I haven't been blogging about tennis recently but seeing the Madrid Open I thought I'd blog about it.
Dinara Safina who won last week at Rome will headline this star studded field. Na Li and Carla Suarez Navarro could pose as early threats, though both have been under the radar lately. Anne Keothavong the British hopeful will be aiming to make the 3rd Round at best. Kaia Kanepi who has been having a decent year will face Lucie Safarova who has herself been having an OK year. With Dinara Safina in her quarter is Svetlana Kuznetsova. With the lack of great clay court players Svetlana has finally found her niche this season possibly posing a threat to the top 5 again in her career and maybe even Roland Garros. She has a few young starlets like Agnieszka Radwanska, Anna Chakvetadze, Sorana Cirstea and Alona Bondarenko to contend with.
Jelena Jankovic who has not been having a great year should feel revived on clay courts, though by no means the next Justine Henin, Jelena has the capacity to swipe the floor clean on clay as there are very few who excel on this surface. I doubt she'll find her draw too difficult so she should sail through to the semi finals in my opinion. But for me I'll be interested on how Daniela Hantuchova, Gisela Dulko, Anna Lena Groenefeld (and previously Iveta Benesova) fair.
Dementieva, though seemingly losing her touch since the start of the year is still a threat to contend with. She has Victoria Azarenka in her quarters and besides that will have Flavia Pennetta (one of my favourites) and Jie Zheng in her way.
Sadly Venus and Serena are in the same quarters however it could have been a blessing? Seeing that Venus and Serena are by no means the best players on clay maybe by placing them in the same quarters at least one of them will make the semis! Anabel Medina Garrigues could be problematic but from previous performances that shouldn't be the case. Caroline Wozniacki and Shahar Peer maybe the two bigger threats but both will knock each other out before having the chance to play against the William's sisters.
On the men's side I doubt the final wouldn't feature Rafael Nadal (in fact I doubt that Rafael Nadal wouldn't win it!) but I'll still see who could possibly knock this clay king off the surface.
I maybe making too big a generalization but I'm going to trust on my instinct that 9 out of 10 players from Spain or South America are good on clay courts! Therefore one thing I'll be looking out for is Spanish or South American players. Of course the king of them all Rafael Nadal shouldn't have a problem unless Marin Cilic has anything to say about that. In fact David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez, Juan Monaco and Fernando Verdasco could all possibly be Rafael's quarterfinal opponent.
Gilles Simon could possibly pose a threat but his recent results seem to suggest otherwise. Novak Djokovic has shown good form lately being in 4 finals in his last 4 tournaments hopefully that suggests he's a threat for a Roland Garros finals spot (seeing that I don't believe either Murray or Federer to be capable of achieving such a feat) lets just hope he isn't drawn in the same side with Nadal at Roland Garros. Though Marat Safin is drawn together with Tsonga I hope he makes it far as this is his last year! I'm going to miss him!
I expect Del Potro to be the more likely semi finalist out of him and Murray but Ancic, Berdych, Acasuso and Wawrinka may cause an upset. Of course with Murray's clay court feats (currently a 14-15 win loss record) I doubt that he'll make it past the quaterfinals, therefore the spot could be covered by Robredo.
Roddick himself isn't much better on clay therefore I believe Nikolay Davydenko will be in that side of the quaterfinal with Roger Federer, unless Igor Andreev or Ivo Karlovic can change that.
All in all the winner should be quite predictable but the quaterfinalists could be somewhat shocking.
Dinara Safina who won last week at Rome will headline this star studded field. Na Li and Carla Suarez Navarro could pose as early threats, though both have been under the radar lately. Anne Keothavong the British hopeful will be aiming to make the 3rd Round at best. Kaia Kanepi who has been having a decent year will face Lucie Safarova who has herself been having an OK year. With Dinara Safina in her quarter is Svetlana Kuznetsova. With the lack of great clay court players Svetlana has finally found her niche this season possibly posing a threat to the top 5 again in her career and maybe even Roland Garros. She has a few young starlets like Agnieszka Radwanska, Anna Chakvetadze, Sorana Cirstea and Alona Bondarenko to contend with.
Jelena Jankovic who has not been having a great year should feel revived on clay courts, though by no means the next Justine Henin, Jelena has the capacity to swipe the floor clean on clay as there are very few who excel on this surface. I doubt she'll find her draw too difficult so she should sail through to the semi finals in my opinion. But for me I'll be interested on how Daniela Hantuchova, Gisela Dulko, Anna Lena Groenefeld (and previously Iveta Benesova) fair.
Dementieva, though seemingly losing her touch since the start of the year is still a threat to contend with. She has Victoria Azarenka in her quarters and besides that will have Flavia Pennetta (one of my favourites) and Jie Zheng in her way.
Sadly Venus and Serena are in the same quarters however it could have been a blessing? Seeing that Venus and Serena are by no means the best players on clay maybe by placing them in the same quarters at least one of them will make the semis! Anabel Medina Garrigues could be problematic but from previous performances that shouldn't be the case. Caroline Wozniacki and Shahar Peer maybe the two bigger threats but both will knock each other out before having the chance to play against the William's sisters.
On the men's side I doubt the final wouldn't feature Rafael Nadal (in fact I doubt that Rafael Nadal wouldn't win it!) but I'll still see who could possibly knock this clay king off the surface.
I maybe making too big a generalization but I'm going to trust on my instinct that 9 out of 10 players from Spain or South America are good on clay courts! Therefore one thing I'll be looking out for is Spanish or South American players. Of course the king of them all Rafael Nadal shouldn't have a problem unless Marin Cilic has anything to say about that. In fact David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez, Juan Monaco and Fernando Verdasco could all possibly be Rafael's quarterfinal opponent.
Gilles Simon could possibly pose a threat but his recent results seem to suggest otherwise. Novak Djokovic has shown good form lately being in 4 finals in his last 4 tournaments hopefully that suggests he's a threat for a Roland Garros finals spot (seeing that I don't believe either Murray or Federer to be capable of achieving such a feat) lets just hope he isn't drawn in the same side with Nadal at Roland Garros. Though Marat Safin is drawn together with Tsonga I hope he makes it far as this is his last year! I'm going to miss him!
I expect Del Potro to be the more likely semi finalist out of him and Murray but Ancic, Berdych, Acasuso and Wawrinka may cause an upset. Of course with Murray's clay court feats (currently a 14-15 win loss record) I doubt that he'll make it past the quaterfinals, therefore the spot could be covered by Robredo.
Roddick himself isn't much better on clay therefore I believe Nikolay Davydenko will be in that side of the quaterfinal with Roger Federer, unless Igor Andreev or Ivo Karlovic can change that.
All in all the winner should be quite predictable but the quaterfinalists could be somewhat shocking.
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