Wimbledictions (For The Blokes)

Wimbledon is coming upon us. Somehow, with the technological media being saturated by it - the tournament suddenly being all over Facebook and Twitter - it seems bigger than it ever did before. The draws have just come out, and while I'm tempted to start with the women, given that anything I say about the men's draw is under the Nadal caveat, it's pretty obvious that this is where my heart is. So, my Wimbledon predictions (Wimbledictions?) for the men!

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So, let's start at the top, with the Nadal quarter - should he play, given the whole KneeGate crisis currently. Everyone seems to have been excusing him of bunging it on this week, but I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that this is a real problem. Rafa Nadal does not lose in straight sets to Lleyton Hewitt, not even in an exo. And Uncle Toni does not come out and say that he thinks Rafa should go straight back to Mallorca if there is not something seriously, seriously wrong.

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...and should Rafa play, guess who he'd get second round, provided he got through Arnaud Clement in the first round (and Arnaud was a quarterfinalist here last year). Lleyton Hewitt. And if his knees are as bad as they seem, I would not be above picking an upset here. Hewitt is going to run for everything, which means the points would be looooooong. And that is not something Rafa would really want, unless he can basically stand still on the baseline and dictate.

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Tursunov, Stepanek and Ferrer are all lurking in this section, but I actually wouldn't be surprised to see Hewitt come through and do well - he is a grass boy, and if Rafa doesn't get him, then I think he might go quite a way. But the winner of this quarter, for me, has to be Andy Roddick. In fact, I think he's going to make the final. A fully fit Rafa would eat him for breakfast, but we don't have that, and Andy is in fine form and fettle right now. He's got a tough first round against Jeremy Chardy, but I think he can get past Berdych and Davydenko, the big names in his section, to take out this quarter.

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The second quarter is the Murray quarter, and if Andy Roddick isn't in the final, Andy Murray will be - unless this really has been a KneeGate saga and Rafa is suddenly fine, which I doubt. He could face a tough one in the second round, if Gulbis suddenly remembers how to play tennis again, but I don't see Wawrinka or Gonzalez stopping him, and Safin would really have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to make a semi final reprise. I think we're going to see a semi final battle of the Andies. I'm picking Roddick, but Murray is definitely a possibility.

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Then we have the Djokovic quarter, and while a lot of people have been picking an early exit for him, I think he actually has a pretty good route. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and pick a real upset for this section - especially if Juan Martin del Potro gets moved in the draw up to take Rafa's spot. I think our semi finalist here will be Tommy Haas. He's got the game at the moment and I reckon he could sneak into the semis much like Schuettler did last year. It could be very, very interesting, this quarter... it's not that hard a quarter, but that could just mean bigger upsets.

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And then we come to the Federer quarter - which I think is the hardest of the lot. There are some big grass court names in there - Lopez and Karlovic leap out, and, after his run in Paris, so does Kohlschreiber. Yen-hsun Lu is not an easy first round draw for the Swiss Mister either. However, all this said, I think Roger's going to come through just fine. All the way to the final. And the title. Oh yeah.

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So just a reminder of the predictions I made:

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Semis: Andy Roddick vs. Andy Murray, Tommy Haas vs. Roger Federer

Final: Andy Roddick vs. Roger Federer

Winner: Roger Federer

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So let's see how I go!

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Today's Results

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AEGON International (Eastbourne)

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Men's Draw

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Dmitry Tursunov def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-2 6-2

Frank Dancevic def. Fabrice Santoro, 6-4 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Virginie Razzano def. Marion Bartoli, 6-4 1-0 retired

Caroline Wozniacki def. Aleksandra Wozniak, 3-6 6-4 6-4

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Ordina Open (s'Hertogenbosch)

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Men's Draw

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Raemon Sluiter def. Ivan Navarro, 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3

Benjamin Becker def. Rainer Schuettler, 3-6 7-5 6-1

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Women's Draw

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Yanina Wickmayer def. Francesca Schiavone, 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 6-3

Tamarine Tanasugarn def. Dinara Safina, 7-5 7-5