Australian Open 2015: Kei Nishikori A Dangerous Dark Horse

While I was doing the head-to-heads for the draw which has 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in it, the results ended with 2014 US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori as the player to watch in this side of the draw.  Interestingly, Kei has reached only up to the QFs in this grand slam, but based on paper, he has a very good chance of reaching the semifinals and topping his side of the draw.

The spoiler in this side of the draw for Stan is another dangerous dark horse player, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, who has a 3-1 head-to-head with Stan.  They may meet in the QFs.  Another dangerous player in this side of the draw is David Ferrer.

Roger Federer: Always a Sentimental Favorite in Wimbledon

During prognostication time in men's grand slams these past few years, Roger Federer's name does not come up as consistently anymore yet during Wimbledon time, everytime I check the draw, like for this year, his name once again comes up among the four guys most likely win their semifinal slots.  His 7 victories on this surface and his consistency almost always trumps the new "it" guy in men's tennis.

This year, the "it" guy just happens to be his countryman Stan Wawrinka, who incidentally, is also in Roger Federer's side of the draw.  However, for sentimental reasons, I still pick Roger to win over Stan, if they do meet in the quarters.  

Roger has some very tricky potential opponents on his side of the draw, including former semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz, Frenchman Julien Bennetteau and Spaniard Marcel Granollers, all competent players.

However, realistically speaking, the best Roger can do for this Wimbledon is reach the semi's where he will potentially meet Rafa Nadal, who is in such fighting form this season.

French Open 2014 Leading Male Contenders

For some players, so much can happen in one year. Stan Wawrinka reached the 4th round of the French Open last year, which is a respectable finish for a top 20 player, Stan's rank last year, but after making a breakthrough in Melbourne this year and ranked already very near the top, it would seem that Wawrinka's ascendancy has been meteoric.

Well, it does help that Stan has a relatively easy draw in the French Open this year, something which he should exploit to the hilt. His toughest opponents could be two Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet and Spanish player Feliciano Lopez.

Rafael Nadal will most likely be his semifinal opponent and it would be interesting if he can do what he did successfully in the Melbourne final again here in Paris.

Stan is the Man!

I'm so happy that Stan has finally won his first major!! I always knew he had it in him if he just really believed!! Dyahe lang na Nadal is making issue about his injury (parang si Serena, pag natalo, ay injured ako - di ba pwedeng, on that day, mas magaling lang talaga ang kalaban!) pero at least Nadal did not retire!!! He would've received a lot of hate tweet and hate posts in FB!! Even I would send him one!! Remember Justine Henin retiring against Amelie Mauresmo in 2006 ata? That really sucked and I think Henin lost a lot of fans that day, me included........

Australian Open 2014: Bottom Lower Men's Draw

Can Novak Djokovic make it to five Australian Open titles?  I certainly think so. He's still in very good form up to now. He's currently ranked #2 in the world and he finds himself in a relatively easy draw!  I am picking him as the guy who will most likely get the semifinal slot in his side of the draw and I pick Stan Wawrinka as his most likely quarterfinal opponent.

His other most likely opponents in the draw include Tursunov, Montanes and Gulbis.  Compared to the other top four, his most likely opponents are not so difficult to beat.  Oh well, we'll see, as the Australian Open 2014 unravels!

My First Year at the Malaysian Open 2013

 

This is my first year to attend the Malaysian Open here in Kuala Lumpur.  I had to fly all the way from Manila to attend this event and I feel very lucky to have done so.  Anyway, these pictures show my first few minutes as I left the train station and proceeded to the Putra Indoor Stadium.  I came from PWTC and I took the train going to Bukit Jalil station, and after that, it's a 15 minute walk to the venue.  It is a bit hot going there since there are only sparse trees to shade people from the sun.

Sensational Tennis From Andreas Seppi and Stanislas Wawrinka

I was not actually planning to watch the 3rd round match between Andreas Seppi and Stanislas Wawrinka in the Rome Open because I had already seen Seppi play and win the Serbia Open a few weeks ago.  Anyhow, since I was switching between Li Na and Seppi's match, I got hooked with the Italian's match as it took a tiebreak for each set - the first set tiebreak going to Wawrinka, while Seppi took the second set tiebreak - and since Seppi was Italian - watching it became more thrilling and involving since the Rome crowd was pretty vocal about their support for their local player.

Wawrinka had six match points but never converted - and he led the third set 52 and looked set to win the match.  But Seppi had other plans and slowly regained his composure and evened it out at 55.  It eventually led to another thrilling tiebreak and yes, Wawrinka had SEVERAL match pointS at 63 but failed to convert ALL OF THEM! Finally, when Seppi got his first match point at 76, he converted immediately!

Seppi will meet Roger Federer in the quarterfinals tomorrow so let's see how the local crowd will support him.

Stanislas Wawrinka: Semi-finalist - Buenos Aires Open 2011

Stanislas Wawrinka (#15) reached the semi-finals of the Buenos Aires Open but was thwarted by hometown boy, Juan Ignacio Chela.  It has been a good year for Wawrinka, winning the Chennai Open and then reaching the quarters in Melbourne.  This was his path to this semifinals -

SF - lost to Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) (#35) 26 26
QF - Juan Monaco (ARG) (#30) 75 63
2R - Victor Hanescu (ROU) (#56) 67(2) 61 76(4)
1R - Carlos Berlocq (ARG) (#73) 64 36 63

Stanislas Wawrinka - Quarterfinalist - Australian Open 2011

Stanislas Wawrinka is one of the surprise quarterfinalists in this year's Australian Open.  This is the deepest he has ever reached in the Australian Open.  He has also been a quarterfinalist in the US Open in 2008.  However, his dream run ended today, as he lost comprehensively to countryman Roger Federer. 

QF - lost to Roger Federer (SUI) (#2) 61 63 63
4R - Andy Roddick (USA) (#8) 63 64 64
3R - Gael Monfils (SUI) (#13) 76(4) 62 63
2R - Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) (#105) 75 63 63
1R - Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) (#78) 76(4) 63 63

Stan had two fabulous wins over Gael Monfils and Andy Roddick, which allowed him to reach that far in this tournament.  This is also a good start for him this year.