Wimbledon 2011 - My Predictions for Gentlemen Singles

Djokovic's Quarter

1. Hewitt d. Soderling in a major upset (2nd round), and this will be the last career victory for Hewitt at Wimbledon

2. Xavier Malisse d. Davydenko in 4th round

3. Djokovic d. Baghdatis in 4 sets (3rd round)

4. Djokovic d. Malisse in Quarter-Final



Federer's Quarter

1.Tsonga d. Ferrer in 4th round

2. 1st Round: Isner and Mahut will each try to not repeat the longest match from last year, and Isner will win in straight sets

3. Devverman will lose to Youzhny in 2nd round

4. Federer will get a major scare from Nalbandian in the 3rd round (close 4 sets)

5. Federer d. Tsonga in Quarter-final



Murray's Quarter

1. Monfils d. Roddick in 4th round

2. match to watch - Wawrinka loses to Gasquet in 3rd round in 5 sets

3. Murray d. Gasquet in 4th round

4. Murray d. Monfils in Quarter-Final



Nadal's Quarter

1. Simon will defeat Del Potro in 3rd round, but he will work so hard to do so that he will have 0 chances against Nadal in the 4th round

2. Fish will lose to Kohlschreiber in the 2nd round

3. Donald Young will reach 3rd round, and will lose to Berdych there

4. Nadal and Berdych will meet in the Quarter-Final, and here is my boldest prediction - Berdych d. Nadal in 4



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Semi-Finals

Murray d. Berdych for a place in 1st Wimbledon Final

Federer d. Djokovic in 2nd consecutive GS Semi-Final



Final

Federer d. Murray winning his 17th, and tying Sampras's 7 in Wimbledon.

My predictions for USOpen 2010 - another try

OK. Here is how I fared as it stands (against my original predictions

3 out of 8 in Men's QF (assuming Nadal will beat Lopez tonight).

Here are my revised preds:

Nadal def. Verdasco (Verdasco will be too tired after coming back from 2 sets down against Ferrer)

Youzhny def. Wawrinka (Wawrinka will be too tired on Thursday)

Monfils def. Djokovic (Djoker is playing great, so this is a bold pred)

Federer def. Soderling (it will be an uncomfortable 5 setter for Fed)

SF:

Youzhny def. Nadal (wishful prediction)

Federer def. Monfils (straight sets)

Finals:

Federer def. Youzhny (4 sets)


Women

Wozniacki def. Cibulkova
Zvonareva def. Kanepi
Venus already won
Clijsters def. Stosur (Stosur is tired from her last match, too bad)

SF
Zvonareva def. Wozniacki (good match going 3 sets)
Clijsters def. Venus W :(

Finals
Clijsters def. Zvonareva (my winner is the same as in my original prediction

My predictions for USOpen 2010

The draw is out - it is time for predictions

Women
QF
Sharapova d. Wozniacki
Kuznetsova d. Cibulkova
Peer d. Williams (Venus)
Clijsters d. ?

SF
Sharapova d. Kuznetsova
Clijsters d. Peer

F
Clijsters d. Sharapova

Men
QF
Nalbandian d. Nadal
Berdych d. Murray (this will be the best match of the tournament, a 5-setter)
Roddick d. Fish
(ARod avenging his Cincinnati loss; Fish beats Baghdatis and Djokovic on his way; Roddick beats Devverman in round of 4)
Federer d. Soderling (this will be a tough 4-setter for Roger)


SF
Berdych d. Nalbandian (both will be tired, but Berdych has more skills & youth to win)

Federer d. Roddick (just a sorry match for Roddick, again falling to the TMF)


F
Berdych d. Federer (ya, 2nd year in a row that Roger loses in the USO Final :(

Wimbledon 2010 Predictions

-------------------
Gentlemen's Singles
-------------------

Quarter-finals:

Federer d. Berdych
Roddick d. Monfils
Seppi d. Murray
Soderling d. Nadal

Semi-finals:

Roddick d. Federer
Soderling d. Seppi

Finals:
Roddick d. Soderling

---------------
Ladies' Singles
---------------

Semi-finals:
S.Williams d. Zheng
V.Williams d. Henin

Finals:
V.Williams d. S.Williams


OK, here is my addendum after Round of 16 Monday:

Federer d. Berdych (same)
Roddick d. Monfils --> Lu d. Djokovic
Seppi d. Murray --> Seppi, what was I thinking? now it is Murray d. Tsonga
Soderling d. Nadal (same)

Semi-finals:

Federer d. Lu
Murray d. Soderling

Finals:

Federer d. Murray

In the ladies, no change to finals & result;

on Goats and Grass

How can Federer be the GOAT when he has a losing record against a player from his own generation? Federer opponents use this argument every time there is a discussion of GOAT, and Fed fans like to dismiss it as bogus because it does not dilute the greatness of Federer whether to his Grand Slam record, or to his dominance on non-clay courts. As a Fed-fan myself, I used to be as dismissive but lately I am beginning to be skeptical.

If Federer does not win any more grand slams, his grand slam total will be 16. If Nadal wins another 10 Grand Slams, he will break that record. He is 24 and if he is healthy, he can win 3 slams a year for the next 3 years (to match Federer's streak at his peak, and Nadal's own 08 FO W and 09 AO), and additionally pick up another one before he retires to break the record.

It is hard to imagine that Nadal will break Federer's ultimate record of 23 straight GS semi-finals, but this record may not be considered as a criteria for GOATness, say 20 years from now.

Nadal has the potential to be GOAT, but he has so much more to accomplish. Nadal's fans have to accept that Federer is GOAT for now - it actually will help their case at Nadal's GOATness, given his awesome head-to-head record against Federer. Aren't you the GOAT if you can beat the GOAT, and match his Grand Slam record? Some of the other arguments against Federer's GOAT-ness:

1. Sampras did not have anybody from his era dominating him like Nadal does Federer -> Sampras did not get into as many semi-finals and finals as Federer; and Federer only lost to Nadal who can be considered Clay GOAT. This argument fails to explain his losses to Nadal at W08 and AU09. If only Federer did not cry at AO09, but took his runners up in more stride..

2. Lever has a calendar slam, not 1 but 2 of those -> that is amazing, and may be the only serious argument against Federer's GOATness, but hey, those were not the "open" days.

3. Federer's era did not see great champions like other eras where there were multiple grand slam winners playing at the same time -> this is the most ridiculous argument imo; Other players don't have accomplished records because of Federer's consistency for the most part. Also, you can easily imagine Federer beating Sampras (don't you wish they played more than once) on Grass and Borg on Clay. Sampras may not have allowed Nadal to get into his head on non-clay courts, but that is just speculation. Borg, if he had continued playing when he was in his prime would have had as many grand slams if not more than Federer; again, cud have, wud have.

Having said all that, this point will surely be in Federer's head when he himself thinks about his legacy. Nadal beat Federer on Federer's best surface and tournament (Wimbledon), but Federer did not beat Nadal on Nadal's best surface and tournament (French Open). It is time for Federer to win Wimbledon again (when Nadal is in the draw), preferably by beating Nadal (and if Nadal can not make it to Finals, win it any way). This will be the best thing he can do this fortnight. And go Roger, do that.

i need to travel more

1. Munich, Germany


2. Miami Beach, FL, USA


3. San Diego, CA, USA


4. Honolulu, HI, USA

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Tidhi in you pocket

A few days back, I got the Apple App store fever. As I was browsing thru' the apps, I was curious and searched for "Telugu". Initially it showed me some crappy audio items, but as I delved deeper, I found apps by TeluguOne. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 2 apps, one for Telugu calendar, and the other for Radio.

I am thrilled about the Telugu Calendar app - ఇప్పుడు తిధి కావలసినప్పుడు laptop బదులు iphone కోసం పరుగులు :) Unfortunately, I can not say the same about the Radio app. So far, It worked (connected) only 1 out of 5 tries. Oh well, you win some, and you loose some (99c for the Telugu Calendar is an awesome deal) - kudos to the writers.