SeaSportsCamp - About Sports

I know I’m a little bit late with my previews, and it’s been a while since I posted here, but I’ve been reporting for TennisReporters.net and TennisInfo.be last week from the Ordina Open in Rosmalen, where numerous rain delays almost pushed back the finals to Sunday. For an exclusive interview with Jelena Jankovic, head over to TennisReporters.net.

Now then, time to take a look at the draws for what most people call the biggest tournament in tennis.

THE GENTLEMEN

First Quarter

For the first time in his career, Roger Federer enters Wimbledon not having played a warmup event on grass. Former greats such as John McEnroe and Pete Sampras have regretted their decision to the do same, when they were consequently bounced out of SW19 before finals day. Still, it would be insane to bet against the Swiss not making the semis.

Semifinal pick: Roger Federer

Second Quarter

Forget about the clay, Andy Roddick is back on his favorite surface and ready to do some damage. The No.3 is coming off a win in Queens and has been drawn in the lightest section of the tournament.

Semifinal pick: Andy Roddick

Third Quarter

This is where things get interesting. Nikolay Davydenko, David Nalbandian, Marcos Baghdatis, Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic are the seeds to watch, but don’t look past dangerous floaters such as Gael Monfils, Max Mirnyi and Ivo Karlovic. Who to pick from this section? Forget about Davydenko, the Russian hasn’t even won a handful of matches on grass in his career. I’m liking Hewitt’s chances, if he can get past Novak Djokovic in the fourth round. The 2002 champion will face either Baghdatis, Nalbandian or Monfils in the quarters and his experience should get him past that hurdle.

Semifinal pick: Lleyton Hewitt

Fourth Quarter

Rafael Nadal will have a much tougher road to travel should he make it to another Wimbledon final, compared to last year’s draw. The Spaniard opens against Mardy Fish and is scheduled to meet his nemesis Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round. I like the Russian’s chances, if he is no longer bothered by his lower back injury, and he should be able to best Tomas Berdych or possibly Jonas Bjorkman in the quarters to advance to his second major semifinal, after reaching the last four at the US Open last year.

Semifinal pick: Mikhail Youzhny

It’s turning out to be a fairly good draw for Hewitt, who won’t meet Federer before the final this time. Hewitt should win against Youzhny, and the Aussie might take a set off Federer in the championship match, but the grass courts belong to the Swiss No.1, who will emulate Bjorn Borg’s five consecutive titles won at Wimbledon.

Champion: Roger Federer

THE LADIES

First Quarter

If you liked the Roland Garros women’s draw, you’re going to love this one. Justine Henin and Serena Williams highlight the top quarter of the draw, just as in Paris. Serena was flat in her match against Henin at the French, but I’m liking the American’s chances at the lawns of the All England Club. The winner of the tournament will likely come again out of this match, but I think Serena’s power game will have more impact on the fast surface, and so Henin will have to wait another year for her career Grand Slam.

Semifinal pick: Serena Williams

Second Quarter

Jelena Jankovic and Anna Chakvetadze are the highest seeds in the second quarter, and although the Russian has a tricky third round opponent in Michaella Krajicek, I don’t think the Dutchwoman will be able to take last week’s Ordina Open champion out. Jankovic and Chakvetadze should both reach the quarterfinals, in what would be a replay of their final in The Netherlands last Saturday. Since Jankovic will be playing for the tenth straight week, I’m liking Chakvetadze to pull the upset.

Semifinal pick: Anna Chakvetadze

Third Quarter

Can we say Amelie Mauresmo is back to her old self? The 2006 Wimbledon champion played an excellent event in Eastbourne last week, where she narrowly lost in the final to Justine Henin. Mauresmo feels comfortable on grass and has a great draw to the semis. I don’t think Ana Ivanovic is skilled enough on the lawns yet to take her out in the quarters.

Semifinal pick: Amelie Mauresmo

Fourth Quarter

We have two potential semifinalists in this quarter. Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova will do battle on what is considered to be both players’ favorite surface, in the fourth round of The Championships. I’m thinking Sharapova will avenge her 2005 loss at Wimbledon to Venus and advance to the last four. The second-seeded Russian has had some good match practice in Birmingham, where she was edged by Jelena Jankovic in the final. Venus on the other hand hasn’t shown much all year, and even though she has the ability to surprise everyone and make a run to the final, I’m favoring Maria.

Semifinal pick: Maria Sharapova

Anna Chakvetadze is a gifted player, but Serena Williams should comfortably take her out in the semis. I believe Mauresmo will beat Sharapova in a 2006 Wimbledon semifinal rematch, because the Russian could start feeling her shoulder again after the busy weeks she’s had. In the final, I’m going with Serena to win it all.

Champion: Serena Williams

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Game Previews - Baseball-Reference.com I’ve added a lot of new stuff to the game previews and also worked out some of the formatting issues to make the printing and viewing a bit cleaner.

The Red Sox are continuing to struggle. Shill got shellacked (I just like the way that sounds…) last night by the Braves. The consistency that was the hallmark of the Spring so far does not look like it wants to carry over into the summer. The Red Sox seem bound and determined to run their loyal fans through the wringer by making the AL East race a contest instead of a run-away. They are still 8 games up on the Yankees, but they cannot continue to play this way and hold onto that lead (or even first place).

Maybe it is time to shake things up a little bit?

Game Previews These are still in beta-testing, so I can’t guarantee they’ll be updated every day yet, but I’m working on it. Any feedback and suggestions is happily considered. I’ve also added a print stylesheet, so these should print pretty nicely if you want to take them to the game (at least that is [...]

I admit. I watch a little bit of golf now and then. And if Tiger’s in the mix at a Slam on the final day I sometimes tune in. Yesterday, Tiger was on the leaderboard at the US Open in Oakmont where he eventually finished second behind some overweight smoker named Angel Cabrera.

But the golf and Angel’s smoking is not what I remember the most. What I remember the most about the telecast was the commercials, specifically the one previewing NBC’s new dating show, “Age of Love”, which features tennis’s very own Mark Philippoussis trying to decide if he wants to get it on with a bunch of 20-year-old or 40-year-old “women” on TV for the world to see.

Now I haven’t seen the show - it debuts tonight at 9pm - so maybe I’m jumping the gun. But screw it. Mark’s last girlfriend, Alexis Barbara, was a teen when they dated, so I think I’m pretty safe in guessing that Flip’s going to go with the younger “girls” on the show.

As for the show itself, chances of it bombing have to be right around 100%. During the commercial yesterday they didn’t even mention by name who the “stud” (or in this case “dud”) guy was. If you are NBC don’t you at least want to promote the fact you have a two-time Grand Slam finalist, Mark Philippoussis on your commercial? Apparently they didn’t think that was appealing enough, and probably figured such disclosure would frighten away viewers.

I do have to give credit to Mark for getting a gig like this. I hate reality dating TV and in my mind anyone who appears on these shows or wants to appear on these shows has to be of lowest common denominator. But there still must have been an application process, assuming Philippoussis wasn’t the only one who applied or the only washed up “star” they hunted down (was Marcelo Rios unavailable?). So for Flip to wow the producers, casting agents, NBC execs, and land a leading network role like that is pretty phenomenal. In fact, given he has to be among the Top 5 talents ever in tennis to have never won a Slam (he never will), maybe this will be his true calling.

And if you are on the show – or really any of these “reality” hook-up shows – you are kidding yourself if you really think that’s the road to finding your true love. If you really believe that, and you have exhausted all other avenues and you think that TV’s the only place to go, then you have got bigger issues. Let’s face it, all the girls on Mark’s show are in it to pick up a paycheck, hook-up, get humiliated on national TV, and try and get enough exposure to land them another TV gig somewhere down the road. Not to say that Mark isn’t, but at least he can fall back on playing low level ATP events and Challengers.

Our town little league season ended this weekend. What had become a family ritual for the last eight weeks is over and somehow I have a big feeling of emptiness. It is not just that I am trying to relive my own youth through my son playing little league - well maybe a little, but only just a little… It actually was really good and entertaining baseball played by kids who simply are playing for the love of the game - not million dollar+ a year prima donnas. Great entertainment that cost nothing, and even a dog and a drink from the snack shack is less than three dollars.

I would place our town little league season as one of the top sports entertainment values anywhere. I imagine that others also feel that way about their own town little league seasons. That is why I feel the loss and emptiness when it is over. It has been eight weeks of high quality low coast entertainment, and now I miss it…

Great list from the folks at USA Today. Yes, sports fans, the Red Sox winning the World Series makes the list as the number one sports story of the last 25 years!

See: 25 Greatest Sports Stories of the Past 25 Years

I’ve already plugged each of these on the Stat of the Day Blog, but I thought I’d mention them here as well, more detail on how to do it is there, however. Pitcher vs. Batter Reports now allow you to select an opposing roster, so you can see Roger vs. the current mets, or Halladay against [...]

There are a lot of very funny names in baseball (and I suspect in other sports as well). This post chronicling some of them at Blogzarro is very funny and worth the read…

See: The Bizarre, The Bad, The Bawdy Baseball Names

2007 Seattle Mariners Batting Orders - Baseball-Reference.com I never thought it made sense to say a team had 140 different lineups when most of the difference was due to a different starting pitcher, so I didn’t include the changes in pitchers in that total. I’ve now included the total (at the bottom) both with and [...]