SeaSportsCamp - About Sports

The draws are out, the players are in Paris. It’s time for the previews.

Top Quarter

Justine Henin and Rafael Nadal are sharing the same mission at this year’s French Open. Both of them want to win the biggest clay court prize for a third consecutive year. Henin is looking for a fourth career title in Paris.

The Belgian will have her work cut out for her, as Juju will have to go through her two biggest challengers just to reach the final. First of all, Henin is scheduled to meet Australian Open champion Serena Williams in the quarters, whom she lost to in the final of Miami earlier this year. If she takes out Serena, Jelena Jankovic will be waiting in the semi’s.

I have seen Henin play on clay several times this year and I don’t feel she is as dominant as she was last year. She could have lost to Jankovic in the semi-finals of Warsaw, a tournament Henin won, and she should have lost to that same Jankovic in Berlin, when the Serbian was leading 4-0 in the third set but failed to close out the match. Henin fell to Kuznetsova in the semi-finals of the Tier I event.

Because of this, I am going for Serena Williams to take her out in the quarterfinals. There is no better fighter out there than Serena and I believe she has genuinely set her mind to performing well in Paris. Not to forget that Serena has already beaten Henin earlier this year, albeit on a hard court. 

Semi-final pick: Serena Williams
Second QuarterMoving on to the second section of the draw. Here we have the in-form Jelena Jankovic, who just can’t seem to stop playing these days. Exactly one year ago, before the tournament in Rome, she was on the verge of retiring from the sport, when she couldn’t get past a first round in nine straight events. A year later, she won the Tier I event and moved up to number four in the world.Moving on to the second section of the draw. Here we have the in-form Jelena Jankovic, who just can’t seem to stop playing these days. Exactly one year ago, before the tournament in Rome, she was on the verge of retiring from the sport, when she couldn’t get past a first round in nine straight events. A year later, she won the Tier I event and moved up to number four in the world.However, Jankovic has apparantly not learned from what happened to her in Australia earlier this year. During the Australian circuit, Jankovic was performing so well, that she reached the final of back-to-back events in Auckland and Sydney. She had played 10 matches in two weeks time, right before the Australian Open. Jankovic would have been a real contender, had she been a hundred percent fit during the first major of the year. The amount of matches played before heading to Melbourne got to her, and she was an easy prey for Serena Williams in the fourth round.

Now, Jankovic had reached the semi-finals in Warsaw and the quarterfinals in Berlin – played over two days due to rain delays – before she won the tournament in Rome. All in back-to-back-to-back weeks. What would any person do the next week, just seven days before the start of a Grand Slam event? Exactly, pull out of the next event and rest up.

Jelena Jankovic though, is not any person. She decides to play the tiny warm-up event of Strasbourg, makes the semi-finals and then pulls out.

If Jankovic were to make the semi-final or final of Roland Garros, she would have played for six straight weeks. Don’t tell me this isn’t going to affect your physical condition.

Still, despite a tough draw with Venus Williams in the third round, Elena Dementieva in the fourth and Nadia Petrova or Nicole Vaidisova in the quarters, I’m going with J.J. in this section.

Semi-final pick: Jelena Jankovic

Third Quarter

Ana Ivanovic captured the Tier I title in Berlin earlier this month and should have a fairly comfortable road to the quarterfinals here in Paris. So should Svetlana Kuznetsova, whom Ivanovic beat in the Berlin final. The Russian’s only threat comes in Shahar Peer, a likely opponent in the round of 16.

Kuznetsova, a finalist to Henin in last year’s edition, could meet Anastasia Myskina in the second round, should the 2004 Roland Garros champion win her first encounter after a long injury lay-off. Myskina hasn’t played a match since January, when she lost a first rounder against Gisela Dulko in Auckland. The Russian faces a tough opener against Meghann Shaughnessy.

Kuznetsova should have no problems with Myskina should the two Russians meet, but I don’t think the No.3 seed will advance past the quarterfinals. Ivanovic beat Kuznetsova in a third set tiebreaker in Berlin and I think the Serbian will once again prevail.

Semi-final pick: Ana Ivanovic

Fourth Quarter

Maria Sharapova and Amelie Mauresmo are the two highest seeds of the bottom quarter. Still, I don’t see either of them making the quarterfinals. Mauresmo will likely face Lucie Safarova in the third round. The Frenchwoman lost to the 25^th seed at the Australian Open and I don’t think things will turn out any different in Paris. Mauresmo is in the Strasbourg final this week, but even if she wins the title of the small Tier III event on Saturday, the current No.5 still hasn’t had much of a preparation on clay.

But the player to watch for in this fourth quarter is not Safarova, but a woman from Switzerland. With Martina Hingis sidelined due to injury, Patty Schnyder will be the Swiss hope on the women’s side. Just once has the 28-year-old veteran from Basel made the semi-finals of a Grand Slam, which was in 2004, when Schnyder reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and lost to Kim Clijsters. At Roland Garros, a quarterfinal appearance dating back to 1998 is her best result.

This year though, I think good old Patty could go one step further. She reached the quarterfinals at the Tier I in Berlin, and bested Serena Williams in Rome en route to the semi-finals, where she lost to tournament winner Jelena Jankovic. Schnyder has a tough third round opponent in Alona Bondarenko, a finalist in Warsaw a few weeks ago, but if she gets past that hurdle, I don’t see a Maria Sharapova without match practice stopping her on clay in the round of 16.

Semi-final pick: Patty Schnyder

Serena Williams – Jankovic

I would have honestly picked Jankovic to win this match and the title, because I think she can hit with Serena but moves better on the clay, giving her the edge. However, considering her tough draw in Paris, I fear she will be drained again just like in Australia once she gets to face Serena, falling short of a career first Grand Slam final.

Pick: Serena Williams

Ivanovic - Schnyder

Another Berlin duel going on a replay. Both women have never progressed to a final of a Grand Slam, but Patty Schnyder is the more experienced of the two. Still, I believe this will be a breakthrough event for Ivanovic, beating her compatriot Jelena Jankovic in becoming the first woman from Serbia to do battle for a Grand Slam title.

Pick: Ivanovic

Serena Williams - Ivanovic 

Serena Williams in a Grand Slam final against an inexperienced opponent. Would you honestly bet against her on this one? Neither would I.
Champion: Serena Williams

Unseeded Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai recorded her second win over a former No. 1-ranked player Friday at the Istanbul Cup, beating top-seeded Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the final against Russian Elena Dementieva.

Rezai earlier in the week beat Venus Williams in the second round.

“I am very happy about defeating Sharapova,” Rezai told local television. “Dementieva is a more experienced player than me…I believe that I will play better tomorrow.”

Sharapova’s serving problems continued this week, with the leggy Russian throwing in seven double faults during the contest.

“I am glad that I came here and I played a few matches before Roland Garros, though it is unfortunate to lose in the semifinals,” Sharapova said. “I have been working very hard in the last weeks.”

Dementieva had commented earlier this month that she had considered retirement after suffering a stress fracture of three ribs that were slow healing.

The 20-year-old Rezai, ranked No. 62, will meet Dementieva in Saturday’s final after the Russian beat Alona Bondarenko 7-6(5), 6-2 in her semifinal.

Rezai is seeking her first WTA title.

“It is the best result of my career — this is the fruit of my work,” Rezai said.

In March Rezai and her father-coach Arsalan were banned from Roland Garros for two years, except to play the French Open, following allegations of violent behavior towards the French Fed Cup captain by the father.

The 20-year-old was told she can not use the facilities at the home of the French Open throughout the year, but can still compete at the tournament. Her father is banned from not only the venue but also all tournaments organized by the French Tennis Federation. Arsalan mixed it up with France’s Fed Cup captain Georges Goven, with whom he reportedly had a violent altercation in February.

As a junior Rezai was banned from playing French tournaments for a year after her father threatened the father of another rival junior.

Next week in Roland Garros the unseeded Rezai will face No. 18-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the first round, with a potential third-round meeting with Dementieva.

Roland Garros Previews – Les Hommes

The draws are out, the players are in Paris. It’s time for the previews.

Top Quarter

Roger Federer reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2005, when the mighty Swiss fell to Rafael Nadal. In 2006, he was beaten by the Spaniard in the final. Can Federer do one step better again this year and claim the ‘Coupe des Musquetaires’? After his win in Hamburg, it is not Nadal but Federer who heads into Paris with a winning streak on dirt.

The top seed will start off his campaign against American Michael Russell, who in 2001 led Gustavo Kuerten in their fourth round encounter 2-0 in sets and a break in the third, before he fell in a dramatic five setter. This inspired Guga to draw his famous heart in the red clay.

Federer should breeze through to the quarters where he’s scheduled to meet Tommy Robredo, whom he leads 7-0 in career meetings, two of which have come on clay. Oddly enough, Federer’s two biggest wins against the Spaniard were the ones on dirt. First in Rome ’03, 6-1 6-1, and second in Hamburg ’05, 6-2 6-3. Federer straight-setted Robredo in this year’s Australian Open quarterfinal and, judging by their record, should advance fairly easily in Paris as well.

Semi-final pick: Roger Federer

Second Quarter

The second quarter of the draw is where the action is at. Nikolay Davydenko (4), Fernando Gonzalez (5), Richard Gasquet (11), David Nalbandian (15), Juan Ignacio Chela (18), Guillermo Canas (19), Jurgen Melzer (27) and Nicolas Almagro (32) are the seeds in this section, with Melzer being the odd man out. The others are all capable of beating each other and advancing to the semi-finals. But, there are also some dangerous floaters around, who could mess things up a little. First of all, there’s local hero Gael Monfils, who seems to be playing himself back in form this week in Poertschach, taking out Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt en route to the final, where he’ll face Juan Monaco on Saturday. The Argentine can also be found in this quarter, as well as his compatriot Jose Acasuso.

If you had asked me before the start of the clay court season who to pick from this section of the draw, I would have put my money on Canas. However, since his run to the final in Miami, Canas has broken down a little, perhaps overplaying himself. He made the final of Barcelona, losing to Nadal, but has been bothered with minor injuries since. A week ago in Hamburg, Canas was beaten by in-form compatriot Chela in the first round. I wouldn’t be surprised if Canas was the one to come out of this quarter, in which case, he has a real chance against Roger Federer to make the final, but I’m not favoring him anymore.

I don’t think Fernando Gonzalez will reach the semi-finals either. The Chilean made the last eight at Roland Garros in 2003 but hasn’t advanced past the third round in five other attempts.

Nicolas Almagro could be a future Roland Garros semi-finalist, but I find the 20-year-old Spaniard to still be a little reckless at times.

I am favoring Nikolay Davydenko to come through here, judging from his performance in Rome. The Russian played some great tennis in his matches against Robredo, Starace and especially Nadal and looks a solid pick for the semi’s if he brings his A-game.

Semi-final pick: Nikolay Davydenko

Third Quarter

On paper, this is third-seeded Andy Roddick’s quarter, but we all know better. The draw wasn’t easy on the No.1 American, who will take on Igor Andreev in the first round. The Russian has found his form over the past weeks, coming back from a long injury lay-off in 2006. Roddick on the other hand is a mere 2-2 on clay this year. I’m picking Mr. Kirilenko in this one.

Novak Djokovic is undoubtedly the player to watch for in this section. The sixth-seeded Serb reached the quarterfinals in 2006 when he retired trailing 2-0 in sets to Rafael Nadal, but Nole has a golden opportunity to advance to his first ever Grand Slam semi-final here in Paris. Igor Andreev, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Marcos Baghdatis are shaping up as likeliest quarterfinal opponents. Djokovic couldn’t have wished for a better draw.

Semi-final pick: Novak Djokovic

Fourth Quarter

Rafael Nadal headlines the fourth and final quarter of the draw. It looks very likely Rafa will meet Lleyton Hewitt again in the fourth round, just like he did last year. The Aussie may have gotten close in their semi-final meeting in Hamburg last week, but Nadal will not be fatigued anymore by now and should not drop more than a set against the 14^th seed.

In the other section of this quarter, there is some hope for the American fans, as James Blake’s draw is looking quite promising. Blake will start against Croatian bomber Ivo Karlovic and has either Jonas Bjorkman or Peter Luczak in round two. Can we say third round lock? Probably not, but Blake will be very dissappointed if he doesn’t get through these matches. From there on, it’ll be either Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany or Oscar Hernandez. If Blake doesn’t get to face the Spaniard, he has a very good chance of making the fourth round, in which case he’ll square off against Tomas Berdych. The Czech has been playing well lately and has beaten Blake on clay in Davis Cup, but he would not be a bad match-up for the 8^th seed.

Anyhow, there’s only one pick for this quarter.

Semi-final pick: Rafael Nadal

Federer – Davydenko

This is turning out to become a dream draw for the Swiss. First he gets to beat Robredo for the eighth time in as many career meetings, now he faces a man whom he is leading 8-0 head to head.

Pick: Federer

Nadal - Djokovic

Novak Djokovic was beaten soundly by Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of Rome, but he looked fatigued from winning in Estoril the week before. I think Djokovic has the ability to play Nadal tough on any surface, but I can’t see Rafa losing to his younger opponent at Roland Garros… yet.

Pick: Nadal

Federer - Nadal

Yes, I’m going with the Federer – Nadal final and I believe Rafa will win his third straight title in Paris. He has never been beaten at Roland Garros and is a whopping 27-0 in best of five set matches on clay. Like I said in my analysis of the Hamburg final earlier this week, his loss to Federer in Germany was mainly because he was drained from winning in Rome the week before and having played so much over the past weeks. Now that he’s recharged the batteries, I don’t see anyone taking three sets from Nadal on clay.

Champion: Nadal

I saw this in the Boston Globe yesterday and thought it was useful enough to share… Following is the calendar for Major League Baseball for 2007:

• June 7-9: Amateur draft
• July 10: All-Star Game in San Francisco
• July 29: National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductions
• July 31: Last date to trade a player without securing waivers
• September 1: Active rosters expand to 40 players
• October 3: Playoffs begin

May 19, 2007 Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Box Score and Play by Play - Baseball-Reference.com So far this is only for the current season box scores. I narrowed them somewhat and added a link to games from that day, so if you are looking at say yesterday’s games you can get them all [...]

Baseball-Reference.com Play Index - Baseball-Reference PI I made some changes to the Play Index forms today. I cleaned them up a little bit and tried to make them more uniform. The forms no longer stretch from one side to the other of the screen. I also linked the team streak finders to the team gamelogs [...]

From 1998 to 2007, as Starter, In team’s first 40 games, (requiring IP>=7), sorted by greatest Team performances matching criteria in a single game - Baseball-Reference PI I added some new features to the team and player game finders today. We’ve always had the option for finding the player with the most 10-so games in [...]

In case you missed it…

Emirates Team new Zealand bested Desafio Espanol 2007 5-2 to earn a spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals. They will face Luna Rosa Challenge of Italy in the best of nine race series. The Luis Vuitton Cup Finals get underway on June 1 in Valencia Spain. The winner advances to challenge Alinghi of Switzerland in the America’s Cup which will start on June 23rd.

I’ve upgraded the search engine to include a number of team related searches. The following searches now all return the expected results. I also added in all of the common directory names. BOS 2007 Teams awards franch NYY Mets 2001 1919 CHW 1970 Expos Franchise Dodgers ff Dodgers ff is an alias for the Franchise Pages. If something appears to be missing let me [...]

With all that happened in the Hamburg final on Sunday, one man’s performance has been stuck under the radar a little.

Lleyton Hewitt put up a respectable and surprising run to the semi-finals of the German Masters Series event, straight-setting clay court specialists Juan Ignacio Chela, Agustin Calleri and Nicolas Almagro. The former No.1 also outlasted Nikolay Davydenko in the third round, before eventually falling in a three set thriller to Rafael Nadal.

Hewitt hadn’t reached a Masters Series semi-final since Cincinnati 2005. It has been even longer since he made the last four at a clay court event, which was also at Hamburg, three years ago.

I was surprised with how well Hewitt was playing, especially on clay, his weakest surface. He was solid from the back, but played aggressively with his forehand when he got the chance. What impressed me most though, was the way the current No.16 was serving throughout the tournament. If only his delivery didn’t let him down after winning the opening set against Nadal in the semi-final, the Spaniard’s winning streak could have easily ended a day sooner.

Hewitt showed that when he is on, he can still be a major force in the sport. However, the keyword for Lleyton is fitness. Over the past two to three years, Hewitt has hardly managed to stay fit for a longer period of time. I believe this is partly because of everything that happened in his personal life. Splitting from Kim Clijsters, marrying Bec Cartwright and becoming a father have surely taken away from his tennis. The several injuries he’s had could have come forward out of the fact that Hewitt wasn’t a hundred percent focused on his performance on court anymore. How many times didn’t we hear he had lost the fire in his eyes?

I can tell you one thing, the fire was burning brightly over in Germany the past week. Hewitt was very eager to perform and his antics appeared to be just that little bit stronger than they were in recent years. Now that he has settled down with his wife and daughter, it seems that the Aussie fighter  has his mind set to making a return to the upper echelon of the game. 

If Hewitt really has left his niggling injuries behind him - the latest being a back injury he endured at Indian Wells which kept him out until Rome - I believe he has the ability to get back to the Top 5. In 2006, with hardly any decent preparation for neither Roland Garros nor the US Open, Hewitt reached the fourth round in Paris and even made the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows. 

Sure, Federer and Nadal will be out of reach, but if he stays in shape, Hewitt is at least on the same level as Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Gonzalez, currently ranked 4 and 5, and I like his chances against No.3 Andy Roddick, whom he leads 6-3 head-to-head. 

Other than his fourth round at Roland Garros, Hewitt has a lot of points to defend over the grass season with a win in Queens and a quarterfinal at Wimbledon, so it will be hard for him to move up the rankings over the next weeks. However, discounting his quarterfinal showing at the US Open, there’s a lot to gain for the rest of the season. Hewitt did not compete in three out of the four Masters Series events after Wimbledon last year, while he retired in the second round in Toronto.

Lleyton Hewitt won his first ATP title in 1998 when he was just 16 years old. It’s hard to see the ’01 US Open and ’02 Wimbledon champ win another Grand Slam, but the man is still only 26 years of age and should have at least 3 good years left on tour. I wonder how Tony Roche feels about him.

For more on Abe Kuijl, check out his blog at http://abetennis.blogspot.com .