Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Archie's Picks: Kvitova-Azarenka

Leftiness is not a lost art, and Archie thinks Petra Kvitova will prove that in the semis.


Okay, for those of you who hadn't heard, Archie went 4 for 4 in his men's quarterfinal picks. If you can top that I definitely want to take you to Vegas with me sometime. But the fact of the matter is, you can't do better than Archie did yesterday. Archie just gave me a wink that says "amen to that." Without any further ado, here is Archie's Kvitova-Azarenka pick.

See Archie's French Open picks here.

See Archie's Federer-Tsonga pick here.

See Archie's Nadal-Fish pick here.

See Archie's Murray-Lopez pick here.

See Archie's Djokovic-Tomic pick here.

See Archie's Sharapova-Lisicki pick here.

Archie's Pick: Kvitova

Why: Azaranka makes me want to bark, and I don't like to bark because it makes me nervous.

My pick: Kvitova

Why: I said earlier in the tournament that Kvitova is one of the few players that has the match on her racquet almost every time she plays. With her big swooping left-handed serve pulling her opponents off the court, Petra can close in and launch her killshots from the service line. Even though she'll face a world-class returner in Azarenka, if she serves to her capability, she'll be able to put pressure on Azarenka from the onset.

Kvitova has only been broken twice in the fortnight, and because of that fact, she's been able to survive worrying patches of inconsistency from the baseline that would have shipwrecked lesser servers.

The 6'0" Czech blew past Azarenka in Wimbledon's 3rd round last year, and she has won the last two of the pair's previous four meetings, but Azarenka is in very fine form at the moment, so this match should come down to who handles the big moments better.

If Kvitova can ease the pressure on herself by serving well down the stretch, I like her chances, but if she plays a sloppy match, she could be in serious trouble.

Either way, we'll have a first-time Grand Slam finalist on our hands when this one is over, and that is something to be excited about.

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