When Good Picks Go Bad (or How I Thought the French Was Going to Go)

So I don't think I did the Pick 'em team any favors this go-around with my French Open predictions!
The semifinal brackets in both the men and women draws are set at the French, and I can't help but think of this: Man, did I blow it.

See, one of my favorite things to do at my blog, Tennis Talk, Anyone? is to make quarterfinal predictions and I usually do pretty good, with about four to six right in each draw. This year's French is officially the worst I've ever done with only 3 out of 16 picks right from both sides! Now, I had a pretty good deal of players make the round of 16, but they fell short of the Elite 8.

What I figured I'd do now to put my mind at ease as I gear up for Wimbledon is show you how I went about making my picks for the men's draw and why they didn't come to fruition. I figured if I at least do this, you'll know my mind was in the right place! You can find the post where I originally made my picks here:

Here's how I saw it:

1st quarter:
My call: Rafael Nadal vs. Fernando Verdasco
What happened: Robin Soderling vs. Nikolay Davydenko
Why I made my call: To me, this bracket was a no-brainer. You have to go with Rafa getting that far. We all know what happened there! As for Verdasco, I thought Davydenko wouldn't be healthy enough yet. I was even thinking Verdasco could've challenged Rafa. So much for that match-up! Now Soderling is all the way in the semis. I didn't even consider him a threat, figuring David Ferrer would've gotten him.

2nd quarter:
My call: Marin Cilic vs. Mikhail Youzhny
What happened: Andy Murray vs. Fernando Gonzalez
Why I made my call: You know how the only time you hear of Janko Tipsarevic doing anything is around the Slams? Well, I thought that was going to be the case here with him taking out Andy Murray, who I still wasn't convinced had a decent clay-court game. Guess I should stop saying that! And then I thought Cilic would knock out Tipsy. I was really tempted to go with Gonzo, but I knew he was injured at some point in the clay season, so I went with the player that had been playing decently the past few weeks in Youzhny. As far as I was concerned, Gilles Simon and Marat Safin in that section were nonfactors and they proved me right. (It's something I got right!)

3rd quarter:
My call: Juan Monaco vs. Novak Djokovic
What happened: Juan Martin del Potro vs. Tommy Robredo
Why I made my call: A result that I considered to be kind of surprising was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga knocking out Monaco, especially as how I thought the opposite was going to happen! Clay is definitely Tsonga's worst surface and Monaco's best. I thought Monaco was going to get both Jo-Willie and JMDP. Djokovic was another no-brainer to me. I thought he and Robredo in the 16s would've been a decent match, but I guess Phil Kohlschreiber had other plans!

4th quarter:
My call: Andy Roddick vs. Roger Federer
What happened: Gael Monfils vs. Roger Federer
Why I made my call: Wow! Federer is the only quarterfinalist I got right! I liked his draw from the start, even though I was a little concerned about him possibly playing Tomas Berdych in the fourth round. I was torn between going with Jurgen Melzer or Andy Roddick for his opponent. Monfils wasn't a possibility for me because he didn't even confirm he was going to play until the last minute! Even if he did decide to, I thought Melzer would've gotten him. Now, Roger better watch out tomorrow!

See? There's a method to my madness!

(Photo: Getty Images)