Day 5 AO Preview – Is Isner Ready for Primetime?

With all of Day Two’s drama behind us, it’s good that yesterday’s matches, with no real upsets, gave us all a chance to catch our breaths.

Andy Roddick takes on Feliciano Lopez today. Lopez, known more for his Ford model looks than his play, has never troubled Roddick before who is 5-0 against the Spaniard. Roddick should win this in three sets unless he loses focus by chewing out another umpire.

John Isner, now the No.2 ranked American, butts heads with the whirlwind that is Gael Monfils. Monfils, who almost didn’t play AO due to a shoulder injury, looked good in his opening rounds. But I like Isner’s chances if he can keep Monfils from running him around the court. In an earlier post, I talked about how I was waiting for another American to make a breakthrough run at a Slam. If Isner gets through Monfils, he could face Andy Murray in the fourth round and I would relish seeing how Murray, the “master returner” handles Isner’s mega serves.

Marin Cilic faces Stanislas Wawrinka on Margaret Smith Court, or as I like to call it, “drama court”. That could go either way but I’ll say Cilic in five sets.

The women are also playing but I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of drama unless Jelena Jankovic, who has looked surprisingly good, or Dinara Safina, looking sort of good, almost, botch things up today. Kim Clijsters will be dueling the always entertaining Nadia Petrova who just can’t catch a break these days with her draws. And of course, the comeback kid, Justine Henin will return to action against Alisa Kleybanova. This will either go very quickly or very slowly depending on how Henin’s body is holding up after her grueling win over Elena Dementieva.

Finally, I do have to say something about Ana Ivanovic’s loss yesterday to Gisela Dulko. Despite the scoreline, Ivanovic showed tremendous heart in getting back to 5-4 after being down 5-1 in the third before losing. In her press conference afterwards, she kept using the word “struggle” to describe her recent downturn.

Whatever mental woes plaguing her will not work themselves out on the tennis court. And I don’t care how many world class coaches Adidas throws at her, the poor girl is a mess right now. Maybe Ivanovic should take the rest of the year off. I’m serious. Henin did it and look where she is now.

Tagged as: Ana Ivanovic, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Australian Open, Dinara Safina, Gael Monfils, Jelena Jankovic, John Isner, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Marin Cilic