Friday 28 June 2013

Wimbledon 3rd Round Predictions, Day 6: Lisicki-Stosur, Gasquet-Tomic and Lopez-Haas

1. Sabine Lisicki v Sam Stosur
Sabine Lisicki
During the first two rounds, you would be hard pushed to find anyone who played better than Sabine Lisicki.  The 2011 Wimbledon semi-finalist blitzed past Francesca Schiavone, 6-1 6-2 in the first round and then lost just one more game to the Eastbourne champion, Elena Vesnina in the second round.  Lisicki now takes on Sam Stosur in what promises to be a compelling affair.  Stosur has made the 3rd round of Wimbledon on only one previous occasion in 2009 and although she has been handed a straightforward draw this year, she has recorded two comfortable wins over Anna Schmiedlova and Olga Puchkova.  Lisicki will go into this match as the heavy favourite despite being the lower ranked player.  Stosur is a clear leader in the head-to-head, but Lisicki won their most recent match-up in 2011.  I would definitely go for Lisicki to win this one and set up a mouthwatering 4th round clash with Serena...

Prediction - Lisicki to beat Stosur in 2 sets

2. Richard Gasquet v Bernard Tomic
The first two rounds have both been trials for Richard Gasquet, but he eventually overcame Marcel Granollers and Go Soeda in 4 sets.  His third round match will be against the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, Bernard Tomic.  The Aussie has hit the headlines this week for all the right reasons as he edged past Sam Querrey in the first round in a tough five setter before taking out James Blake yesterday in straight sets.  Gasquet and Tomic last met in Indian Wells when Gasquet ran out a comfortable winner.  On grass, you have to feel that their games will be much more closely matched.  Gasquet has been far from convincing this week, but I am still backing him to have a good tournament and beat Tomic...

Prediction - Gasquet to beat Tomic in 4 sets

3. Tommy Haas v Feliciano Lopez
The top half of the mens draw has held up well and one to watch on Super Saturday, as I am calling it, will be Tommy Haas up against the Eastbourne champion, Feliciano Lopez.  Haas beat the showers to post a commanding 6-3 6-2 7-5 victory over Jimmy Wang.  Lopez progressed into the third round by virtue of a retirement from Paul-Henri Mathieu and his second win over Gilles Simon in a week having played the Frenchman in the final of Eastbourne.  Haas has been playing incredibly consistent tennis this year, but Lopez has peaked during the grass court season and his serve and volley game works wonders on this surface.  Haas leads the head-to-head 2-0, but the last of those matches was nearly ten years ago.  This should be a good match, but I think Lopez has played a lot of tennis over the last couple of weeks and Haas will be too solid...

Prediction - Haas to beat Lopez in 4 sets

4. Agnieszka Radwanska v Madison Keys
Aga Radwanska
There has not been much said about last year's Wimbledon finalist, Agnieszka Radwanska so far this tournament.  She has cruised through her first two rounds losing no more than three games in a set, but neither of her opponents offered up much of a threat.  Aga will have to step up her game in round three as she takes on the very promising American, Madison Keys.  Keys has taken out both Heather Watson and Mona Barthel in straight sets.  She looked incredibly ropey on the grass in Birmingham, but with every match, she looks more and more comfortable on this surface.  Radwanska strolled past Keys in Miami last year, but there is no doubt that Madison is an improving player who will overpower Aga.  The question is whether she can sustain the big hitting for the whole length of the match and whether she has the nerve to pull off the big upset.

Prediction - Radwanska to beat Keys in 3 sets

Best of the rest: 3rd Round Womens Predictions
Serena Williams to beat Kimiko Date-Krumm in 2 sets 
Laura Robson to beat Marina Erakovic in 3 sets
Alison Riske to beat Kaia Kanepi in 3 sets

Tsvetana Pironkova to beat Petra Martic in 3 sets
Roberta Vinci to beat Dominika Cibulkova in 2 sets
Klara Zakopalova to beat Li Na in 3 sets

Best of the rest: 3rd Round Mens Prediction
Novak Djokovic to beat Jeremy Chardy in 3 sets
Tomas Berdych to beat Kevin Anderson in 3 tight sets

David Ferrer to beat Alexandr Dolgopolov in 4 sets
Ivan Dodig to beat Igor Sijsling in 5 sets
Kei Nishikori to beat Andreas Seppi in 3 sets
Juan Martin del Potro to beat Grega Zemlja in 4 sets

I will be at Wimbledon tomorrow as my Brother has Centre Court tickets so I will be doing my final live tweeting from the 2013 grass court season so please do give me a follow @MooTennisBlog.  I am now on holiday for the next week so I hope to be able to devote a little bit more time to my blog including my showcase Magic Monday previews, which will be posted Sunday evening :-)

7 comments:

  1. I wish you a good holiday !

    I hope there will be sunshine and may well enjoy your day tennis

    Do not forget to take photograph of the players !!

    Please take an autograph from Lisicki - Williams - Djokovic etc ..

    well enjoy yourself

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  2. Thanks, Lajiao!

    I promise I will take LOTS of photos :-)

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  3. I am really looking forward to Lisicki-Stosur match. It's like last interesting match up left in this tournament for me. Radwanska -Keys will be Agniezska's affair. I think Madison is not so experienced to take her to three sets.

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  4. Sabine Lisicki on a collision course with Serena...watch out Serena its your turn!

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  5. Sabine-make her run from side to side with an occassional dropshot when she's busy-like what Kanepi did to Angelique Kerber today:) don't try to outwin Serena on most of the points-that's everyone's mistake! make her run and run! and when you can afford to make one long rally even longer to suck the wind out of her and then the momentum shifts to you-it should be enough to cost her the set! and then the match-make her nervous by showing your not afraid from the beginning but also keep your cool and the win is yours!

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  6. I have a doubt .. in my opinion:

    Li Na to beat Klara Zakopalova

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    Replies
    1. LI Na winner :-P

      Small beetle will exceed master Moo

       

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