Go James...into the semifinals!!! My gorgeous baby is startin the year off on the right foot. This is good prep for the Aussie Open! Keep it up James.

Man, it would be Christmas in January if Blake makes it to the final, and then beats Hewitt! That would be great prep for the Australian, and Tennis Karma to go with it.

Well it won't happen this tournament as Hewitt lost to the Italian Seppi, who by the way, beat James last week. Seppi is on quite a little run right now. Hewitt lost his serve 4 times in the second set and blew a lead in the third set. I think he is on the decline again and it couldn't happen to a more deserving S.O.B.

I think I read somewhere that Hewitt is sick again. He said in an interview after beating Spadea that he was feeling very drained and said he may not be ready for the open.

Yay James!! He beat Davydenko pretty routinely to get to the final of the Sydney tournament. He will face Igor Andreev who beat Seppi. Seppi was a player who beat James last week and I was kind of hoping for a rematch to see if James could get revenge. James is starting off the year well and it looks like he's continuing his rise from summer '05. Hopefully he can continue to play consistently well all year and not just get on a hot streak when the summer US tourney's begin like the past. Getting to the final right before the Aussie Open will hopefully give him some extra confidence going into the year's first major.

I read this morning where Hewitt and Federer are in the same half of the draw so there will be no final between them. Guess they could meet then in the semis.

My instinct is that Hewitt is not playing well enough to make the semis, but his quarter of the draw is very weak. Hewitt might fall to Andy Murray or Chela in Round 2. Coria's the next highest seed, but I don't think he's ever recovered the form he had in 2004. Could be Kiefer, Ferrero. Fernando Gonzalez or somebody totally unexpected.

Many tough first round matches. Davydenko v Karlovic, Murray v Chela, Kiefer v Srichaphan, Grosjean v Philippoussis, Coria v Hanescu, Pavel v Moya, Ancic v Calleri, Henman v Tursunov, Malisse v Youzhny, Ginepri v Melzer, etc. The depth in men's tennis is impressive.

Wooo Hooo...my baby's daddy James Blake has started the year off well with his first title on Australian soil....a 3 set win over Igor. This is great for James and I'm so proud of him. I just came in from happy hour (extended) at Kildare's in King of Prussia (I recommend it to anyone in the area...there's also one in Manayunk). GO JAMES!!!! Great win!!

My picks on the men's side. I'm even foggier on them than the women, but what the hell. One issue of particular concern is what to do with the guys who just made finals (Blake, Nieminen, Andreev, Ancic). Will they do well because they're hot, or poorly because they're tired. I'm gambling on the former (on the whole), mostly because it's the first major of the year so it may be more important to be match-tough than fresh. Anyway, this is how I'm calling it

4th round
Federer d. Haas
Davydenko d. Andreev
Srichaphan d. Hewitt
Monfils d. Coria
Moya d. Ancic
Nalbandian d. Blake
Ljubicic d. Johansson
Roddick d. Baghdatis

QF
Federer d. Davydenko
Monfils d. Srichaphan
Nalbandian d. Moya
Ljubicic d. Roddick

SF
Federer d. Monfils
Nalbandian d. Ljubicic

F
Federer d. Nalbandian

Having heard that Nalbandian has been injured, I may want to amend this and have him lose in the 3rd round to Nieminen. If he does, it's possible he or Blake (more likely the latter) will make the semis.

[ January 14, 2006, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: JC ]