Getting Tipsy

My dark horse favorite to win Wimbledon, Andy Roddick, just lost his second round match with Janko "Tips" Tipsarevic.

Tipsarevic isn't exactly a household name, but you might remember that he provided a little scare to Roger Federer at this year's Aussie Open. You can see from the afore-linked live blog of that match that Federer was having a lot of trouble breaking Tips' serve, and the same was true for Andy Roddick, as the American failed to convert a single break in 4 sets.

That isn't to say that Tips' service games were especially dominating, as he only had 14 aces, and had a modest top serve of 131 mph (pretty fast, actually).

What carried through this match and against Roger was his excellent net play, something that is historically very effective on the grass, but isn't done as much in today's game. Tips went to net a total of 27 times in this match and won 21 of those points (78%), compared to 18 of 31 (58%) net conversions for Roddick, who has been trying to work a serve-and-volley aspect into his game for the last few years.

Coupled with the upset of James Blake earlier today, this win for Tips means two things. Firstly, Bobby Reynolds is the last American man standing and he has a tough match up against Feliciano Lopez coming up. Secondly, there is one semi-final spot that is pretty much up-for-grabs.

The top 3 seeds (Davydenko, Roddick, Blake) in the already weakest quarter of the draw have gone down, and what's left isn't too appealing. Tips actually might have a good chance of making it out alive, as Dmitry Turnosov and Rainer Schuettler aren't exactly headliners.

Wimbledon Primer

Photo by Flickr user .kol tregaskes used under a Creative Commons license.
Wimbledon has been underway for a couple hours now, but did you really need to be primed to know that Roger Federer was going to beat Dominic Hrbaty? Inconsequential.

So here are the biggest stories of Wimbledon 2008:

And then there were three

Federer has been nothing short of dominant in his grass career, winning an amazing 56 straight matches on the surface, including that last 5 Wimbledons on the surface. This season he has been anything but, though, as a battle with mono disrupted his Aussie hopes, and as he found himself on the wrong end of the most lopsided French Open final in history at the hands of Rafael Nadal.

Nadal, though a clay-courter by trade, has proven to be no slouch on the lawn. His final with Federer at last year's Wimbledon was one of the more memorable grass court matches in recent memory, and he has only gotten better since then. Nadal has had his eyes on that world number one ranking for quite some time now, and now that Federer has hit a little rough patch, it might be his for the taking.

Though everyone only seems to be talking about the big 2, Novak Djokovic has proven to be just as good or better than Nadal on every surface except for clay. He (like pretty much every one else that matters) has ended up in Federer's half of the draw, which usually is a death wish, but this year might be a blessing in disguise.

Hey don't forget about us!

Andy Roddick and his blistering serve are still a force to be reckoned with on grass and probably has the easiest draw out of the top 8. He has his ticket pretty much punched for a quarterfinal match-up against Nicolay Davydenko, someone who is more known for throwing matches than winning them. The only legitimate player he has to get through to get there is James Blake, whose powerful strokes serve him well on the grass, but are more suited to the hard courts of Flushing Meadows. As long as Andy doesn't throw a fit (not a given), expect to see him grace the semis with his presence.

Andy Murray is another guy with the skills and the draw to make a run. He finds himself in the same eighth as Richard Gasquet, who made it to the semis last year, but before that saw two first round exits in the previous three years. Gasquet is by no means a walk-over, but he is not Fedalkovic either.

4th Round, here we come

Mario Ancic is an unseeded player who could make a little splash in this tournament, provided that he makes it through the first round. I only know about him because he was one of my favorite players in Virtua Tennis 3 for PS3, but judging by that alone, he should be able to run through the David Ferrer's of the world.

Kiss him goodbye

David Ferrer is seeded number 5 here, but that's mainly due to his performance at the Roland Garros last month. His career W-L at Wimbledon is an unimpressive 6-5, highlighted by a single trip past the second round in his career. Though Igor Andreev, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Michael Llondra, and Mario Nacic strike fear into few people's minds, don't be surprised if one of them takes Ferrer down.

Let's get this started right

There are actually a couple first round matches to watch.

First, going on as we speak is a compelling match between Robby Ginepri and Fernando Gonzalez. Though Ginepri hasn't really been relevant since 2005 (or ever depending on how you think about it), he seems to be matched up well against the 120-mph forehand that Gonzalez keeps in his arsenal. The first set between the two went to tiebreak and the second seems to be headed there as well.

Next, we have a match-up of youngsters Ernest Gulbis and John Isner, fighting for a chance to lose to Rafael Nadal. People might remember Gulbis for taking down James Blake at Roland Garros and Isner for beating Tim Henman, Tommy Haas, and Gael Monfils before losing in the final round of the Leggs Mason Classic (where?) to Andy Roddick.

That's all we got for now.

US Open Preview

Photo by Flickr user wallyg used under a Creative Commons license.

The Favorite

#1 Roger Federer: Were you expecting someone else? Federer has won 7 of the last 9 grand slams, with his two losses coming both times at the French. He has won three US Opens in a row and it would take a betting man to say that he isn't poised for his fourth.

The Contenders

#2 Rafael Nadal: Nadal is the only person in the last 2 years not named Federer to win a grand slam. While his strong suit is typically the soft red clay in France, he has shown that he can apply his trade to the other surfaces as well, as he was the runner-up at the All-England Club this year. As the #2 seed, he has the luck of avoiding Federer until the final, and dodged a potential bullet with Gael Monfils withdrawing from the competition.

#3 Novak Djokovic: Novak Djokovic has slowly cemented his way into the tennis elite, finally bursting onto the scene when he downed Roddick, Nadal, and Federer in order to win the Rogers Cup in Montreal a cople weeks ago. He avoids Federer until the final, but seems to have drawn teh section from hell, as it is riddled with upset candidates, including Carlos Moya, Lleyton Hewitt, and Mikhail Youzhny.

The Americans

#6 James Blake: Blake has been the poster boy for the sport these last few years by overcoming long odds to vault himself back into the top ten. However, he has yet to have reached a grand slam semi-final let alone put himself in position to win one. Americans have historically performed better on their home soil, and Blake is no exception to that. He sees a recently weak #4 Nicolay Davydenko in his section of the draw for a possible quarterfinal upset, but after that he is slated to face Federer in the semis, an ominous task.

#5 Andy Roddick: America was high on Roddick a few years ago, but a prolonged bit of poor play and bad attitude has all but dropped him from our minds. Nevertheless, one cannot discount the fact that he was the last person not named Federer to win the US Open. Roddick had the bad luck of drawing Federer's section, so they will meet in the quarterfinals. There is really no one else of note in their section, but when you are staring at the big Swiss, does there need to be?

The Darkhorses

#7 Fernando Gonzalez: A fan-favorite all around the globe, this hard-hitting Chilean might have the shots in him to pull off a few upsets. To go far in the tourney, he'll first need to launch his blazing 120-mph forehand past Rafael Nadal. Gonzalez is effective when he can keep his shots under control, but as is to be expected, he is often susceptible to bouts of unforced errors.

#11 Mikhail Youzhny: Youzhny showed that he belonged at last year's US Open when, despite being unseeded going into the tournament, he upset Rafael Nadal to reach the semi-finals. Since then, he has reached the 3rd round in all of his grand slams, which is more than some top candidates can say (hint, Americans at the French). This year, getting some respect as the #11 seed, he hopes to do the same against Novak Djokovic before giving Nadal a little deja vu.

#32 Ivo Karlovic: At 6 feet-10 inches, Ivo Karlovic is used to standing tall. He made his way onto the the tennis scene at Wimbledon in 2003 when he defeated the defending champion, Lleyton Hewitt, in his first ever Grand Slam match, so he is no stranger to the upset. He might cause a splash by doing away with the notoriously volatile Andy Roddick, but don't expect him to so much as put up a fight against Federer.