Nick’s Picks- Wimbledon Round 2
Men’s Picks
Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. Ryan Harrison (USA)
I can tell you that I am really excited to watch this match. Harrison comes in with a nice win over Lu in the first round and he had a great run in the warm-up tournament last week where he reached the semis. He’s feeling confident and the IMG Bollettieri Tennis alum knows he is in for a big-time battle in this match. To me, this match comes down to Harrison’s mental focus. He’s got the weapons to compete with Djokovic, but can he keep his composure throughout the entire match? If he does that, this will be a great match. We will all be rooting for Ryan in this one!
Nick’s Pick – Because of Djokovic’s experience, you have to give him the edge, but don’t be surprised if Ryan gives him a real test here!!
Xavier Malisse (BEL) vs. Gilles Simon (FRA)
Like the Harrison/Djokovic match, this is also going to come down to the mental preparation for Malisse. He’s confident in where his game is right now, but Simon is very tough. He’s got a good serve and a great backhand and he will make Malisse work for every point. I think Malisse has to come in some and try to take Simon out of his comfort zone. I liked the way X looked in his first-round win and he is certainly capable of pulling off this upset – he just needs to remain mentally focused!
Nick’s Pick – Giving a slight edge to Simon, but Malisse could pull of the upset.
Women’s Picks
Heather Watson (GBR) vs. Jamie Lee Hampton (USA)
There is a ton of talk about Heather over here, and if she wins this match the British press are going to go nuts! Watson has been training at IMG Academy since she was 12 years old and you will not meet a better person. She competes hard and is always looking to improve. Her game has come a long way over the years and she is really attacking her opponents now and she is playing with tons of confidence. For Heather, that’s extremely important. She cannot sit back and hope for her opponents to miss. She needs to take it to them and she has the tools to do that. Hampton picked up a nice win over Hantuchova in the opening round, but this is her first appearance at Wimbledon and this will be a much more watched match.
Nick’s Pick – Heather needs to play the way she did in the first round and if she does, I think she wins in two tough sets.
Sabine Lisicki (GER) vs. Bojana Jovanovski (SRB)
Jovanovski, the 20-year old Serbian, is making her third appearance at Wimbledon and is looking to reach the third round for the first time in her career. It would also be the first time she’s been to the third round of any Grand Slam event. Her opponent, Lisicki, reached the semis here last year and loves playing on the grass. Sabine has been training at IMG Academy for many years and she came back last week to work with Chip Brooks and myself and she said that made a big difference in her game. She won easily in the opening round and she needs a similar performance to get by Jovanovski. Sabine has to defend a lot of points from last year, but she needs to forget about that and just focus on one match at a time. When she is playing well and she’s confident, she can beat anyone. She has the big groundstrokes and her serve is one of the best, but she’s got to keep the ball in play.
Nick’s Pick – Going with Sabine, but she needs to play her game and not let Jovanovski get into a rhythm.
