Tennis Atlantic

2013 Wimbledon Week 2 Gentlemen’s Singles Preview
Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com

A week of shocking upsets and walkover/retirements has decimated half of the draw, while the other half mostly held true to form. The retirements have been a notable issue and seem to be caused by both slick grass and a lack of adequate grass court preparation for most of the players because the ATP grass calendar is a mere two weeks long.

For the sake of quality of Wimbledon and the health of the players, the grass court season needs to be extended.

Here is a preview of the Round 16 and onwards.

Novak Djokovic vs. Tommy Haas

Djokovic and Haas both got the job done in Week 1. Djokovic steamrolled Florian Mayer, Bobby Reynolds and Jeremy Chardy all without dropping a set and Haas beat Dmitry Tursunov and Jimmy Wang in straights, then Feliciano Lopez in 4 sets.

As mentioned previously, Haas is a good player who has beaten Djokovic and can do damage to his game, but I haven’t seen anything to worry me with Novak’s form. He should get through this, possibly in straights.

Bernard Tomic vs. Tomas Berdych

You have to feel good for Tomic, who has overcome his share of personal adversity to make yet another 2nd week run at Wimbledon. Tomic had a massive 5th set victory over Sam Querrey. This was a match in which the Australian went up 2 sets and then began to suffer some sort of heatstroke, causing him to lose the next 2 sets while soldiering on. He finally found his form again and won the 5th set. He then toyed with James Blake, using masterful drop shots mixed with baseline pace for a straight sets victory and also beat Richard Gasquet in 4 tough sets.

Berdych beat Martin Klizan and Daniel Brands in straights, then Kevin Anderson in 4 sets. All his matches have been far less eventful than Tomic’s.

They have never met before and this match is honestly a toss-up. Emotion says go with Tomic, as he seems to be in positive spirits and has the game for another upset, but Berdych in 4 or 5 sets seems the reasonable pick.

David Ferrer vs. Ivan Dodig

Ferrer has not had an easy time at the Championships. He needed 4 sets against lesser opponents Martin Alund and Roberto Bautista-Agut and then 5 sets to finish off an aggressive but erratic Alex Dolgopolov. Still, he made it to the 2nd week. The unheralded but tenacious Dodig beat an illness-stricken Phillip Kohlschreiber in 5, a mildly injured Denis Kudla in straights, and an illness-stricken Igor Sijsling in 2 sets with a retirement.

Their only meeting last year on hard courts was won by Ferrer in 3, and I think Dodig should be able to take a set off the Spaniard and new World #3, but Ferrer should survive.

Andreas Seppi vs. Juan Martin Del Potro

Seppi needed 5 sets to beat Denis Istomin before getting a grateful retirement against Michael Llodra which he followed up with a 5 set win over Kei Nishikori. Del Potro beat Albert Ramos, Jesse Levine, and Dimitrov conqueror Grega Zemlja, all without dropping a set.

The h2h is 3-0 Del Po, including a win at the Olympics last year on grass, and without noticing anything questionable about Del Potro’s health, I expect him to win this comfortably.

Lukasz Kubot vs. Adrian Mannarino

Both players are ranked out of the top 100 in this shocking Round of 16 matchup, a match that seems more like a challenger final than the 2nd week of Wimbledon. Better yet, one of them will be at least a quarterfinalist. Kubot took advantage of Steve Darcis’ masterful straight sets upset of Rafael Nadal in Round 1, getting a walkover against Darcis after beating Igor Andreev. He followed that up by romping over Benoit Paire.

Mannarino beat Pablo Andujar, got a retirement against John Isner and beat Dustin Brown, who had knocked off Lleyton Hewitt in the previous round in a big upset.

This is a nice match style-wise with a lot of aggressive netplay tennis and will ultimately come down to who can keep their error count down. In addition, Kubot will need to be able to keep his first serve percentage high. It is a close call but I’ll take Mannarino in 4 sets.

Jerzy Janowicz vs. Jurgen Melzer

Janowicz beat Kyle Edmund, Radek Stepanek via retirement and then put a clinic on against Nicolas Almagro, playing some brilliant error free tennis. Melzer has been playing with a hernia which will be treated with surgery after Wimbledon. He’s managed to beat Fabio Fognini and Julian Reister in 4 sets before dispatching Sergiy Stakhovsky, who shocked Roger Federer in 4 sets. Speaking of that Federer loss, he was out of sorts the whole match and an aggressive Stakhovsky kept him out of his comfort zone throughout. Federer has clearly lost more than a step over time.

In this match, Melzer will have a fighting chance, but if JJ plays like he did against Almagro, I expect him to advance.

Fernando Verdasco vs. Kenny De Schepper

It is good to see Fernando Verdasco back in form. After beating Xaiver Malisse in 4 sets, he beat Julian Benneteau and routined Ernests Gulbis, who had beaten Jo-Wilfried Tsonga via retirement in the previous round. De Schepper, a rising Frenchman, beat Paolo Lorenzi, got a walkover against Marin Cilic and then beat Pico Monaco.

De Schepper has a heavy game and relies on an ever-present serve but a more experienced and in-form Verdasco should advance even if it takes 4 or 5 sets.

Andy Murray vs. Mikhail Youzhny

Murray, dare I say, seems to be in the best form thus far. He hasn’t dropped a set against Benjamin Becker, Rendy Lu and Tommy Robredo, and has also avoided picking up any injuries. Youzhny beat Robin Haase, tough customer Vasek Pospisil in 5 and Viktor Troicki in straights to set up this 4th round meeting.

Upsets have abounded this week, but I don’t see one happening to Murray in this one. He should advance comfortably.

Predictions:

Quarterfinals

Djokovic d. Berdych
Del Potro d. Ferrer
Janowicz d. Mannarino
Murray d. Verdasco

Sticking with Djokovic over Berdych. Del Potro should edge out Ferrer even though Ferrer has a 6-2 h2h and a 2-0 grass h2h (including straight sets at Wimbledon last year). Del Potro has avoided trouble in his matches and seems fresh, thus a slight edge. Janowicz is better than Mannarino but I could see him losing that match, and Murray shouldn’t be troubled too bad by Verdasco given the 8-1 h2h.

Semifinals

Djokovic d. Del Potro
Murray d. Janowicz

Djokovic shouldn’t lose to Del Potro, though Del Po did beat him at the Olympics on grass (overall 8-3 h2h to the Serbian). Murray shouldn’t lose to Janowicz. This is their first meeting since the JJ upset in Paris, but these are much different circumstances. Same applies to that Olympics win by Del Potro, as Djokovic was tired from his previous match.

Final:

Murray d. Djokovic

Sticking with my original prediction, Murray is primed to get the job done and end the British drought.