Lawn Jockeying

The promoters of the Artois Championships must be thinking this is the perfect 30th anniversary gift with the matches they'll end up with over the last three rounds! With that quarterfinal lineup having been such a monster, of course you're going to get the same for the semis! Here's my little rundown of what I think will happen there:

David Nalbandian vs. Novak Djokovic: Nalbandian came through in a tough third-set tiebreak against Richard Gasquet. With Nalbandian, you never know if this is going to be one of those tournaments where he's just knocking off guys ahead of him in the rankings left and right. However, I don't think that'll be the case this time, and I'm going with Djoko in straights.

Andy Roddick vs. Rafael Nadal: Rafa survived a ton of heat coming at him by beating Ivo Karlovic, and he can expect more coming from A-Rod. Much like Roland Garros is Nadal's personal playpen, I think the same applies to Roddick at Queens. A-Rod in three.

Oh yeah, there's another big grass-court tournament going on in Germany, where some guy named Roger Federer is playing. He's through to the semis against homeboy Nic Kiefer, and James Blake is playing Tennis Talk, Anyone? fave Philipp Kohlschreiber, also a local boy done good. I think it'll be an R-Fed-JB final come Sunday there.

And the DFS Classic in Birmingham has an interesting player there making a little run: American Bethanie Mattek is making a nice run. It's nice to see her calling attention to herself with her play and not her silly outfits! I think she has a great shot to make her first career singles final. I'm sure there's an outfit in the closet waiting for that moment!

(Photos: Getty Images)