Roland Garros 2010 Men's Semifinals Preview

BY MADPROFESSAH

I previously made predictions of the four women's quarterfinals and four men's quarterfinals and got 4 of 8 results correct at this year's French Open. The 2010 Roland Garros men's semifinals are now set.

Roger Federer SUI (1) Robin Soderling SWE (5) vs. Tomas Berdych CZE (15). Soderling loves Court Phillippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros. Last year he beat defending champion Rafael Nadal in the fourth round before losing to Roger Federer in the final. This year he beat defending champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinal and seems destined to reach his second consecutive Roland Garros final on the biggest clay court in the world. But there's someone who is even taller and serves bigger in the way of Soderling's dream: Tomas Berdych. Berdych has cut through the men's draw like the 6'5", 200 pound Czech scythe that he is, eliminating Andy Murray and John Isner along the way without dropping a set. Berdych recently had a career milestone when he finally beat Roger Federer for the first time in 9 matches(second time overall) in Miami in March. Soderling beat Federer for the first time of his career on Tuesday. The two have played 8 times overall, with Soderling holding a slim 5-3 lead in their career head-to-head match up. They have split the two matches they played this year, and they have split the two matches they have played on clay. In my mind, either Berdych will continue his rout of the field and win easily in straight sets (a low probability event) or he will start off hot and not be able to sustain his high level against someone like the powerful Swede who can match him toe-to-toe. Also, although this is Berdych's very first major semifinal, it is only Soderling's second, but this is also where Soderling outlasted Fernando Gonzalez in a very thrilling semifinal last year. I believe he will make it to the final for the second year in a row.

MadProfessah's pick: Berdych in 3 sets or Soderling in 4 or 5.

Novak Djokovic SRB (3) Jurgen Melzer AUT (22) vs. Rafael Nadal ESP (2). Although Nadal survived his toughest test of the tournament in countryman Nicolas Almagro by having to play three very tight sets (7-6(2) 7-6(3) 6-4), there is almost no doubt that the Spaniard will reach his 5th Roland Garros final in six years by dismissing the surprising Austrian veteran relatively quickly. Many people (myself included) were salivating at the chance of seeing another showdown between Nadal and Novak Djokovic in an important clay court match which could possibly reprise their now-legendary 2009 Madrid semifinal where Nadal won a 3-set match in 4 hours. However, it is significant that the Serb let slip a double set and a break advantage to lose another Roland Garros semifinal, this time to the relatively unheralded Melzer. Could he possibly have blanched at the thought of having to face Nadal for the third time in four years in the semifinal round? Nadal and Melzer have only met twice before, once on clay, with Nadal winning easily both times and this time will be no different.

MadProfessah's pick: Nadal in 3 sets.

Roland Garros 2010 Day 10 Order Of Play

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Spain's Nicolas Almagro eyes the ball after hitting a forehand to Spain's Fernando Verdasco during their men's fourth round match in the French Open tennis championship at the Roland Garros stadium, on May 31, 2010, in Paris.

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We have arrived at the final eight. MadProfessah has posted his predictions and we'll talk about them here as the action unfolds.

Conventional wisdom states that Elena Dementieva is the best active player on the WTA never to have won a slam. I reject that. That honor goes to Miss Nadia Petrova. No, she's never been to a Slam final, never won an Olympic Gold, but she has the most talent and most complete game of the non-Slam winners in the women's field. And she can serve. We know what her deadliest weakness is and I, for one, am hoping she can smother it this week and make her first Slam final.

I'm also rooting for Francesca Schiavone, one of the most imaginative players on the tour who fights to the bigger end. She'll have her work cut out for her against the backboard that his Caroline Wozniacki, but if the veteran can frustrate the youngster enough, she'll advance to her first Slam semifinal in the latter days of her career. What a story that would be.

As for the men, it probably goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: I wanna see Robin Söderling play Tomas Berdych in the semifinals. Let it be, let it be.

Schedule for Day 10: Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Court Philippe Chatrier 14:00 Start Time
1. Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Francesca Schiavone (ITA)[17] v. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)[3]
2. Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
Roger Federer (SUI)[1] v. Robin Soderling (SWE)[5]
3. Men's Doubles - Fourth Round
Marc Lopez (ESP)/Pere Riba (ESP) v. Wesley Moodie (RSA)/Dick Norman (BEL)[4]

Court Suzanne Lenglen 14:00 Start Time
1. Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Elena Dementieva (RUS)[5] v. Nadia Petrova (RUS)[19]
2. Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
Tomas Berdych (CZE)[15] v. Mikhail Youzhny (RUS)[11]
3. Men's Doubles - Fourth Round
Lukasz Kubot (POL)/Oliver Marach (AUT)[6] v. Daniel Nestor (CAN)/Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)[2]

Court 1 11:00 Start Time
1. Men's Doubles - Fourth Round
Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/Leander Paes (IND)[3] v. Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/Marcin Matkowski (POL)[8]
2. Women's Doubles - Fourth Round
Monica Niculescu (ROU)/Shahar Peer (ISR) v. Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP)[2]
3. Mixed Doubles - Third Round
Vania King (USA)/Christopher Kas (GER) v. Tathiana Garbin (ITA)/Marcin Matkowski (POL)
4. Women's Doubles - Fourth Round
Kveta Peschke (CZE)/Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)[12] v. Alona Bondarenko (UKR)/Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR)

Court 2 11:00 Start Time
1. Men's Doubles - Fourth Round
Marcelo Melo (BRA)/Bruno Soares (BRA) v. Julian Knowle (AUT)/Andy Ram (ISR)[10]
2. Girls' Singles - Second Round
Nastja Kolar (SLO)[4] v. Charlene Seateun (FRA)
3. Mixed Doubles - Third Round
Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ)/Julian Knowle (AUT) v. Cara Black (ZIM)/Leander Paes (IND)[2]

Roland Garros 2010 Men's Quarterfinals

BY MadProfessah

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at Roland Garros in 2010.

Roger Federer SUI (1) vs. Robin Soderling SWE (5). This quarterfinal is a repeat of last year's final, which Federer won relatively easily in straight sets. Although Soderling has not beaten Federer in an official ATP Tour match in 12 tries, he did beat the World #1 at an exhibition earlier this year in Abu Dhabi and having beaten Rafael Nadal in what some people call the greatest upset ever, the tall, powerful Swede knows he has the game to end Federer's jawdropping streak of 23 consecutive major semifinals. In fact, this match is very important to Federer, not only due to the semifinals streak, but also because he needs to win it in order to be certain that he will break Pete Sampras' record of 286 weeks at #1 before Wimbledon. Federer has yet to drop a set in Paris this year, but I am sure that he will take the challenge posed by Soderling seriously, even though the 6'4", 195-pound ballcrusher has only ever won two tie-break sets against him. After all, it is very possible to never lose your serve and still lose the match! Some say that Federer is losing his edge now that he is a husband, father and broken the major singles title record. I disagree, even though the fact is that Federer has already lost 6 matches this year (to Nadal, Tomas Berdych, Ernests Gulbis, Marcos Baghdatis, Albert Montanes, and Nikolay Davydenko). Regardless, I think that there is an inexorable march towards another Nadal-Federer final. PREDICTION: Federer in 4 sets.

Tomas Berdych CZE (15) vs. Mikhail Youzhny RUS (11). Berdych has been playing really well this year, and made a huge mental breakthrough by finally ending his losing streak against Roger Federer earlier this year in Miami. He has been demolishing his way through the draw, not dropping a set despite playing good clay court players like John Isner and Andy Murray. Youzhny got lucky in the previous round since an injured Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was forced to retire after losing the first set. Although head-to-head Youzhny leads Berdych 6-4 in career ATP matches, I believe the in-form Czech will take out the (un)lucky Russian. PREDICTION: Berdych in 4 sets.

Jurgen Melzer AUT (22) Teimuraz Gabashvili RUS vs. Novak Djokovic SRB (3). Gabashvili blew Andy Roddick off the court in the 3rd round in straight sets, blasting forehands into the corners of the court and defly handing the American's deflated serve easily. However, he was unable to repeat this performance on the clay against the wily lefty veteran Melzer, who like Samantha Stosur on the women's side, had previously experienced success and fame on the doubles court and used that to build confidence on the singles court. Melzer was one of the few Top 30 players never to reach the fourth round of a major, and now he finds himself in a quarter playing Djokovic. The World #3 has had mental lapses in the second set in three of the four matches he has played at Roland Garros this year. If that happens again, perhaps Melzer can find a way to win the resulting best-of-3 match. All the pressure will be on the higher ranked player to reach a 3rd semifinal against Nadal, who took out the Serb in that round in 2007 and 2008. Roland Garros 2010 is looking like a replay of those years, with another Nadal-Federer final. PREDICTION:Djokovic in 4 sets.

Nicolas Almagro ESP (19) Fernando Verdasco ESP (7) vs. Rafael Nadal ESP (2). The Verdasco and Nadal played one of the best matches of the year (probably of the decade) in the semifinals of the 2009 Australian Open, a five-hour, thrilling slugfest that both competitors were ennobled simply by their participation, although of course there was only one winner (Nadal). Almagro dashed hopes for a reprise of that thrilling Melbourne showdown by taking out Verdasco in four sets. Although Almagro has never beaten Nadal on any surface in 6 attempts, he did start off the match very strong when they played the Madrid Masters semifinal. It i beyond belief that Almagro could maintain that level of play over 5 sets in Paris when he could not do it for 2 sets in Madrid. PREDICTION: Nadal in 4 sets.

Face Of The Day

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Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic celebrates match point during the men's singles fourth round match against Andy Murray of Great Britain at the French Open on day eight of the French Open at Roland Garros on May 30, 2010 in Paris, France.

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Men's Singles - Fourth Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d [20] S Wawrinka (SUI) 63 76(5) 62
[15] T Berdych (CZE) d [4] A Murray (GBR) 64 75 63
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d [10] M Cilic (CRO) 64 64 62
[11] M Youzhny (RUS) d [8] J Tsonga (FRA) 62 ret. (back)

Women's Singles - Fourth Round
(19) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (2) Venus Williams (USA) 64 63
(3) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (14) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 76(5) 67(4) 62
(5) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (Q) Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) 61 63
(17) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. (30) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 64 64

Women's Singles - Third Round
(22) Justine Henin (BEL) d. (12) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 62 36 63

Men's Doubles - Third Round
[2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d G Rufin (FRA) / A Sidorenko (FRA) 67(2) 64 63
[3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) d S Gonzalez (MEX) / T Rettenmaier (USA) 63 64
M Lopez (ESP) / P Riba (ESP) d [9] F Cermak (CZE) / M Mertinak (SVK) 75 64
[10] J Knowle (AUT) / A Ram (ISR) d N Almagro (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) 76(4) 62
M Melo (BRA) / B Soares (BRA) d D Bracciali (ITA) / P Starace (ITA) 76(2) 76(7)

Men's Doubles - Second Round
[4] W Moodie (RSA) / D Norman (BEL) d C Fleming (GBR) / K Skupski (GBR) 76(5) 46 76(4)
[6] L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT) d L Mayer (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) 64 67(8) 63
[8] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d A Dolgopolov Jr (UKR) / D Istomin (UZB) 61 64
[15] J Benneteau (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d R Bopanna (IND) / A Qureshi (PAK) 75 63

Women's Doubles - Third Round
(1) Williams/Williams (USA/USA) d. (16) Hlavackova/Hradecka (CZE/CZE) 61 62
(2) Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez (ESP/ESP) d. (15) Govortsova/Kudryavtseva (BLR/RUS) 60 64
(3) Huber/Medina Garrigues (USA/ESP) d. (13) Benesova/Zahlavova Strycova (CZE/CZE) 75 26 64
(5) Dulko/Pennetta (ARG/ITA) d. (9) Mattek-Sands/Yan (USA/CHN) 76(7) 60
(12) Peschke/Srebotnik (CZE/SLO) d. (6) Black/Vesnina (ZIM/RUS) 76(5) 61
(11) Kirilenko/Radwanska (RUS/POL) d. (7) Raymond/Stubbs (USA/AUS) 76(6) 64

Women's Doubles - Second Round
Niculescu/Peer (ROU/ISR) d. (8) Kleybanova/Schiavone (RUS/ITA) 62 76(5)

Mixed Doubles - Second Round
Alisa Kleybanova (RUS)/Max Mirnyi (BLR)[5] d. Julie Coin (FRA)/Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 62 63
Aurelie Vedy (FRA)/Michael Llodra (FRA) d. Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/Eric Butorac (USA) 76(7) 57 10-8
Tathiana Garbin (ITA)/Marcin Matkowski (POL) d. Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/Michal Mertinak (SVK) 63 62

Cara Black (ZIM)/Leander Paes (IND)[2] lead Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/Bruno Soares (BRA) 75 20 - Suspended due to darkness