Rezai (FRA) - lost to German Angelique Kerber.

(29)Kateryna Bondarenko(UKR) - lost to Great Britain's Elena Baltacha.

Third Round Losers:

(8)Jelena Jankovic (SRB) - lost to #31 Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

(10)Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) - lost to 5'5 Italian Francesca Schiavone.

(11)Marion Bartoli (FRA) - lost to China's Jie Zheng, her 2nd straight upset win over a seed.

(12)Gael Monfils (FRA) - lost to 6'9'' American John Isner.

(24)Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) - lost to 6'10'' Croat Ivo Karlovic.

and the biggest upset of all...

(15)Kim Clijsters (BEL) - lost to Russian Nadia Petrova. The big shock here wasn't that Kim lost. It was that she lost badly. And when I say badly, I mean 6-0, 6-1. Brutal loss.

(There were several other seeds who lost, but they lost to higher ranked players, so that's not really an upset.)

The second week of the Aussie Open is where it gets serious, where the title contenders face each other (and when I say title contenders, I mean the Federers and Nadals and Henins and Williamseseses.)

Go blonde Europeans!

The Aussie Open 2010 Guessing Game

So every time a grand slam tournament comes along, I join this contest over at the Tennis X forum, we basically predict who makes the quarters, semis, finals and who eventually wins, plus guesses on extra categories such as the Biggest Loser (Top 1-16 player who loses the earliest) and Winning Ugly (player who plays the most games on his/her way to the quarterfinals), and some bonus categories, in this case it's the Homeboy Hewitt Hanging On (guess the round when Aussie Lleyton Hewitt loses) and the Belgians vs Americans (who wins more matches on the women's side, the 4 Belgians or the 8 Americans?) We can also earn extra points for every bagel and breadsticks our quarterfinalists bake. (Note to non-tennis fans: A bagel is when a player wins a set with a score of 6-0, a breadstick = 6-1.)

So here are my picks. I wonder how I'll rank this time...

Men's side
Quarterfinals:
Roger Federer (SUI) vs Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
Richard Gasquet (FRA) vs Robin Soderling (SWE)
Andy Roddick (USA) vs Marin Cilic (CRO) (substitute player: Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG))
Andy Murray (GBR) vs Rafael Nadal (ESP)

Semifinals:
Federer vs Soderling
Cilic vs Nadal
(I'm a bit surprised with my own men's SF line-up, but let's see how it goes.)

Final:
Federer vs Cilic

Champion: Roger Federer (This really is more wishful thinking than an informed prediction, Roger might easily lose in the quarters to Davydenko based on recent results. He's already got 15 grand slams in the cabinet anyway, so this shouldn't be heartbreaking.)

WU: Reeshard Gasquet
BL: Novak Djokovic (the world #3 lost in straight sets to Fernando Verdasco, and in 3 sets to 17-year old, #291 Bernard Tomic last week, not a very good omen)
HHHO: 3rd round (to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis)

Women's side:
Quarterfinals:
Serena Williams (USA) vs Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) vs Venus Williams (USA)
Justine Henin (BEL) (substitute: Elena Dementieva (RUS)) vs Kim Clijsters (BEL)
Marion Bartoli (FRA) vs Maria Sharapova (RUS)

Semifinals:
Serena vs Wozniacki
Clijsters vs Sharapova
(I made this prediction last Sunday, before Masha lost to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko in the first match of the tournament yesterday. Go Makiri! :D)

Final:
Serena vs Clijsters
(Wanna bet Serena won't be challenging any calls on this match?)

Champ: Kim Clijsters (picking up a back-to-back Grand Slam, the 3rd of her career, and remain unbeaten this year. I'm actually rooting for Justine or Elena, but they'll be facing each other in the 2nd round, then Kim in the quarters... But really this is all just wishful thinking again, since the title will probably go to Serena anyway.)

WU: Caroline Wozniacki (she could meet Daniela Hantuchova in the 4th round, and I'm just hoping Daniela makes a match out of it.)
BL: Elena Dementieva
Belgium vs USA: America, but only by a small margin. And only because the four Belgians in the draw are all in the same quarter.

The Hopman Cup and The Up and Comer

So the tennis season is back on again, it actually started 2 weeks ago with the pre-Australian Open tournaments. The Hopman Cup was broadcast on Star Sports, and it's one of my favorite events. It's a team tournament, like the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup, except this one is a mixed event where countries face each other in 3 matches, a women's singles match, a men's singles match, and a mixed doubles match. This year, Spain (with world #16 Tommy Robredo and world #5 in doubles Maria Jose Sanchez Martinez) took the crown over Great Britain (represented by world #4 Andy Murray and 15 year-old Laura Robson.) What makes this format awesome is I get to see my favorite male and female players playing together (like Roger Federer/Martina Hingis for Switzerland way back 2001, last year's Marat Safin/Dinara Safina for Russia, any team with Daniela Hantuchova or Mary Pierce.)

Anyway, the main reason why I'm talking about the Hopman Cup before I proceed with listing my Aussie Open predictions is I wanted to add the hype on Laura Robson. She's 15 years old, 5'10'', won the Wimbledon Girls title last 2008, and was the #1 ranked junior in the world last year. And although still ranked outside the top 400, she showed some serious talent (she beat #27 Martinez Sanchez in the final, and helped a lot in the mixed doubles matches.) She's a lefty who can play with lots of spin and angles and while her game isn't just about ball bashing from the baseline, she showed that she can hang with the top 100 players she played against at the Hopman Cup. I guess I'll be keeping tabs on how her career goes, since it's taking a bit too long for Arantxa Rus to make her breakthrough...

So, are hyped up with Laura Robson yet?

I've got no balls.

Dammit! The US Open starts in less than 30 minutes and there's no live coverage on my TV! Just got a text message from Ronnie that it's being covered by Balls, and my cable doesn't carry that channel. Bad trip! Now I'm just gonna have to content myself with watching live streamings from a 3x3 inch box on my laptop.

Oh well.Here are my predictions, starting off with the women:

Quarterfinals:
(1)Dinara Safina (RUS) vs (5)Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
(4)Elena Dementieva (RUS) vs (9)Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
(8)Victoria Azarenka (BLR) vs Kim Clijsters (BEL)
(10) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) vs (2) Serena Williams (USA)

Semis:
(5)Jelena Jankovic (SRB) vs (4)Elena Dementieva (RUS)
Kim Clijsters (BEL) vs (2)Serena Williams (USA)

Final:
(4)Elena Dementieva (RUS) vs (2)Serena Williams (USA)

Champ: (2)Serena Williams (USA) (although I'm rooting for Elena to finally win her first Grand Slam)

and the men:

Quarterfinals:
(1)Roger Federer (SUI) vs (8)Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
(4)Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs (5)Andy Roddick (USA)
(7)Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs (3)Rafael Nadal (ESP)
(6)Juan Martin Del Potro(ARG) vs (2)Andy Murray (GBR)
*look at that, the top 8 reaches the final 8! Although I have a feeling (22)Sam Querrey (USA) might beat Davydenko, and I'm also giving (20)Tommy Haas (GER) a fighting chance vs Roddick.

Semis:
(1)Roger Federer (SUI) vs (5)Andy Roddick (USA)
(7)Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs (6)Juan Martin Del Potro(ARG)

Final:
(1)Roger Federer (SUI) vs (6)Juan Martin Del Potro(ARG)

Champ: (1)Roger Federer (SUI)

So I'm predicting another Fed/Serena win, just like last year's US Open, and just like this year's Wimbledon. Hey, history and talent is on their side.



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Roger's 15 Trophies

So here's a sure sign that I've been too busy/sick the past few weeks: Roger Federer won his 15th Grand Slam and 6th Wimbledon, and ascends back to the #1 ranking, and I wasn't able to write anything about it.

So to catch up, here's a great tribute video made by the ATP Website (and of course, they use Sigur Ros's Hoppipolla for the background music.)



Ladies and Gentlemen, 2 weeks late (but that's just how I roll), your Wimbledon 2009 Champions:
Gentlemen
Roger Federer (SUI) def. Andy Roddick (USA), in an epic 5-7, 7-6(8-6), 7-6(7-5), 3-6, 16-14,

Ladies
Serena Williams (USA) def. Venus Williams (USA), 7-6(7-3), 6-2, Serena wins her 11th Grand Slam title and 3rd Wimbledon after surviving a match point against Elena Dementieva in the semifinals (eventually winning in the longest Women's semifinal match in Wimbledon history, 6-7(4-7), 7-5, 8-6)

Men's Doubles
Daniel Nestor (CAN) / Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) def. Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA), 7-6(9-7), 6-7 (3-7), 7-6(7-3), 6-3

Women's Doubles
Serena Williams (USA) / Venus Williams (USA) def. Samantha Stosur (AUS) / Rennae Stubbs (AUS), 7-6(7-4), 6-4

Mixed Doubles
Mark Knowles (BAH) / Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) def. Leander Paes (IND) / Cara Black (ZIM), 7-5, 6-3

Juniors, Boys
Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) def. Jordan Cox (USA), 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

Juniors, Girls
Nopparan Lertcheewakarn (THA) def. Kristina Mladenovic (FRA), 3-6, 6-3, 6-1

That was a great Wimbledon, especially towards the end when we saw that Federer-Roddick final and the Serena-Elena semifinal.

Now it's time for the US hardcourt season, where will see Rafael Nadal return to action on the men's side. And we'll also see how brand-new father Roger Federer comes back to the court, after his wife Mirka gave birth to twin girls Myla and Charlene (Congrats Roger and Mirka!)

On the women's side, will see if Venus and Serena can build on their Wimbledon success or if Elena or current #1 Dinara can win their first Grand Slam title at the US Open. The next few months should be fun.

Before the Finals @SW19

So the women's final is set, with the Williams sisters again facing each other, after beating their Russian opponents in contrasting manners. Defending Champ (and 5-time Wimbledon champion) Venus decimated supposed world #1 (and Marat Safin's little sister) Dinara Safina, 6-1, 6-0, while younger sister (and 2-time Wimbledon Champ) Serena struggled, and even had to save a match point against #4 (and Olympic Champion) Elena Dementieva in the longest women's semifinal match in Wimbledon, 6-7, 7-5, 8-6. I was rooting for Elena but was still surprised that she was able to give Serena, who played so well against #8 Victoria Azarenka in the quarters, a huge scare. Too bad Elena lost in the end, but hopefully this match helps her confidence for the rest of the year.

Venus has been playing great the whole tournament though, and I think she should take her 6th Wimbledon over Serena in the Ladies' Final tomorrow.

On the men's side, Roger Federer has just beaten a resurgent Tommy Haas in the semis and goes on for a record-breaking 15th Grand Slam title on Sunday's final against an Andy. Right now, I'm watching Andy Murray and Andy Roddick battle each other in the second semifinal for the chance to be beaten by Federer in the final.

No matter who he faces in the final, I think Roger has a great chance of winning his 6th Wimbledon crown. He's been playing well and with a lot of confidence the whole tournament against quality opponents. Whoever wins between the two Andy's today needs to really lift their level of play if they want to win their first Wimbledon. (edit: The American Andy just beat the Brit Andy, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. Roddick goes on to play his 3rd Wimbledon final. He lost his first two to Federer. Murray on the other hand, loses the chance to be the first homeboy to win Wimbledon in 70-something years.)

So, just like what I said before the French Open final last month: Be The Legend, Federer!

Oh wait, he already is. :-)


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The Big W, Week 2

The first week of Wimbledon has ended and now we've got the final 16 players remaining on the men's and ladies' draw.

The big upset on the men's side was Argentine 5th seed JMDP (that's Juan Martin Del Potro) losing to oldster and former #1 player (before the era of Federer) Lleyton Hewitt in the second round. Hewitt is also a one-time Wimbledon champ (again, before the era of Federer), so while it shouldn't be a huge shock, I expected more from JMDP, who plays well on the fast hard court surfaces. I guess he hasn't figured out how to play on grass yet. Also going out early are:

• Russian #14 seed Marat Safin, who is making his final Wimbledon appearance this year after he lost to American qualifier Jesse Levine
• #9 JWT (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), who lost to Croatian ace machine Ivo Karlovic
• #10 Gonzo (Fernando Gonzales), who lost to another former #1, pre-Federer, Juan Carlos Ferrero (or as I'd like to call him: Juanqui) (Great result for JCF, who has fallen even further in the rankings than Hewitt)
  
• #12 Nikolay Davydenko, who lost to big-hitting Czech Tomas Berdych, in a not-so-huge-upset.
• Croat youngster Marin Cilic lost in an epic match (10-8 in the fifth set) to Tommy Haas, but I was expecting Tommy to get to the semifinals here, so I wasn't that surprised of the result even if Cilic, at #11, was the higher ranked player.
  

A few years ago, it would've been easy to predict that most of the upsets would come from the men's side, because the higher-ranked ladies would usually just breeze through the first few rounds without breaking a sweat... But that's not the case anymore. Whether it's because the depth of competition among the women has improved or because the top women are just much more vulnerable to playing badly these days is hard to say (I'd say it's a mixture of both...) If anything, at least the upsets make the women's draw a bit more unpredictable.

The big upsets on the women's side are the losses of French Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova and former #1 Jelena Jankovic. Sveta Kuz lost in straight sets to 19 year-old German Sabine Lisicki, who is ranked #41, while the Serbian JJ lost to 17 year-old American Melanie Oudin. Oudin is currently ranked 124, so she had to go through the qualifying stage before getting into the main draw. She won 3 matches in the qualies, and 2 more matches in the main draw before beating JJ, so this has been a great tournament for her.

Other players who lost early were:

• #7 Vera Zvonareva, who had to pull out because of an injury
  
• #12 and former finalist Marion Bartoli of France
• #14 and recent French Open semifinalist Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia
• #15 Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who lost to former #1 and 2006 Wimbledon Champion Amelie Mauresmo, in a slight upset
• and #16 and last year's surprise semifinalist Jie Zheng of China, who lost to my awesome girlfriend Daniela Hantuchova. Daniela is back in the 4th round of Wimbledon after she defeated her doubles partner Ai Sugiyama last Friday. Woohoo! She'll be facing #2 Serena Williams in the round of 16. That's gonna be a tough match for sure.
  
• Maria Sharapova, seeded #24 here thanks to the Wimbledon seeding committee's power to give out random seedings to players they like, lost to unseeded Gisela Dulko (who's actually ranked higher than her.) Shazza was seeded by the Wimbledon powers that be despite being ranking #60, having played only 2 tournaments this year because of a shoulder injury, and having not gone past the 4th round of Wimbledon in the past two years. Yup, I'm pretty sure looks counted in the "formula" for figuring out the player seeding.

Can't wait for the second week action to start!



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The Big W

Wimbledon is on the TV right now... (at last, a Grand Slam tournament that my cable provider covers!)

Earlier, I caught the the Roger Federer-Yen Hsun Lu 1st round match, and Fed played a good match there, showing some flashes of genius especially in the 3rd set. Rafael Nadal isn't defending his title here because of an injury (tendinitis on both his knees), but just because Rafa's not playing this year doesn't mean it's gonna be smooth sailing for Roger. The main contender (in fact, the only main contender) to Roger winning his 6th Wimbledon and a 15th Grand Slam title is local hope Andy Murray. After winning his first grass court title at The Queen's Club last week, Murray has Britain all hyped up, as he might finally end the drought of British champions in Wimbledon since Fred Perry last won in 1936.

I think the final will be between Murray and Federer, and while I want Federer to win #15 in two weeks' time, I wouldn't mind seeing Murray win against Federer, as long as he challenges Fed the way Rafa did in last year's epic final.

On the women's side, Venus and Serena are the obvious choices for the final, since every other top player is either coming from injury (Sharapova), or are having trouble finding their form (the Serbians), or are just generally chokers (the rest of the Russians.) On the other hand, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka are two young players who could sneak through the semis. I've been waiting for these two to have their Grand Slam breakthroughs first at the Aussie Open last January, and at the French Open earlier this month, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe they're just waiting for Wimbledon to come around, nothing like making the big splash at the most prestigious tournament in tennis after all.

Caroline just won her first grass court title over the weekend, and she has won Wimbledon before (albeit as a junior), so she know her way around the grass. Vika on the other hand, essentially has the same power game as Sharapova, and that power game is bound to bring her success on the grass, just like it has for Masha. Unless she goes the way of Nicole Vaidisova...

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I just came back from Gumaca over the weekend, to attend my grandmother's (on my mother's side) funeral. She suffered a mild stroke a week before, then suffered another one last Friday. The second stroke took her. Before going to Gumaca, I have to admit that I was feeling really numb. I wasn't sure how to react, so I started writing a blog post (that I won't be publishing), about the sad things that happen in life, and how I generally deal with them. I just had such a hard time articulating how I felt at that time, and I thought writing about it would calm me down and help me understand what was going on.

Once we got to Gumaca however, I started to feel much better. There's just something about being in my hometown that grounds me. And when we got to my grandparents' barrio, the mood at the wake was actually very good. The whole family was in good spirits, and my aunt was even telling us some funny things that happened while they were at the hospital, in between the days of my grandmother's two strokes. That's when I realized the wake was there to celebrate my grandmother's well-lived life. And in a way, it made accepting the facts easier.

Side note: One thing that bothered me though, was the gambling that was going on at the wake. I guess gambling is traditionally part of wakes especially in the province, but man... when I die, I DO NOT WANT PEOPLE GAMBLING at my funeral. I guess that would be one of my dying wishes (also: no cheesy dramatic ballads on the procession to my final resting place.)


Our Inay was 83, lived a very humble life, and I'm nothing but proud to be one of her many grandchildren.


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Ang Kambing

a.k.a. The GOAT

a.k.a.: The Greatest Of All Time.

There's nothing more awesome than watching Roger Federer play tennis. I'm a Federer fanatic (yes, a Fedtard), obviously, and it isn't just because of how many grand slams he's won (a record 14, in all 4 grand slams events), or how long he has stayed at the #1 ranking (that would be 237 consecutive weeks, another record by the way). It's about how great this man is at playing the sport. From the booming aces and forehand winners, to the deft volleys and smooth drop shots (and those half-volleys and no-backswing groundstrokes from the baseline that only he can do), to his footwork and fitness... He has also played and won without the help of a coach for most of his career, which speaks volumes about how sharp his thinking game is.

Roger Federer is simply the most talented man to have ever played the sport.

Winning the French Open meant that Roger Federer is now undeniably part of that ultra-exclusive group of Greatest Tennis Player Ever candidates, together with Rod Laver and Pete Sampras on the men's side.

Laver, of course represents the old school. He won THE grand slam (all four grand slam events in the same year) twice, first in 1962 when grand slams were still an amatuer-only affair, and again in 1969, in the Open era, when pros were allowed to play in Grand Slams, ushering in the fame and multi-million prize money era of tennis.

Pete on the other hand represents the school of quantity (not that he lacks quality.) He won 14 grand slams (the record recently tied by Federer) which includes seven Wimbledons, but no French Opens. Pete also ended as the year-end world #1 six consecutive years, a record on the men's tour, and kept a winning record against his rival Andre Agassi.

Roger is probably a hybrid of the two: employing a great mixture of the old school game filled with fluidity and finesse, and the all-out aggression and power game of the more recent breed of champions. At his peak, he absolutely dominated the sport, holding a 92% match win percentage from 2004-2007. With the barrage of much younger competitors like Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, 27 year-old Federer has ceased to be the sole dominant force, but he has still managed to stay at the top-most level, winning 2 of the last 4 grand slams (and making the finals of the other 2.)

It feels fitting for Roger to claim his piece of history at the French Open: the very tournament that has eluded him so many times, at the exact venue that wounded his champion stature exactly a year before. But now it's no longer elusive, and no matter what happens, he will never again be a wounded champion.

Congrats on the career grand slam Roger! (And good luck at Wimbledon! Let's go for Grand Slam #15!)












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Before it starts...

I realized that I never got to blog about Soderling's super-sized upset over Rafa last week... So before the French Open men's final starts, let me just summarize my initial reactions (via facebook, twitter, tennis forums, and YM) right after Nadal lost that 4th round match:

Fuck! Nadal LOST???

Alvin: i'm still in shock
Alvin: biggest shock since justine lost to bartoli
Alvin: but this was insane haha
Alvin: soderling isn't even a clay courter

That was a huge upset! I'm a bit speechless.

HOLY SHIT! NADAL IS OUT???!?!!?? CRAZY. (And I really am screaming at my laptop right now)

insane, right?

OMFG

Wooooaah! Is Rafa really out?!?? Shit shit SHIT... don't fuck this up Roger!!!

And let me just add my facebook status right now: Be the Legend, Federer!


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