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Bracket Joy in Roland’s Backyard


Bracket Joy in Roland’s Backyard

So I’m sailing along through my Roland Garros bracket selections over at tennisdrawchallenge.com and it’s just going so smoothly.  Obviously, Rafa is my pick for the top quarter.  I have to make a minorly dicey choice of Shapovalov over Sock to lose to (I mean, ‘meet’) Rafa in the fourth round.  Then it comes down to KAnderson or Schwartzman to be his victim in the quarters.

The second quarter isn’t super challenging either.  There’s the small matter of Cilic, Fognini, or Edmund to make the quarters (I picked Cilic cuz of the way he rocked Rome), but ultimately I figure they’re all going to lose to the big Delpo… who will play a couple exhausting five-setters, and then in turn get killed by Nadal in the semis.

Third quarter is looking good too.  Monfils and Kyrgios will probably flake out after two rounds.  Carreno-Busta has just gotten so good, but will he be able to fend off the clay-loving Goffin?  It’s a toss-up but I go with Goffin.  And then, even though Dimitrov thinks he can suddenly play on dirt, I can’t see him getting by a hot Djokovic.  So will Djokovic actually get hot and stay hot, or will he turn into the mentally-lame choker who’s been pretending to swing the real Novak’s racket for the last two years?  Foolishly I pick Djokovic.  He looked good in that loss to Nadal in Rome.

And then the gravy of easy pickin’s suddenly goes sour as the fourth quarter roars.  Thiem against the red-hot Tsitsipas in round two.  Nishikori against Paire or Carballes-Baena in round two…. QF-loving Pouille, former champ Wawrinka, plus the best clay-player of the year not named Nadal, aka Sasha Zverev… ALL in one quarter.

I mean seriously?

Nishikori, Pouille, and Wawrinka are all clay power-houses, but I figure the new-gen of Thiem and AZverev are in better form so pick them for an epic quarter-final showdown.  I know Sasha hasn’t made the quarters of a slam before and seems to have some weird mental block, but the dude is on fire and I pick him to barely overcome Thiem, and then spank Novak, before getting thrashed by Nadal.  So there you have it, Nadal to win the French.  Gee what a surprise.  Long live King Rafa!

Decimal odds from Bet365.com on 25 May 2018:
1
Nadal
1.4
2
AZverev
9
3
Thiem
11
4
Djokovic
13
5
Goffin
41
6
Cilic
41
7
Dimitrov
51
8
Nishikori
51
9
Bautista-Agut
51
10
Del Potro
51
11
Wawrinka
51
12
Tsitsipas
67
13
Kyrgios
81
14
Monfils
81
15
Pouille
81
16
Edmund
81
17
Shapovalov
81
18
Carreno-Busta
101
19
Schwartzman
101


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