Mens Quarter Finals

Who is your money on?

Nadal v Fish
Murray v Lopez
Federer v Tsonga
Djokovic v Tomic

Surely is it going to be Semi Finals where the big 4 are there again? Can anyone remember the last time that happened at back to back Grand Slams?

There could be an upset in there but I can't for the life of me see where it would be!

legendkillar wrote:Who is your money on?

Nadal v Fish
Murray v Lopez
Federer v Tsonga
Djokovic v Tomic

Surely is it going to be Semi Finals where the big 4 are there again? Can anyone remember the last time that happened at back to back Grand Slams?

Nadal in three
Murray in four
Federer in four
Djokovic in three

Nadal beats Murray in three
Djokovic beats Federer in four

Djokovic beats Nadal in four

Disclaimer
I may well change my predictions several times before the end of the tournament.

Guest82 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:Who is your money on?

Nadal v Fish
Murray v Lopez
Federer v Tsonga
Djokovic v Tomic

Surely is it going to be Semi Finals where the big 4 are there again? Can anyone remember the last time that happened at back to back Grand Slams?

Nadal in three
Murray in four
Federer in four
Djokovic in three

Nadal beats Murray in three
Djokovic beats Federer in four

Djokovic beats Nadal in four

Disclaimer
I may well change my predictions several times before the end of the tournament.

I think you might have to unless you have access to a crystal ball!

Nadal might retire against mardy fish.
Murray will win against Fed in the finals.

Djoko will have it tough to beat Tomic.

Lopez is an easy prey for Murray.

Songa might challenge but wilt in the end.

Surely Tomic isnt going to cause Nole any problems whatsoever...

Hmmm well assuming Nadal is fully fit, it's hard to see past the big four making the semis. Then again, it was hard to see past the big four making the semis before the tournament started, so what else is new?

Must say I wasn't expecting the QF line-up to look quite like this, though did have Tsonga and Fish in (I think I had Roddick and Soderling as the other 2)

Novak looks real strong, I think he will get by Tomic and then the Federer match in my mind will be basically the title match.

Has NEVER happened before in consecutive Major tournaments.

Names in seeded order (1-4), champions in CAPITALS

1969 US Open LAVER Newcombe Roche Ashe

1982 US Open McEnroe CONNORS Lendl Vilas
1984 French Open McEnroe LENDL Connors Wilander
1985 French Open McEnroe Lendl Connors WILANDER
1985 US Open McEnroe LENDL Wilander Connors
1988 Australian Lendl Edberg WILANDER Cash


1992 US Open Courier EDBERG Sampras Chang
1993 Wimbledon SAMPRAS Edberg Courier Becker
1995 Wimbledon Agassi SAMPRAS Becker Ivanisevic

2005 Australian Federer Roddick Hewitt SAFIN
2006 French Open Federer NADAL Nalbandian Ljubicic

2011 French Open NADAL Djokovic Federer Murray

So the closest time it has happened, were at the 1995 French and US Opens - never before in consecutive Majors in the Open Era. So if it does, we are seeing history on another level yet again!


Nadal over Fish in 3 sets
Murray over Lopez in 4 sets
Federer over Tsonga in 4 sets
Djokovic over Tomic (158 in world!!!) in 4 sets

We shall see.....

legendkillar wrote:Who is your money on?

Nadal v Fish
Murray v Lopez
Federer v Tsonga
Djokovic v Tomic

Surely is it going to be Semi Finals where the big 4 are there again? Can anyone remember the last time that happened at back to back Grand Slams?

Nadal in four (because of his fitness)
Murray in three
Federer in four
Djokovic in three

Murray beats Nadal in Five
Fed beats Djokovic in Five

Murray beats Fed in five (Tennis coming home!)

I remember people saying how Rafa would have it tough facing DP, Berdych, Murray to get to the finals...so where's Berdych?

Fish and Tomic are complete no-hopers and won't win a set.

Murray will be too good for Lopez, especially as he will be worn out after his 5 setter.

Tsonga will press Federer, but Federer has his measure.

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Murray will fail against Nadal because he can't cope with the higher bounce, bt mainly because his forehand ad 2nd serve aren't good enough at this level.

Djokovic will overcome Federer, probably in 4. This is the only match I'm doubtful about.

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Djokovic will beat Nadal by wearing him out, as was the case in all their matches so far this year. Nadal may well go a set or even two up but Djokovic makes him run too much.
Nadal will be hoping Federer overcomes Djokovic, as he can play his high balls to the ad court all day and Federer won't run the legs off him as Nole will.

Nadal v Fish - Fish after Rafa withdraws.

Lopez v Murray - Murray in 4

Federer v Tsonga - Fed in 4

Djokovic v Tomic - Djoko in 5

Clarke James wrote:Nadal v Fish - Fish after Rafa withdraws.

Care to make a wager on that?

There's no withdrawal coming here, the last three sets last night were played without a limp of any sort. The MRI is precautionary.

bogbrush wrote:

Clarke James wrote:Nadal v Fish - Fish after Rafa withdraws.

Care to make a wager on that?

There's no withdrawal coming here, the last three sets last night were played without a limp of any sort. The MRI is precautionary.

£5 to the charity of your choice.

Clarke James wrote:

bogbrush wrote:

Clarke James wrote:Nadal v Fish - Fish after Rafa withdraws.

Care to make a wager on that?

There's no withdrawal coming here, the last three sets last night were played without a limp of any sort. The MRI is precautionary.

£5 to the charity of your choice.

Done!

Can't really see Lopez or Tomic causing big problems for Andy and Djokovic (then again, I wouldn't have expected Tomic to get past either Soderling or X-Mal, so you never know).

Fish must be playing and particularly serving well to have dispatched Berdych so simply. Nadal looks to be playing fairly well but is struggling to break serve (4 tbs in the last 7 sets), and obviously there is a questionmark over his fitness and even his continued participation.

Federer v Tsonga looks the most promising for a high quality match - J-WT has been in good form on the grass and has such power and aggression that when it all clicks he can be a real handful for anyone. However, Federer played very well for much of his match yesterday, so should win through in the end.

Tsonga will have the majority of the crowd on his side too I suspect

I hope there is no retirement - it is a shame when any players have to retire. I felt for Haasa when he had to. Agree with BB re MRI only being precautionary. I hope nothing bad comes out of the MRI and hopefully the injury is something that can allow the play with some pain killers.

Predictions;
Nadal v Fish - Rafa in 4. Fish looks good but not sure he can handel the spin.

Lopez v Murray - Murray in 3 - walk over for Murray

Federer v Tsonga - Fed in 5

Djokovic v Tomic - Djoko in 3

Davie wrote:Tsonga will have the majority of the crowd on his side too I suspect

What makes you think that? Tsonga is not especially popular and Federer is loved by the Wimbledon crowd.

Davie wrote:Tsonga will have the majority of the crowd on his side too I suspect

Not sure about that - Federer is strongly supported by the Wimbledon crowd as well. Both are definitely entertaining players though so should be a good match for the (relatively) neutral.

Davie wrote:Tsonga will have the majority of the crowd on his side too I suspect

Yeah he will, especially after his sportsmanship last week.

If Tsonga fires on all cylinders he could beat Federer.

I'd say Federer isn't that popular these days apart from with his diehard fans. Tsonga on the other hand has the crowd on his side - plenty of support at Queens even though he was up against Murray and then in an earlier Wimbledon round where he jumped the net at the end and hugged the young kid whose name currently escapes me

I think Tsonga will be a very popular player on court against Federer, Federer is pretty smug and self satisfied these days.

Davie wrote:I'd say Federer isn't that popular these days apart from with his diehard fans. Tsonga on the other hand has the crowd on his side - plenty of support at Queens even though he was up against Murray and then in an earlier Wimbledon round where he jumped the net at the end and hugged the young kid whose name currently escapes me

Dimitrov.

Everyone loves to see a seed fall. And none more so than Federer.

Look at how the crowd got behind Bagdahtis? The crowd know if Federer falls it increases Murray's chances.

I wonder if the people pronouncing on who the crowd favour at Wimbledon actually go there. I do, and can tell you that Federer is vastly more popular than anyone except Murray and Nadal (with the kids).

Every chance I will be able to test my theory as I have my Debenture tickets for the Semis on Friday. Looking like it could be a big days tennis.

Fish to beat Nadal or nothing.

Murray should easily dispactch Lopez, Tsonga to take a set off Federer and nothing more, Tomic to start well look dangerous then Djokovic to pull through comfortably in the end.

And i fancy

Nadal to beat Fish in 3
Murray to beat Lopez in 3
Tsonga to beat Federer in 4 (i may be slightly mad here)
Djokovic to beat Tomic in 4

Looking forward to finding out!

bogbrush wrote:I wonder if the people pronouncing on who the crowd favour at Wimbledon actually go there. I do, and can tell you that Federer is vastly more popular than anyone except Murray and Nadal (with the kids).

Every chance I will be able to test my theory as I have my Debenture tickets for the Semis on Friday. Looking like it could be a big days tennis.

wow - if only I can afford to buy a debenture tickets. How much did you pay? £27,000 for 5 years? I need to start saving - fed up of long queues

Nadal d. Fish in 3
Djoko d. Tomic in 3

Fed d. Tsonga in 4
Murray d. Lopes in 4
..............................

Nadal d. Murray (or Lopes) in 4
Fed v. Djoko - heaven only knows, but Djoko would d. Tsonga in 3
...........................

Nadal d. Fed in 4
Nadal v. Djoko - heaven only knows I can see a 4 or 5-setter

I don't think either Fed or Murray can win against Nadal which makes Nadal the strong favourite in my view with Djoko his main challenger. Nadal is lucky to have Fed as Djoko's likely gatekeeper. The difference between now and a few weeks ago is that Nadal has majorly regained his Mojo - whether Djoko is down a couple of pips from his 40+ match tear or fully refreshed and ready to go only time will tell. If there is a Djoko v. Nadal final I'd really like to see Djoko win a Slam on a new surface for him, it would really stir things up.

Davie wrote:I'd say Federer isn't that popular these days apart from with his diehard fans. Tsonga on the other hand has the crowd on his side - plenty of support at Queens even though he was up against Murray and then in an earlier Wimbledon round where he jumped the net at the end and hugged the young kid whose name currently escapes me

How many times has Federer won the ATP fans award? 7,8 years consecutive, including the last year?

Did you watch the FO? The crowd was supporting Federer even against Monfils.

Have you heard the reception Federer gets when he walks onto CC at W?

Federer is by far the most popular player on tour. I would say that he is even more popular today than he was in his pomp because fans of tennis acknowledge that his days in the game are numbered and that they are unlikely to see such a great champion again.

We'll wait to see whose side the centre court crowd are on

Indeed.

The Wimbledon crowd at times are fickle, made up mostly of those that think tennis only exists for two weeks a year.

In the case of Federer v Tsonga if (a big if), Federer falls behind most will be cheering for him, but the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim and the crowd will probably end up helping Tsonga as best they can!

Federer v Tsonga. Difficult to get side for most fans. 2 great players to watch, great characters. no gamesmanship, just creative tennis...and when they do take side, I do it's as polarised as with some players.

The crowd will want a 5 setter..the players won't!

Fed is incredibly popular of longstanding, and deservedly so. Tsonga is a new crowd favourite - again deservedly so.

I'd like to think that the crowd's support will be for good play generally and will shift between players - particularly being behind whoever is the underdog in the course of the match to prolong the play.

I think Federer has to be really careful today; he can't afford another poor start like against Youzhny, as Tsonga won't go away as easily as the Russian did. All the other quarterfinals will be easy three/four set victories for the higher ranked players. I'm slightly worried for Lopez actually, as if Murray's on form it could be a bit of a mauling.

Is Nadal playing one fish or several? How will the fishes dependence on water for mobility and indeed survival be accomodated? Is the roof to be closed and the centre court flooded like the Blackpool Tower circus? If so I may have a fiver on the fish. If not then Nadal sounds like a strong favourite to me. I can't imagine fish have great racquet gripping capability. Unless he's playing an octopus or squid though I'm not sure if they're actually fish. That could be a riveting contest though especially if they could have a racquet in every tentacle.

superochog wrote:

bogbrush wrote:I wonder if the people pronouncing on who the crowd favour at Wimbledon actually go there. I do, and can tell you that Federer is vastly more popular than anyone except Murray and Nadal (with the kids).

Every chance I will be able to test my theory as I have my Debenture tickets for the Semis on Friday. Looking like it could be a big days tennis.

wow - if only I can afford to buy a debenture tickets. How much did you pay? £27,000 for 5 years? I need to start saving - fed up of long queues

If only! No, I bought them off the 2nd hand market (entirely legal, Deb tickets are legitimately resold).

I heard that for the Olympics they are considering allowing the players to choose their own entry music. I wonder if Fish would enter to The Walter Trout Band

Davie wrote:I heard that for the Olympics they are considering allowing the players to choose their own entry music. I wonder if Fish would enter to The Walter Trout Band

What a load of Pollocks

Anyone reckon that all the quarters today will be straight sets ? Reckon the most unlikely to gain a set are Tomic and Fish. It's all set up so perfectly for the big 4 (no Roddick to oppose them, no Soderling, no Berdych and no Ferrer) that it's a little bit too good to be true. But who would stick their neck out and forecast an upset?

sirfredperry wrote:Anyone reckon that all the quarters today will be straight sets ? Reckon the most unlikely to gain a set are Tomic and Fish. It's all set up so perfectly for the big 4 (no Roddick to oppose them, no Soderling, no Berdych and no Ferrer) that it's a little bit too good to be true. But who would stick their neck out and forecast an upset?

There again who would have predicted Tomic over Soderling or Fish over Berdych.....could happen.

Tsonga Fed, definitely has potential for an upset.

Haven't been too impressed with Roger so far,

Hardly seems to have any pop from the baseline these days.

I think the FO was an exception mainly due to the lighter balls.

Fed seems to struggle from the baseline against average players.

He really needs to use his court nous and transition game.

I agree that the balls at RG gave Fed a new lease of life - IMHO by his high standards (which are the standards that count if he's to beat Nadal or Djoko) he's been far from overwhelming at Wimbledon since as long ago as 2007. He won in 2009, for sure, but he made a bit of a meal of beating an admittedly inspired Roddick and did not otherwise have to reach deep within himself to negotiate a particularly hazardous draw (4 sets v. Kohlschreiber and 3 sets each v. Karlovic, Soderling & Haas).

I repeat, I am judging him by very high standards - but those are the standards that will count at Wimbledon this year. His great performances now are few and far between - you can debate RG this year, but otherwise I'd say Aus Open and TMC 2010 are the last time he truly hit heights required in the current era of a very strong top 3/4 and if you are looking for performances of a similar calibre before then you've got to go a long way back - particularly if you are restricting your gaze to his Wimbledon performances.

Edit: I have removed 'lighter' from the description of the RG balls!

The babolat were possibly heavier than the dunlops but essentially harder which gives that sense of heaviness. I actually played with them for the first time yesterday.

This is why they did not get the bite in the strings like they used to and that's why Nadal struggled at he beginning until I guess he changed his tension.

The harder the fall, the faster. And more weight carries the pace further into the court. Light balls woudl slow down faster.

Federer played superbly in 2009 but the final was extremely windy which certainly did not allow him to use his main advantage v Roddick: better timing. Wind really acted as a leveller in that final.

I agree barry, and it always amuses me when people try to diminish the 16 by citing a weak era, when the obvious benchmark of 2004-7 and 2008-11 is Federer himself, whose standard has fallen very significantly yet is still #3 in 2011.

I think I'll write an article on that one point to get this matter straightened out. Lucky forum!

I think most of you guys up here have got spot on predictions.

I for one think-

Federer v Tsonga is the most unpredictable. If Federer plays as he did against Youzhny he will not come through this one. I hope Federer in 4 tight ans nerve racking sets!

Murray v Lopez - Murray to come through in 3 tight sets maybe a couple of tie breaks. Lets face it, Lopez struggled with Kubot and Murray is way better. If Lopez wins the semi will be one disappointing affair as Spaniards are too respectful of Nadal to beat him.

Djokovic v Tomic - The dream ends for Tomic here I'm afraid. Now he is being focussed on and being looked at to mount a challenge and I think its too much for him to handle. Djoko in 3.

Nadal v Fish - With no injury scares any more I expect a straight sets win. Fish is not in the same league or can even mount a challenge. I would expect a tie break in the first set and then smooth sailing for Nadal. Don't be too surprised if at a critical juncture the trainer to make an appearance

It's really hard to argue against the fact 2004-2007 was a weak era for tennis. The competition was just poor when you have Blake, Ljubicic, Robredo and them trading places in the top 5. Cant remember a period of tennis that poor.

Simple_Analyst wrote:It's really hard to argue against the fact 2004-2007 was a weak era for tennis. The competition was just poor when you have Blake, Ljubicic, Robredo and them trading places in the top 5. Cant remember a period of tennis that poor.

But now is great, despite Federer at almost 30 beating Djokovic and pushing Nadal on his favourite surface? Yeah, sounds logical

Federer is a shadow of himself in 2006/7; he's much slower and this has pulled his game down. So how is he still so high ranked? At the current stage of Wimbledon he's hardly any points behind Nadal (dropping 2010, inserting qtr points for 2011) so how is this happening if the current era is so powerful?

No, the truth is that desperate Rafalotios can't resist trying to diminish the most dominant player ever. Credit to you for not even trying to hide it though.