I’m over the whole Jim Rice debacle, so I will continue -

- Everyone is so high on Andy Murray.  I’m not.  Don’t get me wrong, he has plenty of talent, but until he proves to me that he can last through an entire season without getting hit with injuries, I don’t see how he can crack the top 5.  Top 10, yes.

- This is a very important year for Marcos Baghdatis, who, after a career year in 2006, definitely took a step backwards in 2007.  He has too much talent not to be a threat to go deep at every major (quarters at Wimbledon was his best result).  Baghdatis reminds me of the Boston Celtics, so much talent but just can’t seem to put it all together.  Oh, wait, the Celtics are 29-4, my mistake.

- Same goes for Daniela Hantuchova on the Women’s side.  While she managed to finish 2007 ranked in the top 10, her career high ranking #5 happened back in 2003.  She has the tools to play deep into Grand Slams as well, but perhaps not the mental aspect.  She has not made it past the 4th round in a slam since making it to the Quarters at the 2003 Australian Open.  She is still only 24, however, and perhaps this year we will see her competing for Grand Slam titles, as her window is only getting smaller.

- Call me an idiot, but I think we are going to see a more vulnerable Rafael Nadal this year.  Believe me, this has nothing to do with the drubbing he took last week at the hands of Youhzny.  To me, that was a freak occurrence.  He had played a 4 hour, 3 set match against his idol the day before, and must have been exhausted both physically and mentally.  However, I do think Nadal’s physical style of play has worn him down a bit, and since he relies so much on be physically stronger than his opponent, I think he is due for a bit of a down year.  That being said, he is way ahead of his peers in the rankings, and I cannot see him falling out of the # 2 spot.

- Ok, to finish I’m going to pick the Grand Slam Winners, and the top 5 for the year end rankings.  Please do not use this as a gambling tool, as I will most likely be so far off, I’ll make people’s absurd predictions of the Jags beating the Patriots this weekend look good:

Australian Open: Djokovic, Sharapova

French Open: Nadal, Jankovic

Wimbledon & US Open: Federer, Henin.

ATP Top 5 – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Roddick, Nalbandian

WTA Top 5 – Henin, Sharapova, Jankovic, Kuznetsova, Chakvetadze

I have to warn you, not much thought process was involved there, but it sounds rational, doesn’t it?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Tennis News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.