Interesting Potential Early Matches

8 Mardy Fish vs. Gilles Muller 1st Round

4 Andy Murray vs. Ryan Harrison 1st Round

Andy Roddick vs. Robin Hasse 1st Round

Andy Roddick vs. Lleyton Hewitt 2nd Round

Andy Roddick vs. Milos Raonic 3rd Round (If the first two don’t get Andy, I think Raonic will)

Juan Monaco vs. Phillip Kohlschreiber 1st Round

Alejandro Falla vs. Fabio Fognini 1st Round

Viktor Troicki vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero (The former #1 is a heavy underdog, but he did clip Monfils last year in NY)

Radek Stepanek vs. Nicols Mahut (serve and volley throw back match)

Final 8 Picks

1 Novak Djokovic vs. 9 Janko Tipsarevic (5 David Ferrer looks solid, but I think Novak beats Canadian-Serb Milos Raonic before facing fellow Serb Tipsarevic)

4 Andy Murray vs. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Both guys have great draws)

11 Juan Martin del Potro vs. 3 Roger Federer (Federer routed Delpo at this spot in 2009, but their 09 French Open and US Open matches were 5 set wars)

2 Rafael Nadal (Isner in the round of 16 could be fun) vs. Jeremy Chardy (no idea here as Berdych’s quarter of the draw is the weakest in the field)

Final 4 Picks

1 Novak Djokovic vs. 4 Andy Murray

2 Rafael Nadal vs. 3 Roger Federer

Form will hold as these 4 combined to reach 14 of a possible 16 Grand Slam semifinal rounds in 2011

Finalists

4 Andy Murray vs. 3 Roger Federer

Form does not hold as Ivan Lendl and revenge propel Murray past Djokovic and Federer is irked by Nadal’s public critique.

Champion

3 Roger Federer

Roger mystifies Murray again in a major final.

I know that my semifinal picks are a bit heterodox, but I think Nadal is not quite right at the moment.  I think Murray played Novak as tough as anyone did in 2011. Therefore, I took some upsets.  Novak loves this surface and is the odds on favorite to win his 3rd title down under, but I think he’d prefer Federer in the semifinal round.