BNP Paribas Tournament & Draw Discussion
I'm sure you've noticed by now that the BNP men's draw is more top heavy than a hippo on a unicycle! We got Rafa, Fed, Murray and the recent AO champ Stan Wawrinka all sitting up there. And on the bottom half? Other than Djokovic, nobody's in championship form. We got Gasquet... and Berdych and Del Potro who have already bought plane tickets for Miami! Berdych lost in his first match and DP is injured (again). Tsonga, who was a dark horse in this half, also got beat, so this means one thing:
This section of the draw is wide open! Gasquet's quarter has a couple of up-and-comers in Dimitrov and Gulbis who will play each other next. I got to see Gulbis play doubles in Stadium 2 on Saturday night and he is truly serving like a beast! If his ground game is on, he could easily make his way to the semi-final, but that's a big IF. So my pick, and you heard it here first, is that the winner of the Dimitrov v Gulbis match will make the semi-finals! A first for either of them in a Masters 1000 event.
But, you may be asking, who's going to win the whole enchilada? Based on what I saw while on site during the first week, I'm picking the winner of the all Swiss quarterfinal to win this thing. The big question is can Stan The Man (who is in the best form of his life) overcome his own countryman, a feat he's only been able to accomplish once in 13 tries. As a matter of fact, Roger knocked him out here last year. So, it's Roger or Stan... probably Roger.
Where's my popcorn?
Mark
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maybe brown on
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Nadal is going to win the whole thing!
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Permalink Reply by Mark / The Mayor on
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Not unless he figures out how to serve better with his damaged back. Did you see the Stepanek match, Kyle?
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Hate to say I told you so....
And Andy doesn't look 100% still, so I'd say my predictions are still on track!
Can't wait to see who wins the Gulbis v Dimitrov match today.
M
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Make your picks. Here's mine:
Dolgo v Raonic = Dolgopolov
Federer v Anderson = Federer
Gulbis v Isner = Gulbis
Benateau v Djokovic = Djokovic
Fed over Dolgo
Djokovic over Gulbis
Fed over Djokovic
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Permalink Reply by Rafa on
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You got almost everything right, except for gulbis-isner, and tomorrow fed-novak, can't wait to get to court one.
Very good predictions by the way!
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Thank you! I was so close to getting the Fed pick right too (which I picked before the tourney started)---- so close.
I wasn't expecting Isner to play so well either, but he is looking good.
It was helpful to be on site for the first week - I knew that Rafa and Murray were not at 100% - you can just see it in person better than on tv.
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on
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I'd say whoever wins the first set between Fed and Djoko will win.
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Not interested haha :-p
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Well, that didn't work out for you. ;-)
I felt like Roger really had his chances... Tough loss.
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Permalink Reply by Cordell on
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It was a tough loss, but you know what he stopped doing? Moving to the net to finish points off! There were so many points where he had Djoker 10 feet outside the ad court with his inside out forehand. But instead of coming in to finish the point, he stayed back and let Djoker get back into points! He went to net 1 TIME in the 2nd set Mark! Ugh lol. However, if he does keep this form, I would put him in as a heavy contender at Wimbledon, ESPECIALLY if he commits to coming into the net when the opportunity arises. He's still half a step slow, but this is the best I've seen for at least 2 years for sure.
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