The moment we’ve all been waiting for is upon us – tomorrow Wimbledon starts. So if you’ve been starving for grand slam action…it’s time to salivate again.
But I don’t beat around the bush nor the grass so let’s get into the first day of the men’s tournament:
Djokovic vs Kohlschreiber –Â I’m sure Djokovic wasn’t very happy when he saw that he was playing nr 33 in the world, Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round. “Kohli” is a formidable grass court player who was only points away from beating Federer in Halle. Risky match for Djokovic but his confidence should see him through in 4 sets. PICK: Djokovic.
Wawrinka vs Sousa –Â Can Wawrinka maintain the RG form into Wimbledon? He is a decent grass court player and should be one of the dark horses for the title. But he really needs to pick up steam in the first few matches. The first one shouldn’t be difficult against a clay specialist. PICK: Wawrinka (in 3).
Bolelli vs Nishikori – Nishikori is simply too solid to waste too much time against talented but flawed players like Bolelli. PICK: Nishikori.
Dimitrov vs Delbonis – Dimitrov won Queens last year and can play well on grass. A guy like Delbonis shouldn’t trip him up. PICK: Dimitrov.
Kyrgios vs Schwartzman – Two young talents in a really interesting match-up. Kyrgios should be more comfortable on grass, but this can definitely go both ways. PICK: Kyrgios (5 sets).
Nieminen vs Hewitt – Veterans unite on their farewell tour. Hewitt has always played his best tennis on grass and will win this one. PICK: Hewitt.
Cilic vs Moriya – Hard time seeing 24-year-old Moriya challenging Cilic for even a set. PICK: Cilic.
Gimeno-Traver vs Raonic. –Â Clay-court specialist vs dark horse for the title? One-way traffic. PICK: Raonic.
Okay, so right about now I realized there were too many matches to write about with my time constraints so here my picks in bold.
Soeda vs Isner
Pouille vs Anderson
Broady vs Matosevic (UPSET)
Saville vs Gasquet
Monaco vs F. Mayer
Haider-Maurer vs Berankis
Estrella-Burgos vs Becker
Tipsarevic vs Granollers
Cuevas vs Kudla
Sela vs Thiem
Lajovic vs Haas
Zeballos vs Goffin
de-Schepper vs Smith
Herbert vs Chung
Ebden vs Rola
Robredo vs Millman
Klizan vs Verdasco
Gabashvili vs Zverev
Lacko vs Johnson
Ilhan vs Janowicz
Mayer L vs Kokkinakis
Struff vs Tomic
Souza vs Giraldo
Young vs Baghdatis
Phew. So many good matches it’s hard to keep up. Will be interesting to see how many I get right. Why not tell me your picks in the comments field to make this blog more lively?
