Wanderer

Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine (AO junior champion last year) qualified for main draw and will be the youngest player in the draw, first one from 2002 generation! What a talent! I thought Xinyu Wang would carry that title, but Marta overcomed higher ranked and experienced player in the qualification all of them with 2-1 victories (Arina Rodionova 9th seed, Daniela Seguel of Chile and Barbora Krejcikova). She will play Peng in her MD debut.

I am especially looking forward to Tsitsipas - Shapovalov and Berdych - De Minaur matches. I hope young Alex has something left in the tank after two great weeks. Would like to see Rublev beating Ferrer but his execution must be very good otherwise David will make him run like a rabbit.

Angie Kerber to play against Barty in Sydney final! Excellent line-up. It is so great to see Angie back! Hopefully she will be fresh enough for deep run in Melbourne too, but she does have hell of draw there...

And I like the way he plays! Must say, I didn't have great expectation, especially not so soon after watching him in Wimbledon junior final last year, but he improved immensely! I hope Aussies will finally produce a talented player with proper mindset. Tomic and Kyrgios have been, well...

August 27. Any other Virgos here?

You MUST hide your post. To do that, you have only to delete the space between the bracket "[" and the text "hide" in "[ hide]" at the beginning of prediction post. Do the same at the end of prediction post with "[ /hide]" too. PREDICTION DESIGN - START COPYING HERE ---> [ hide] Women's Tournament Preliminary Round February 10th - February 15th, 2018 8 Nations, 2 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from Group A will qualify for the Semifinals, the 3rd and 4th Nations from Group A and 1st and 2nd Nations from Group B will qualify for the Quarterfinals, the 3rd and 4th Nations from Group B will qualify for the 5th-8th Places Semifinals Group A Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 11th 2018, h. 16:40 Finland United States February 11th 2018, h. 21:10 Canada Olympic Athletes form Russia February 13th 2018, h. 16:40 Canada Finland February 13th 2018, h. 21:10 United States Olympic Athletes from Russia February 15th 2018, h. 12:10 United States Canada February 15th 2018, h. 16:40 Olympic Athletes from Russia Finland Group B Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 10th 2018, h. 16:40 Japan Sweden February 10th 2018, h. 21:10 Switzerland South Korea February 12th 2018, h. 16:40 Sweden South Korea February 12th 2018, h. 21:10 Switzerland Japan February 14th 2018, h. 12:10 Sweden Switzerland February 14th 2018, h. 16:40 South Korea Japan Men's Tournament Preliminary Round February 14th - February 18th, 2018 12 Nations, 3 Groups, the 1st Nations from each Group and the best 2nd ranked Nation between all Groups will qualify for the Quarterfinals, the other Nations will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 15th 2018, h. 21:10 Czech Republic South Korea February 15th 2018, h. 21:10 Switzerland Canada February 17th 2018, h. 12:10 Canada Czech Republic February 17th 2018, h. 16:40 South Korea Switzerland February 18th 2018, h. 16:40 Czech Republic Switzerland February 18th 2018, h. 21:10 Canada South Korea Group B Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 14th 2018, h. 21:10 Slovakia Olympic Athletes from Russia February 14th 2018, h. 21:10 United States Slovenia February 16th 2018, h. 12:10 United States Slovakia February 16th 2018, h. 16:40 Olympic Athletes from Russia Slovenia February 17th 2018, h. 21:10 Olympic Athletes from Russia United States February 17th 2018, h. 21:10 Slovenia Slovakia Group C Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 15th 2018, h. 12:10 Finland Germany February 15th 2018, h. 16:40 Norway Sweden February 16th 2018, h. 21:10 Finland Norway February 16th 2018, h. 21:10 Sweden Germany February 18th 2018, h. 12:10 Germany Norway February 18th 2018, h. 21:10 Sweden Finland [ /hide] ---> PREDICTION DESIGN - STOP COPYING HERE

Match of the first round: Maria vs Sharapova Now, my view of the women's draw: Section 1: A strong one. Halep-Kvitova in R3 breaks my heart. I am afraid Simona will be too much for Petra at this moment. Intriguing match between Barty and Sabalenka. Sabalenka has such raw power and on a good day can beat almost any top player. Barty is very skillful player and should find a key to neutralize Sabalenka's power and make her move, for the later being pretty bad in defense. The key in this match is Barty's mentality and ability not to break under the pressure being a favourite and at home. Giorgi this weak is on fire and if she keeps her momentum (which I doubt) can make some damage and reach R4. There are also other two of my favourite players But both Osaka and Jabeur have been bad so far and I don't expect either of them in R3. All in all - Halep should come through as a quarterfinalist from this section. Section 2: This section is also interesting one. Still not sure how much Konta is injured, but things don't look promising. Should be able to reach R3 but there is crafty Strycova. Safarova showed some good tennis in her match against Angelique in Sydney, so R3 for her is expected where she should be encountering another seeded Czech, Pliškova. Karolina struggled against Cepede last year at the French Open, but on hard, I expect her to be convincing. Haddad Maia (I like her!) has a rematch with Cabrera but should be able t beat her again and is definitely capable to put a big fight against Pliškova. My pick is definitely Pliškova as most likely quarterfinalist from this section. Safarova and Strycova being serious tests. Section 3: Muguruza must reach R4 with her draw! But the bottom half of the section! Kerber showing great form in Perth and Sydney so far, almost 2016 GS level, with new coach, improved serve, bh, being more aggressive and sort of a first-strike player, is something very good to see on WTA these days! She'll probably overcome Friedsam and Vekic and then comes R3 against either Sharapova or Sevastova. The Latvian does have beautiful game but somehow her emotional meltdowns seem to be rather a disadvantage. She can beat Sharapova again who still cannot find her form. If Kerber does not overplay and peak too soon in Sydney during this week, I can totally see her in R4. Potential quarterfinalist.... in this order: Kerber>Sevastova>Muguruza>Sharapova Section 4: We all already saw Mladenovic breaking her losing streak in Sydney... Anyway, Bogdan is not that easy to beat, so I expect another dramatic match from Kiki and let's hope this is the end of her agony. Putintseva-Watson is no betting zone match definitely Keys should make R4. Lucic-Baroni is still bothered with injury and her form is questionable. Rogers is a tricky player and we can see last year semifinalist going out in R1. Sasnovich played beautiful tennis in Brisbane. And if she is able to repeat it, R3 here we come. My fave, Vondroušova, had bad second half of 2017 and played quite poorly (except in that match against Kuznetsova at USO). What bothers me around her is her attitude sometimes. I hope she can be motivated enough cause she has very winnable opening round and I'd like to see her pumped up against transformed Garcia. Garcia's form is unknown quantity and I hope her back is okay now (the reason she withdrew from Brisbane). If she's healthy, ball-bashing delight in R4 is upon us. Most likely quarterfinalists: Keys>Garcia.

Leliiii

I wouldn't be so sure about Cilic, there is Simon floating around in R4

Giorgi played one of here best matches in career! Nothing alike her, she kept ball in court, and had less unforced errors and less winners that Kvitova! Great win, and another winnable match against still not in form Radwanska. Petra's serve was worrying in this match, I hope she can serve better in Melbourne. Draw will be tough, but so called top 10 players are not such a threat.

As Sindo said, AO will be missed this time as we are focusing on Winter Olympic Games. But we still have enough GS tournaments left Also, there won't be Jolly in 2018; scoring systems for Ice Hockey and individual sports and contests where we are predicting medal winners remains unchanged. However, some alterations in scoring systems for other sports prediction contests may be implemented during the year.

Or not, because Mladenovic earned such amount of points over 52 weeks. But starting with St. Petersburg her ranking is really in danger

I hope Thandi finally makes that step up in 2018.She definitely has some potential

Good one

I am actually in love with those jerseys. They are refreshing. Well, kind of

Better second half, but this ain't promising at all. Czechia looks strong!

I thought Brazil was one of the top teams?

Unfortunately Tere-Apisah lost She was 6-4 5-3 *30-0 but lost eventually. I really hope she can get QWC Wang Xinyu With her talent and good draw, she can win a match or two in Melbourne

This week is played Australian Open 2018 Asia-Pacific Wild-Card Play-Off. Today were played semifinals with great outcomes. Abigail Tere-Apisah got a WC for this event and made the final! All of her opponents were higher ranked than her if I am not mistaken. If she wins in the final, she'll be first ever player from in GS main draw! What a history to be made! Her opponent in the final will be 16-year-old Wang Xinyu from China, very, very, very talented girl, one of the best from generation 2001! If she wins she might even be the youngest player in MD at the upcoming AO. Wang beat Misaki Doi 1-6 6-4 6-3 (not long ago she had a match point at AO 2016 R128 against eventual champion Kerber!!!) I hope Tere-Apisah wins, Wang will have plenty opportunities in the future.

You're fighting a lost war. Concrete would broke first

https://www.sofascore.com/world-cup/pick/ba21389461da7a1358ce0e920fc3af627f02d2f6

Groups D and F look very interesting.

That is the main goal for 2018 - to have regularly updated rankings especially for the knockout rounds since that brings more excitement and is interesting to follow. That is why we will have less prediction contests. I think we'll still have separated Alpine and Nordic skiing since the format of those contests is much easier to manage. Concerning women's handball WC, tuniscof told me he would open the contest but I guess he still has to solve some things in his life, so I believe no one would complain for the missing contest. And yes, it is will be implemented as well - for contest to be opened as early as possible

The ones from 2017 will be closed for sure but I cannot guarantee for the ones from 2016. I thought someone posted results since I really had to leave the forum due to my private issues. I will try my best to finish them but won't promise anything.

No, we are sexists.