A LOOK AT MONDAY’S FIRST-ROUND MEN’S SINGLES MATCHES AT WIMBLEDON BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 23rd June 2014

A LOOK AT MONDAY'S FIRST-ROUND MEN'S SINGLES MATCHES AT WIMBLEDON BY RICKY DIMON |

Photo by Francisco Resendiz.

Wimbledon gets off to its traditional Monday afternoon start with the defending champion taking Centre Court. This time around, it is none other than Great Britain’s own Andy Murray. who is beginning his title defense against David Goffin. What other matches headline the first day of main-draw action? Let’s take a look.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Andrey Golubev: In terms of talent, Golubev is not the easiest of first-round opponents. The scoreline, though, should be entirely straightforward.

Radek Stepanek vs. Pablo Cuevas: On clay this would be somewhat interesting. On grass, well, go ahead and pencil in yet another meeting between good friends Djokovic and Stepanek–this one in the Wimbledon second round.

Robin Haase vs. (31) Vasek Pospisil: Pospisil is actually winning matches again after his disastrous, injury-plagued start to the season. But he isn’t going to win this one.

(17) Mikhail Youzhny vs. (WC) James Ward: Bad news for British tennis fans: they probably won’t see Ward get a win at Wimbledon. Good news for all tennis fans: they should get to see at least one sergeant victory salute from Youzhny at the All-England Club.

Bradley Klahn vs. Sam Querrey: The battle for the No. 2 American spot (as if that matters) is hot. Querrey had it for a long time, then it was Klahn for a brief moment earlier this season. Now it’s Querrey again. It should stay that way for now given that Querrey thrives on grass.

Jurgen Melzer vs. (14) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Tsonga is 4-0 lifetime and 9-1 in total sets against Melzer. But you can throw all of Tsonga’s past stats out the window right now given his dreadful current form.

(12) Ernests Gulbis vs. Jurgen Zopp: Gulbis reached the French Open semis, but this is still the same Gulbis who lost to Andreas Haider-Maurer in the 2013 U.S. Open first round. With him, nothing is certain.

Sergiy Stakhovsky vs. Carlos Berlocq: What will the man who toppled Roger Federer at the All-England Club in 2013 do for an encore? For one, he should start by having little trouble with an opponent who prefers clay.

Marinko Matosevic vs. (18) Fernando Verdasco: Matosevic finally won a match at a Grand Slam (beat Dustin Brown at the French Open) and celebrated like would be content with just one for his entire career. He may eventually get a second, but it won’t come against a relatively in-form Verdasco.

(26) Marin Cilic vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu: Cilic vs. Mathieu in 2008 was what Dmitry Tursunov vs. Denis Istomin is in 2014–matches against each other pretty much every week. Ironically, Tursunov and Istomin are also playing each other again in the first round. Draws can be laugh-out-loud funny sometimes.

Bernard Tomic vs. Evgeny Donskoy: Like Pospisil, Tomic is finally starting to win tennis matches again…just not a whole lot of them.

Victor Hanescu vs. (6) Tomas Berdych: Hanescu may be the only 6’6” player in history who is actually a clay-court specialist. As such, the only interest in this one will be regarding Berdych’s attire. Shield your eyes!

(3) Andy Murray vs. David Goffin: Murray will win. Amelie Mauresmo will be happy. There really isn’t anything else to say about this one.

Steve Johnson vs. (27) Roberto Bautista Agut: Johnson faving Bautista Agut twice this season was already twice to many. But will a third time be the charm with Bautista Agut coming off a title–and an extremely grueling week–in ‘s-Hertogenbosch?

Filippo Volandri vs. Edouard Roger-Vasselin: Wimbledon does well to skew its seeding based on grass-court results. But it should do something about the direct-entry system, too, because we cannot have guys like Volandri taking up spots in the Wimbledon main draw.

(11) Grigor Dimitrov vs. (Q) Ryan Harrison: This is not quite as nightmarish as some of Harrison’s first-round Grand Slam draws, but it sure isn’t good. He at least did well to qualify for the main draw.

(Q) Luke Saville vs. Dominic Thiem: It must be weird for Thiem to be playing a qualifier. After all, he’s the one normally with a “(Q)” by his name. “(Q)” or no “(Q)” preceding, this should be a familiar result for Thiem: win.

Donald Young vs. Benjamin Becker: Young played great at the French Open. Becker played great in ‘s-Hertogenbosh. Something’s gotta give.

(Q) Samuel Groth vs. (21) Alexandr Dolgopolov: Nobody ever wants to face Groth, especially not on grass. If the Aussie’s cannon serve is working, the upset alert my have to be sounded.

Dustin Brown vs. (WC) Marcos Baghdatis: Brown is flamboyant, flashy, and fun to watch. Hmmm….sounds a lot like Baghdatis circa 2006. Unfortunately for the Cypriot, the year 2006 ain’t walkin’ through that door.

Pablo Carreno Busta vs. (7) David Ferrer: An all-Spanish matchup between Carreno Busta and Ferrer would have been fun at the French Open. It won’t be as fun at Wimbledon…and it certainly won’t be fun for the underdog.

Topics: Alexandr Dolgopolov, Andrey Golubev, Andy Murray, Bernard Tomic, Centre Court, David Ferrer, Ernests, Fernando Verdasco, GRIGOR DIMITROV, Gulbis, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Novak Djokovic, Radek Stepanek, Ricky Dimon, Robin Haase, Sam Querrey, Tennis, Tennis News, Tomas Berdych, Vasek Pospisil, Wimbledon

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10sBalls_com says:

June 23, 2014 at 7:29 am

A LOOK AT MONDAY’S FIRST-ROUND MEN’S SINGLES MATCHES AT WIMBLEDON BY RICKY DIMON (@RD_Tennistalk) – http://t.co/BMZTiiko9z @Wimbledon #ATP