The divine Mr. Federer and the delightful Ms Kuznetsova have done their bit by picking out the draws for the women’s and men’s fields at the French Open .The defending champions are, by an amusing little tradition, given the honor of drawing lots to decide the arrangement of the players on the draw sheet (I bet you didn’t knew that). So .. it’s time for inconsequential first-time analysts like me to do what we do best(actually I didn’t have anything better to do) – making hair-brained predictions about the possible results and, invariably, ending up with egg on our faces for picking players who, in hindsight, could only have been picked by the most ignorant of tennis followers imaginable. Without any further ado, I’ll bite right into the highly scientific art of “bracketology”. Here are my picks, I am merely expecting these results and not predicting ‘em, for this year’s French Open.
Starting with the women’s draw (save the best for the last) :
The first quarter has the top seed Serena Williams, Ms Consistency (in this season, at least) along-side former No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Gosh !!! Good looks don’t work in the sporting arena, they get you unwanted attention when you are at your best and then distract your mind off to other not-so-important domains. What else will explain what happened with Anna Ivanovich?? (my crush on her still continues though)
If one were to go by claycourt pedigree, the only name that matters is that of the erstwhile Queen of Clay Justine Henin. She’s slated to meet Sharapova in the 3rd round…..that’s what I heard in the news. What else I heard, was the term ‘cow on ice’ -> made famous back in 2007 by Sharapova when referring to her movement on clay). A Henin-Serena quarterfinal looks like a tantalizing prospect, remember Henin has had a comeback whereas Serena’s been the perpetual element in the tennis arena, so the clash isn’t going to be a one-sided affair, but since it’s a women’s battle I would like to go with someone who is nearer in shape to be qualified as a women.(no offence intended).
Prediction: Henin def. Serena
The second quarter doesn’t hold much surprises or so it looks, just a few hiccups expected with Dinara Safina and Ana Ivanovic in the path of Jelena Jankovic, who seems in tremendous form lately.
The third quarter is filled up with players I have little idea about. Svetlana Kuznetsova petted against some fresh new talent? You never really know… one bad service game and the defending champion might be out of reckoning, so I randomly choose 14th seed Flavia Pennetta to reach her maiden grand slam semifinal.
The fourth quarter seems like the veteran’s day out with Venus, Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova and a few others in their late 20’s, which makes one wonder whether fate has handed them some kind of last-woman-standing battle to attain nirvana. Nonetheless it is awfully difficult to pick up a winner here, but I’ll go with the traditional big-gun Venus, even though on a non-grass surface, reaching the semis’ is something she’s done only once in the last 7 years? Bracketology just got a whole lot more unscientific.
SEMI FINAL 1: Jankovic vs HeninI may live to regret this, but I’m going to go with Jankovic here. She’s proven that she can defeat Serena and Venus back-to-back. Who’s to say she can’t frustrate the daylights out of the Queen of Clay too ?
SEMIFINAL 2: Venus vs PennettaEnd of party for Pennetta, Venus is too old in the game to let this one slip from her hand.
FINAL : Venus vs JankovichThe seasoned campaigner has, of late, shown signs of losing steam right at the final hurdle, and I see no alterations and reasons as to why it might not happen again, after-all you can’t hold back signs of ageing unless you use “OLAY – total effect” (bad joke ?… damn these ads). Henceforth..... CONGRATULATIONS Jankovich on your maiden grand slam title.
Time for some men’s action :
It’ll be a short one though… for all I know and believe: Come what may in the path of destruction, there never was, nor will ever be, anyone to match the greatness of Mr. Federer. So all you Nadal’s, the Murray’s, the Roddick’s , Potro’s, the Tsonga’s and the like can pray and fight for a final’s berth in Centercourt but your dream run will be cut short just till there … ‘cause there’s no stopping Federer, not just yet. So for all those who say Federer’s flame has lost some intensity, can very well go and buy some extinguisher, which they might need when they are being turned into ashes by his supreme and yet unparalleled strokeplay.
Starting with the women’s draw (save the best for the last) :
The first quarter has the top seed Serena Williams, Ms Consistency (in this season, at least) along-side former No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Gosh !!! Good looks don’t work in the sporting arena, they get you unwanted attention when you are at your best and then distract your mind off to other not-so-important domains. What else will explain what happened with Anna Ivanovich?? (my crush on her still continues though) If one were to go by claycourt pedigree, the only name that matters is that of the erstwhile Queen of Clay Justine Henin. She’s slated to meet Sharapova in the 3rd round…..that’s what I heard in the news. What else I heard, was the term ‘cow on ice’ -> made famous back in 2007 by Sharapova when referring to her movement on clay). A Henin-Serena quarterfinal looks like a tantalizing prospect, remember Henin has had a comeback whereas Serena’s been the perpetual element in the tennis arena, so the clash isn’t going to be a one-sided affair, but since it’s a women’s battle I would like to go with someone who is nearer in shape to be qualified as a women.(no offence intended).
Prediction: Henin def. Serena
The second quarter doesn’t hold much surprises or so it looks, just a few hiccups expected with Dinara Safina and Ana Ivanovic in the path of Jelena Jankovic, who seems in tremendous form lately.
The third quarter is filled up with players I have little idea about. Svetlana Kuznetsova petted against some fresh new talent? You never really know… one bad service game and the defending champion might be out of reckoning, so I randomly choose 14th seed Flavia Pennetta to reach her maiden grand slam semifinal.
The fourth quarter seems like the veteran’s day out with Venus, Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova and a few others in their late 20’s, which makes one wonder whether fate has handed them some kind of last-woman-standing battle to attain nirvana. Nonetheless it is awfully difficult to pick up a winner here, but I’ll go with the traditional big-gun Venus, even though on a non-grass surface, reaching the semis’ is something she’s done only once in the last 7 years? Bracketology just got a whole lot more unscientific.
SEMI FINAL 1: Jankovic vs HeninI may live to regret this, but I’m going to go with Jankovic here. She’s proven that she can defeat Serena and Venus back-to-back. Who’s to say she can’t frustrate the daylights out of the Queen of Clay too ?
SEMIFINAL 2: Venus vs PennettaEnd of party for Pennetta, Venus is too old in the game to let this one slip from her hand.
FINAL : Venus vs JankovichThe seasoned campaigner has, of late, shown signs of losing steam right at the final hurdle, and I see no alterations and reasons as to why it might not happen again, after-all you can’t hold back signs of ageing unless you use “OLAY – total effect” (bad joke ?… damn these ads). Henceforth..... CONGRATULATIONS Jankovich on your maiden grand slam title.
Time for some men’s action :
It’ll be a short one though… for all I know and believe: Come what may in the path of destruction, there never was, nor will ever be, anyone to match the greatness of Mr. Federer. So all you Nadal’s, the Murray’s, the Roddick’s , Potro’s, the Tsonga’s and the like can pray and fight for a final’s berth in Centercourt but your dream run will be cut short just till there … ‘cause there’s no stopping Federer, not just yet. So for all those who say Federer’s flame has lost some intensity, can very well go and buy some extinguisher, which they might need when they are being turned into ashes by his supreme and yet unparalleled strokeplay.
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