Miami fourth round
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov: Djokovic has been dominant at times this tournament but has also endured mental walkabouts. He should learn from his previous two matches and turn in a no-nonsense performance against an opponent he won’t take lightly. Djokovic in 2.
(22) John Isner vs. (5) Milos Raonic: Isner is playing at home in the United States, but he would rather contest this one during the day rather than after 9:00 at night. Strong play has come out of nowhere for Isner, but it’s the norm for Raonic. Raonic in 3.
(28) Adrian Mannarino vs. Dominic Thiem: The most surprising fourth-round clash is the first ever between Mannarino and Thiem. Mannarino has been on fire the whole season, whereas Thiem is just now finding his form. Look for the difference to be the Frenchman’s early ball-striking and ability to take time away from Thiem. Mannarino in 3.
(15) Kevin Anderson vs. (3) Andy Murray: Murray feels right at home in Miami (because he, basically) and he has been in cruise-control mode so far. The No. 3 seed, who generally has his way with big hitters, is 3-1 against Anderson. Murray in 2.
(8) Tomas Berdych vs. (17) Gael Monfils: Aside from a five-set loss at the 2013 French Open, Berdych has had little trouble with Monfils (4-1 lifetime). The Czech has a new lease on life after saving four match points against Bernard Tomic on Sunday. Berdych in 2.
Juan Monaco vs. (29) Fernando Verdasco: Since starting the season 0-4, Monaco is 11-3 in his last 14 matches. He effectively has home-court advantage as an Argentine, while Verdasco has the tough task of building on a massive win over Rafael Nadal. Monaco in 2.
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I agree with your predictions. I only think that verdasco will beat monaco based on stats and verdasco should be on a bit of a high in confidence after taking out nadal.
Verdasco to pip Monaco.
https://twitter.com/genny_ss/status/582986521415946240
The Dog showing the Djoker up.
Well the Dog just lost the plot. From being two games from winning the match in the second set, he was broken and then lost the set. Bageled in the third by Novak. Too bad he couldn’t keep it up.
3-0 Isner. Nice.
nice win for Big John
https://twitter.com/CindyBlack3/status/583048666929324033/photo/1
I actually watched this match, even those big serving ace fests bore me to tears. I was going back and forth with my remote and keeping track of the score to see if anyone got a break.
I do think that Isner showed some mental toughness to come back in that second set tb from being down 4-1 to win it and take it to a third set. He also had some tough service games in the third set where Raonic had a chance to break. So good for him to hold serve in the final set because a break for either guy would have meant the match.
I think this is a good win for him and now he’s in the quarterfinals.
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Augusta08 says:
April 1, 2015 at 6:27 am
funny pic 🙂
I didn’t know if I was even going to watch Isner/Raonic because it would be a battle of the big servers. That’s what it was. Neither guy got a break and it was three TB’s. I couldn’t stay tuned through the whole match because for me it wasn’t scintillating tennis at all. Even the crowd at times seemed so quiet.
The funniest thing was the commentators on the tennis channel. The only one talking was Mary Carillo! Paul Annacone was silent because there was simply nothing to analyze or talk about. In his pre-match graphic for what each player needed to do, he said for Raonic – serve better than Isner. Then he said for Isner – serve better than Raonic.
That’s about it.
Thrilling tennis. Hard court tennis at its best. Just as I like it :-).
I assume you are being sardonic!
It was mind numbing at times. I watched all of the first set including the tb. Then I started switching my remote in the second set, checking back to see if anyone got a break. I did watch the second set tb. Then I watched the entire third set! I was surprised that I hung in there. It was just an ace fest, first serves bombing away and the occasional brief few shots to win the point.
I sincerely hope that this is not the future of tennis!
This is a step into the future of tennis.
To culminate into robots, actual artificial robots playing tennis, mostly sending bombs of serves.
The competition will have shifted to which teams of hardware and software engineers can put together and program the most competitive server, sorry, I mean tennis playing machine.