US Open Tournament Predictions
The 2011 US Open will commence several hours from now in the Big Apple. Coming into the final major of the year, the focus on the men’s side is clearly around Novak Djokovic, who at 57-2 on the year will be looking to capture his third slam of the year. Also, look for this year to be one of the best showings for American males in the last several years . With this being said, here are my predictions for 2011…
Dark Horse: I was going to put Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in this position, but I simply do not believe that he is a dark horse. At this point, Tsonga is a certified threat and will not be taken lightly by anyone. To state it simply, if Tsonga were to advance to the Semifinals it would not come as a huge shock thus he is not a dark horse in my book. A dark horse is defined as someone essentially wins against expectation. My dark horse in this tournament is without a doubt John Isner. I fully expect Isner to get past Baghdatis seeing that he has not only beaten him two out of the last three weeks in Montreal and Winston Salem but Isner also has the American crowd to rally behind. In the second round Isner would get through Robby Ginepri with ease. The third round would likely be a matchup against Robin Soderling. The Swede has been out of the game since Wimbledon and will definitely come into the Open with rust. I fully believe that Isner has the game and more crucially the confidence to take out Soderling on such a big stage. Isner would likely play Del Potro or Simon in the fourth round. Both of these are winnable matches for Isner as Simon lacks the firepower necessary to defeat the top guys in a best of five match and Del Potro has clearly been playing below his top level. If Isner does end up reaching the QFs and playing Andy Murray he would definitely be the overwhelming underdog, but crazier things have happened.
Early Exit: Plainly put, Robin Soderling has been out since Wimbledon and with the lack of hard court play, I find it very hard to see him progressing past the first week in Flushing Meadows.
Best first round matchups (Ranked):
1. Monfils v. Dimitrov
2. Harrison v. Cilic
3. Baghdatis v. Isner
4. Kohlschreiber v. Stepanek
5. Youzhny v. Gulbis
I am not going to go to in depth right now with predictions as there will be time for that later on in the tournament but here are what I see as the most probable matchups:
QF Matchups:
Djokovic v. Monfils
Federer v. Fish
Murray v. Isner
Nadal V. Ferrer
Semis: Djokovic v. Federer; Murray v. Nadal
Finals: Murray v. Djokovic
Winner of 2011 US Open: Djokovic
