As Sally so graciously pointed out below, my picks were right for the Wimbledon quarterfinals (Well, except for Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement who haven’t finished their match yet)! I’m amazed at myself.
The most impressive of the three completed matches was Rafael Nadal’s pounding of Andy Murray. I knew it was coming. I think a lot of us knew it was coming, and since I’m not British, I wasn’t forced by birth into rooting for lost causes.
Three lop-sided sets later (6-3, 6-2, 6-4), Murray was wiping his brow and Rafa was looking like a dominant front-runner to win Wimbledon. …read more

Roger Federer took a commanding 6-1 first set from Mario Ancic, and it was 1-all in the second when the rains shooed them off court.
In the other quarter of this half of the draw, Feliciano Lopez holds a 5-2 first set lead before the rain break over Marat Safin. Granted, a lot can happen in a best-of-five match, but it’s not a great way for Safin to start out.
But here goes my picks. Roger over Ancic. Safin takes advantage of the rain break, comes back and takes out Lopez. In the other half of the draw, Rainer Schuettler over Arnaud …read more

I left off something very important from yesterday’s post about the fall of a very short-term Goliath. Slacker of the Day awards for Thursday go to Ana Ivanovic. Obviously. But it still had to be said, ya know?
Jelena Jankovic just survived a three-set scare from Caroline Wozniacki. The Serb dropped the first set 2-6 but bounced back at 6-4 in the second and closed it out with a dominating 6-2 deciding set. Bet she was wishing the could have pulled some of that out in the first, huh?
I didn’t get around to talking about the men yesterday for some oddly …read more

Somewhere I remember reading that Marat Safin had a little bit more awesome left in him…where was that…oh wait, that was here! The guy I dubbed the ultimate has-been showed he’s not done yet when Safin dumped third-seeded Novak Djokovic out of Wimbledon in the second round in straight sets (6-4, 7-6, 6-2).
It took Safin only two hours to sign Djoko’s exit ticket from the tournament the Serbian has been boasting he might win. Now Novak’s earlier comments about beating Roger Federer look pretty lame-o, don’t they?
Tsk, tsk – o ye cocky little young’un – take a lesson from this …read more

I’m watching the replay of the Marcos Baghdatis/Marat Safin match. How nerdy is that? I already know who wins – Baghdatis in a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 battle – but here I sit, glued to the television as though it were live.
I love tennis; what can I say?
With the victory, Baghdatis will face Lleyton Hewitt. I was going to throw my support behind Baghdatis but comparing the match statistics, Hewitt was more solid in his last match than Baghdatis was against Safin. So – who knows? We all saw what happened when I picked Andy Murray to make a …read more

Russian Davis Cup team captain Shamil Tarpischev went on the record today, telling the press fellow countryman Marat Safin would not be in attendance at the Davis Cup. There has been some speculation on whether Safin was flying under the radar and would be making an appearance in Oregon but Tarpischev was fairly emphatic with his statements.
“I think these guys [the Russian Davis Cup team] play better than Marat, and he is not going to be here.”
Well, you can’t get much more plain than that, aeh?
Bob Bryan, a member of the top-ranked doubles team with brother Mike wasn’t so sure …read more