Sure I have mentioned in passing a few snippets of what i believe may transpire in the next 2 weeks, some of it even tennis related, but now I am forced to wager what few grams of credibility left within me on serious predictions for who will proceed and how far that procession will extend through the 2012 Australian Open Steeplechase.
In singles there will be 7 hurdles to overcome successfully in order for a legitimate claim to be processed before lifting the trophy overhead on 28 or 29 January. This is about the Mens Singles.
Before discussing the chances of this year's favourites, let us concentrate for awhile on Novak Djokovic, who I really feel has had the type of preparation which could cause a surprise amongst the more fancied men in the draw. The young Serbian player has a bright future, and could become one of the most feared players in the future if he can iron out a few faults within his game. Aus Open 2012 could well be the tournament in which he finally realises the potential promised for the last few years.
Another from left field is the veteran Swiss journeyman Roger Federer. Roger has spent over 10 years on tour, and without causing much of a stir amongst the top echelon, has managed to eke out a living from the sport he obviously loves. Despite what you may be told, the Federer backhand and increased reliability on serve put him in with a real show against his qualifier opponent in the first round. Who knows what could happen should he come out the other end of that tough one unscathed?
Clearly these are predictions on gut instinct with no real match winning form in Grand Slam tournaments from which to draw.
In sharp contrast we have Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, between them winners of 3 Grand Slam singles titles, and a record of final and semi final appearances of which to be proud. The tragedy of the rankings system sees these two scheduled to meet in the second round, and so the expected Roddick-Hewitt Aus Open Final will not eventuate. Only one of the 2 favourites will make it into the second week. While my heart would like to see Lleyton fly the Aussie flag, I must go with American Andy - his has been the most recent Grand Slam championship success - the US Open a couple of years ago in 2003.
I am going out on a short and thin limb here, but I believe that Roddick can be upset by Djokovic in the 4th round, but then again Canadian Milos Raonic may do the upsetting on Novak's behalf in the round before. Raonic defeated Janko Tipsarevic in Chennai earlier in the month, and is a genuine threat to the top ten this year, and it could be very early in the season.
Speaking of the second ranked Serbian player, Janko will possibly feature in one of the finest matches in the round of 16 if he and Spain's David Ferrer (winner in Auckland a day or so ago) reach that impasse.
Right now I am going to gripe about the quarter final seedings. Novak Djokovic is the number one player by plenty and should be seeded to play the lowest ranked of the quarter finalists.
Yet he is drawn to play Ferrer, the 5th seed. Ferrer himself should not be expected to play anyone other than Andy Murray, the 4th seed.
No it's Federer, the 3rd seed, who is drawn to play the 8th seed, Fish. Murray is drawn to face 6th seed Tsonga. Whatever happened to 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5? Well Rafa v Berdych fits the logical draw, the other is a lottery rewarding pure luck and not performance and ranking.
OK that is out of my system - publicly at least - now back to some of those names. Berdych perfomed well in Hopman Cup singles and has the weaponry to push many of the top players, but his very best can be mitigated somewhat by inopportune lapses into inadequacy and poor judgement. It would take the sort of performance that booted Roger out of Wimbledon early in 2010 to make me consider him any sort of chance of taking Rafa beyond 3 or 4 sets in the quarters. A finals berth after successive wins over Nadal and Federer is a possibility if Berdych is having a great dream.
Tsonga, though is another matter altogether - for a start he is French not Czech. He has been to the finals here, albeit 4 years ago, but now he presents as a much more polished all round player with a number of weapons with which to claim titles and satisfy many of the demands of a Grand Slam tournament. To be quite blunt his quarter of the draw is rather soft on paper. At his best none of the players around him pose real problems - even the quarter-final opponent is probably the winner of Murray and Monfils, the latter who he has recently dispatched in Doha, the former who is still carrying demons from his past 2 embarassing finals here.
For me it is a Djokovic-Tsonga semi final in the top half of the draw, the same match-up we witnessed at Wimbledon last year. Salivating prospect indeed.
Rafa Nadal, even if not quite fully fit, has no opponents in his quarter of any real concern - the 4th round is drawn to be a clash with John Isner but the American is out of form and I fancy Nalbandian's chances to be the Spanish bull's 4th victim this event.
Berdych will not have the all court game to close off the Rafa shot making and so one semi spot should belong to Nadal.
Roger Federer will march straight into a quarter-final, leaving behind carnage possibly made up of Melzer and either Tomic (winner at Kooyong) or Brisbane runner-up Dolgopolov.
I hope the quarter final is Federer against his 2009 US Open nemesis Juan Martin Del Potro because the 11th seeded Argentine star is on the way back to the top few in the world, and has a catalogue of shots that could trouble the Swiss great. Nothing about the players in Del Potro's quarter should send a single shiver down the South American back, not even the 8 seed Mardy Fish, who is prone to bouts of inconsistency just at present.
Semi Final in the bottom half of the draw: Rafa Nadal v Roger Federer (but Del Potro is not far away at all)
Djokovic will in my humble and underwhelming opinion, defeat Federer in the final. However things will start happening on court tomorrow, and my opinion will continue to change like the wind, not in esteem certainly, but in content.
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