Wimbledon Picks- Men’s First Round
Posted by deaconcat08 on June 19, 2010
This is the first time I’ve ever posted comprehensive tennis predictions, but this is also the first Wimbledon I have been able to cover on this blog, as ”Ramblings of the Ultimate Sports Sentimentalist” wasn’t created until early August of last year. And because I value Wimbledon far more than any other tennis grand slam (or golf major for that matter) then I thought I should post a round-by-round set of predictions for you to look at and/or use when betting on these matches. Will this be the year that the Brit finally wins Wimbledon, and my life goal # 4 is crossed off the list? Well, based on the way Murray has played the past few months its doubtful. Still, the British Curse and all the storylines that arise every year at this event truly make this one of the top 5 greatest sporting events on Earth. So let’s start things off with some early round picks.
The parentheses in front of some players names are there seed numbers. The asterisk in front of some players names denotes that they are either a qualifier or a wildcard entry. The parentheses after every player’s name indicates their country of origin. Also, the matches are listed in the order they appear on the bracket. Furthermore, the term “upsets” is used to describe any pick where I’m predicting the current sportsbook underdog to beat the favorite, and the term “shocks” is used to describe a major upset.
(1) Roger Federer (SUI) beats Alejandro Falla (COL) in 3 sets. (Note: Nice easy start for Fed. He won’t lose more than 10 games here.)
Nicolas Massu (CHI) beats *Ilja Bozolac (SRB) in 3 sets.
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) beats Arnaud Clement (FRA) in 5 sets.
(30) Tommy Robredo (ESP) beats Peter Luczak (AUS) in 3 sets.
(22) Feliciano Lopez (ESP) beats Jesse Levine (USA) in 4 sets.
*Carsten Ball upsets *Richard Berankis (LTU) in 3 sets.
Victor Troicki (SRB) beats Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) in 5 sets.
(16) Jurgen Melzer (AUT) beats Dustin Brown (JAM) in 4 sets. (Note: I’d love to see Brown, the colorful Jamaican, become a star on the tour)
(12) Tomas Berdych (CZE) beats Andrey Golubev (KAZ) in 3 sets.
Benjamin Becker (GER) beats *Ryan Sweeting (USA) in 4 sets.
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) upsets Rainer Schuettler (GER) in 5 sets.
(20) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) beats Denis Istomin (UZB) in 4 sets.
(31) Victor Hanescu (ROU) beats *Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) in 3 sets.
Marcos Daniel (BRA) beats Marsel Ilhan (TUR) in 5 sets.
Igor Andreev (RUS) beats Daniel Brands (GER) in 5 sets.
(7) Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) beats Kevin Anderson (RSA) in 4 sets.
(3) Novak Djokovic (SRB) beats Olivier Rochus (BEL) in 3 sets.
Juan Ignacio Chela (ARB) upsets *Taylor Dent (USA) in 5 sets. (Note: Dent’s game is great for grass but he struggled to win most of his qualifying matches)
*Brendan Evans (USA) beats *Jesse Huta Galung (NED) in 4 sets.
(28) Albert Montanes (ESP) beats Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) in 3 sets.
(21) Gael Monfils (FRA) beats Leonardo Mayer (ARG) in 3 sets.
Karol Beck (SVK) beats *Santiago Ventura (ESP) in 5 sets.
Evgeny Korolev (KAZ) beats Eduardo Schwank (ARG) in 4 sets.
(15) Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) beats Maximo Gonzalez in 3 sets.
(11) Marin Cilic (CRO) beats Florian Mayer (GER) in 3 sets.
Mardy Fish (USA) beats *Bernard Tomic (AUS) in 3 sets.
Horacio Zeballos (ARG) upsets Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) in 5 sets.
(17) Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) beats Michal Przysiezny (POL) in 3 sets.
(29) Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) beats Potito Starace (ITA) in 4 sets.
* Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) beats *Ramon Delgado (PAR) in 4 sets.
Michael Llodra (FRA) beats * Jesse Witten (USA) in 5 sets. (Note: Witten is on the verge of a breakthrough major but I don’t think he has the game to top Llodra here)
(5) Andy Roddick (USA) beats Rajeev Ram (USA) in 3 sets. (Note: Since when did Ram become an American?)
(8) Fernando Verdasco (ESP) beats Fabio Fognini (ITA) in 3 sets.
Michael Russell (USA) beats Pere Riba-Madrid (ESP) in 5 sets.
Andreas Beck (GER) beats *Jamie Baker (GBR) in 4 sets. (Note: The British crowd will help Baker pull out at least a set)
Kristof Vliegen (BEL) shocks (32) Julien Benneteau (FRA in 5 sets.
(19)Nicolas Almagro (ESP) beats Andreas Seppi (ITA) in 4 sets.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) beats *Tobias Kamke (GER) in 3 sets.
Marco Chiundinelli (SUI) upsets Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) in 5 sets.
(10) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) beats *Robert Kendrick (USA) in 5 sets. (Note: expect a major scare here)
(14) Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) upsets Xavier Malisse (BEL) in 5 sets. (Note: Malisse is actually favored here over the 14 seed. Even though Ferrero has had his best results on clay, he has shown he can play well on grass.)
*Rik De Voest (RSA) beats *Julian Riester (GER) in 5 sets.
Oscar Hernandez (ESP) beats *Ivan Dodig (CRO) in 4 sets.
(18) Sam Querrey (USA) beats Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) in 3 sets.
(26) Giles Simon (FRA) beats *Guillermo Alcaide (ESP) in 3 sets.
Michael Berrer (GER) upsets Ilya Marchenko (UKR) in 4 sets.
Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) beats *Stefan Koubek (AUT) in 5 sets.
(4) Andy Murray (GBR) beats Jan Hajek (CZE) in 4 sets. (Note: A tight, tentative Murray will drop a set early but will find a way to pull it out as usual).
(6) Robin Soderling (SWE)beats Robby Ginepri (USA) in 4 sets. (Note: I think Robby could have made a run here if he didn’t draw a top 8 seed in the first round.)
Marcel Granollers (ESP) beats Frederico Gil (POR) in 4 sets.
*Go Soeda (JPN) upsets *Martin Fischer (AUT) in 5 sets. (Note: A dream matchup for both players, as they each face the only opponent in the entire field they have a chance of beating. This pick is based on name only. “Go Soda!”)
(25) Thomas Bellucci (BRA) beats Richard Mello (BRA) in 4 sets. (Note: The battle of the Brazilians will likely be ignored by their fellow countrymen who will all be focused on the World Cup early next week.)
(24) Marco Baghdatis (CYP) beats Lukas Lacko (SVK) in 3 sets. (Note: Baghdatis could be a dark horse to make a deep run here. After a lengthy slump, he’s finally playing well again, and he’s had great success in Wimbledon in the past: See 2006 quarterfinal run.)
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) beats Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP) in 5 sets.
Florent Serra (FRA) upsets Simon Greul (GER) in 4 sets.
(9) David Ferrer (ESP) beats *Nicolas Kiefer (GER) in 3 sets.
(13) Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) beats Dudi Sela (ISR) in 3 sets.
Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) upsets Marc Gicquel (FRA) in 5 sets.
Thiemo De Bakker (NED) beats Santiago Giraldo (COL) in 4 sets.
(23) John Isner (USA) beats Nicolas Mahut (FRA) in 3 sets.
(33) Phillipp Petzschner (GER) beats Stephane Robert (FRA) in 4 sets.
Blaz Kavcic (SLO) upsets Lukasz Kubot (POL) in 5 sets.
James Blake (USA) beats Robin Haase (NED) in 4 sets.
(2) Rafael Nadal (ESP) beats *Kei Nishkori (JPN) in 3 sets.