Amidst all the thrills of the current French Open, arguably the top four favorites in the top half of the draw have held through to a blockbuster quarterfinal lineup. Novak Djokovic is going up against Tommy Haas on Wednesday while seven-time champion Rafael Nadal is facing Stanislas Wawrinka.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (12) Tommy Haas
Haas and Djokovic will be squaring off for the eighth time in their careers and for the second time this season when they clash in the quarterfinals of the French Open on Wednesday afternoon. Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 4-3, but Haas dominated their most recent encounter 6-2, 6-4 less than three months ago on the hard courts of Miami. Their first meetings since 2009 came last season and both went Djokovic’s way; 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Toronto and 6-3, 6-3 in Shanghai. Their only previous clay-court collision came at Roland Garros in 2006, when the Serb won a third-rounder 7-5, 6-1, 7-6(4).
Both men are in outstanding form at the moment. Djokovic lost early in Madrid and Rome, but his French Open preparation was highlighted by a win over Rafael Nadal in the Monte-Carlo final. The world No. 1 has dropped just a single set so far this fortnight–the first to Philipp Kohlschreiber on Monday. That victory was preceded by relatively routine scalps of David Goffin, Guido Pella, and Grigor Dimitrov. Hoping to a complete a career Grand Slam later in the week, Djokovic is 32-4 for the year.
“It is one of the biggest challenges in tennis, if not the biggest one right now, playing against the No. 1 player,” Haas assured. “He is somebody that’s very, very eager to win this title–one that’s missing in his collection.”
Haas may have no slam titles, but almost nothing has gone amiss for him in the past few seasons. The resurgent 35-year-old German is back up to No. 14 in the world, thanks to an outstanding 2012 and a 25-9 record for his 2013 campaign. A semifinalist in Miami and the champion in Munich, Haas is not looking back on the red dirt of Paris. He has taken out Guillaume Rufin, Jack Sock, John Isner, and Mikhail Youzhny–losing two sets (and saving one match point) against Isner on Saturday.
After his only difficult match of the tournament to date, Haas bounced back less than 48 hours later and humiliated Youzhny 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. That will give the No. 12 seed both confidence and some much-needed rest, but Djokovic is a whole different beast of an opponent who is playing inspired tennis at the moment. With only six players remaining, the top seed can be expected to bring extreme focus into this one and maintain it from start to finish. Djokovic also desperately wants to win it all following the recent death of Jelena Gencic–the woman who introduced him to tennis.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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(3) Rafael Nadal vs. (9) Stanislas Wawrinka
Wawrinka and Nadal will be going head-to-head for the 10th time in their careers on Wednesday. All nine of their previous encounters–including four on clay–have went Nadal’s way. They most recently faced each other just last month in the Madrid final, with the Spaniard treating his home crowd to a 6-2, 6-4 blowout. Wawrinka has not even won a single set against Nadal, 0-19 lifetime. The world No. 10 is 0-4 in this series on clay and he has never even extended Nadal to a tiebreaker on the slow stuff.
No signs are encouraging for Wawrinka heading into this one. Roland Garros’ ninth seed has been in outstanding form this season and more of the same has continued this fortnight, but he is coming off an absolute battle of a five-setter against Richard Gasquet on Monday. Nadal dropped sets in each of his first two matches against Daniel Brands and Martin Klizan, but those relative scares were followed by straight-set demolitions of Fabio Fognini and Kei Nishikori. Whereas the world No. 3 is a seven-time French Open champion, Wawrinka had never previously advanced past the fourth round.
Pick: Nadal in 3
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You guys should post your prediction accuracy percentage somewhere on the home page so people can have some type of indication of how accurate you guys are. Firstly for picking the correct winner and secondly for picking the correct number of sets they win. Would be interesting to see the stats.
Agree on the above post. I’ve been using your previews as a guide to betting during the tournament and they’ve been highly accurate so far. You should record your success rate as silentjag says. Loving the new site layout too …have been recommending you also to others,
Totally agree w/both 3 set picks. Wish it were otherwise, but Joker and Rafa are just at full strength and highly motivated. Their semi-final match could be one for the ages!!