Ten predictions for the Grass Court Season!

Exams and end of Uni celebrations have meant this blog has been inactive for much too long. Revision, festivals, and other such activities barely allowed me time to watch the action at Roland Garros, much less blog about it, but now as my long British Summer begins, so again does my blog, just in time for (in my opinion) the best tournament of the year- Wimbledon !


Speaking of the French, what a topsy turvy, up and down tournament that was. On the woman's side, the form player of the Clay swing Maria Sharapova held firm to capture her fourth slam and complete the career set, but  Azarenka, Na and both Williams sisters disappointed , in what has become a remarkably consistent trend for top players in the womens game in recent years. Top marks for Sharapova though. It's been no secret that the last few years have been tough for her both on the injury, and confidence front, but it's great to see a truly hard working woman back at the top of her sport.


As almost everyone expected Rafa Nadal was nigh on impossible to stop in his quest for a record breaking 7th French title, well except for a brief collapse in set 3 against Djokovic, but we'll let him off with a few nerves against his 2011 nemesis. Barring Rafa's miraculous clay consistency, the remaining memebers of "the big 4" played their worst majors in a long time. Both Djokovic and Federer lost sets left right and centre before the quarters, never usually making a habit of that in the majors, whilst Murray after reaching the semi's last year went out rather flatly in four sets to Ferrer. Top marks in this however for the insurmountable Rafa, and the returning American Brian Baker who looked like he belonged on the court Phillipe Chatrier.


Now, after a long stretch of tournaments on all sorts of different colours of clay, we reach the grass season, which i'm sure we all hope isn't suddenly played on pink turf! Such a short period of the season, and such a specialist surface usually plays out in a very predictable fashion, so here's my (educated) stab at what's in store over the next few weeks:


1) The winner of the mens single's title at Wimbledon 2012 will DEFINATELY be one of either Djokovic, Nadal, or Federer. (sorry Andy Murray)
2) The womens singles champion will NOT be a first time major winner.
3) However the winner will DEFINATELY NOT be Samantha Stosur, Fran Schiavone, Ana Ivanovic, Sveta Kuznetsova, or the world no.1 Azarenka!
4) Nicolas Mahut will invariably draw John Isner.
5) Venus and Serena will be on the same side of the draw for the first time since 2005.
6) Neither the mens winner nor the womans winner will repeat their victory at the Olympics, 3 weeks after Wimbledon ends.
7) Laura Robson will get to the third round in the womans main draw.
8) At least one whole day at this years Championships will be lost to rain.
9) The womans singles champion will be four time former champ Serena Williams.
10) The mens singles champion will be Novak Djokovic.




So there we have it, a few thoughts about the grass season ahead, not really touching on the Olympics, which is being saved for a special after Wimbledon. Hope you've all enjoyed the blog, nice to be back blogging, and bring on the grass!

DJT