2012 Wimbledon Mens Semifinal Previews & Predictions

It's almost the final four we expected: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray.  Of the vaunted "Big Four," only Rafael Nadal failed to make the semifinals here at Wimbledon this year.  When one of them goes down, the others pick up the slack.  The last time fewer than three of the ATP Big Four made the semifinals of a major was way back at Roland Garros in 2010, when Nadal romped to the title. With three of the top four in the world in the semifinals, it seems odd that we could have a surprise champion, but we could.  Neither of the men on the bottom half of the draw, Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, were truly considered championship favorites, except in particularly hopeful quarters of Great Britain or France, but one of them will be in the final and in with a chance to claim the title on Sunday.  So who'll have Breakfast at Wimbledon on Sunday?  Read on:

2012 Australian Open Predictions: The Men (Blacklabel vs. the Computer)

Those four guys are still around, right?  You know, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray right?  So why do the full on Australian Open men's bracket breakdown?  Don't we already know who's going to be around at the tail end of the tournament?  Maybe.  Anyway, let's have a little fun with this.  We got such positive feedback about our collaboration at the Bloggers' Bar at the ed of last year that we thought, why not bring in some outside perspectives again.  To that end, I've been corresponding with my fellow New Yorker Jeff Sackmann who runs a really interesting tennis blog called Heavy Topspin.  What I immediately loved about his take on tennis predictions is their bloodlessness.  Jeff's developed an algorithm that takes into account the quality of opponents (adjusted for surface), recency of result over two years and head-to-head results and then runs a million simulations of the ENTIRE draw to predict the outcome of a tournament.

What happens when V Blacklabel takes on Jeff and his computer?  Well, read on to find out:

Australian Open 2011 Flashback

Extra effort from Andy Roddick

In early 2011, I had the opportunity to attend my first (and hopefully not my last) Australian Open.  As we start to gear up for the 2012 tournament, and start seriously jones-ing for the beginning of next season, I thought it would be a good time to share some of my photos from last year's tournament.  Most of the big names crossed my camera in some way shape or form over the fortnight and since we're all fans, why not share the results.

2011 Predictions & Reality

Until this morning when they posted the winner, I'd completely forgotten that last year I participated in Tennis-X's 2011 Year End Top 10 poll.  Looking back at my picks (posted as VE), they all seemed so well thought out then.  I even went as far as explaining the logic.  I'm sure at the time, I thought I was dead on about my picks.  But hell, that's why the play the matches, isn't it?


I wound up being right about six of the players who finished in the top ten, but for every big hit; there was a big miss as well.  So, as we begin to look ahead to 2012, I thought it would be fun to share with you what I said then, how I was right an how I was wrong...oh, so wrong.

2011 Year End Power Rankings

Sometimes the hot cool down, sometimes the cool heat up.  Check out who makes Blacklabel Tennis' 2011 Year End Power Rankings.

1. Petra Kvitova (CZE) Last Month: (3)

Novak Djokovic certainly had the best year in 2011, but the hottest player going into 2012 has to be Petra Kvitova.  She began her march to the top of the WTA with an upset win over Kim Clijsters in the Paris final back in February (Clijsters was World No. 1; Kvitova, No. 18 at the time).  Then she simply outslugged Maria Sharapova, to become the unanimous pick as the most likely to succeed of this year's first time major winners.  She may have started the year ranked 34th, but after winning a major, the WTA Tour Championships and five other tour titles, the 20 year old Czech finished within a hair of the year end No. 1 ranking.  Then for good measure, she led the Czech Republic to the Fed Cup title.  There is simply no one we're more interested in watching start their 2012 campaign than Kvitova.

ATP World Tour Final Oddsmaking

The ATP World Tour Final (heretofore known as the ATP WTF) is a curious event.  The round robin, featuring only the eight highest ranked players in the world, played in London's O2 arena has a jagged history debuting in its present form only in 1999 (versus the legs of the Grand Slam, the youngest of which, the Australian Open, debuted in 1905).  Even though this event doesn't necessarily have the history or prestige of the majors, the Davis Cup or the Olympics, the ATP has done a good job of building the WTF into a showpiece for their biggest stars, especially since the event's fortuitous move to London in 2009.  How will the ATP WTF play out?  Well, we think we have a pretty solid idea.

The Halfway Mark - US Open Revisionist Predicting Men

What naturally follows a week of perfectly good weather at the US Open?  Well, of course a semmingly interminable bout of rain.  For this blogger, the best thing about the rain is that I've been able to catch up on sleep and this long delayed post will still be relevant when I wrap it up.

While Mother Nature gave this writer a well-timed breather the players, especially those in the bottom half of the men's draw, may not feel as refreshed by this unscheduled break in the tournament.  At this point, we're straddling the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals, there are 12 men left in the tournament of the 128 who've entered.  With a week behind us and a week's worth of tennis in front of us (no matter how few days the remaining matches are crammed into), we re-look at the men's draw and do some revisionist predictions.

Revisionist Predicting (Wimbledon's Sweet 16 - ATP)

To translate for my brethren who are general sports fans, Monday is Wimbledon's Sweet 16 round.  All of the remaining players in the draw will take the court (British weather permitting) for a shot at the quarterfinals.  The 128 men who showed up a week ago with aspirations, however faint, of hoisting the Wimbledon trophy are down to 16 and there are only a few unexpected contenders among them.  In short, expect some early 4th of July fireworks at the All England Club.

Here's your Wimbledon men's round of 16 preview:

The Sunday Line (ATP) - 12 June 2011

Making the call on this week's ATP singles finals

AEGON Championships - London, UK

             

              Andy Murray                                                                                   Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

2nd seeded Andy Murray and 5th seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will square off in London at venerable Queen's Club for the 2011 Aegon Championships title. 

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