Australian Open 2014: Men’s Quarterfinal Predictions

It’s the business end of the tournament, with the ‘best separated from the rest’, ‘the men from the boys’, whichever way you want to put it. Let’s take a look at the quarterfinals :

Novak Djokovic (2) vs Stanislas Wawrinka (8)

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (R) embraces after victory in his men’s singles match against Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka on the seventh day of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne early January 21, 2013

The quarterfinal that everyone wanted is here, as we have a rematch of last year’s epic encounter between Djokovic and Wawrinka, this time a round later.  Wawrinka will be itching for revenge after suffering close losses to the Serb at both the Australian Open and US Open last year, and must truly believe that he can go a step further this time.

Form: Both Djokovic and Wawrinka have breezed through the first few rounds, especially the former. Djokovic has carried on where he left off at the end of last season, scoring comfortable straight set victories over Lukas Lacko, Leonardo Mayer, Denis Istomin and Fabio Fognini, the last of those performances being the most dominating, aided by the fact that Fabio seemed to be out there more to have a good time than to try and win the match. Wawrinka has probably not had as much playing time as he’d have liked, with Golubev retiring midway through their first round match, and Pospisil granting him a walkover in the third round. However, he did manage to grind out a tough four set win over Alejandro Falla in the second round along with a strong performance against Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo in the round of 16.

What’s in store for them: Djokovic definitely has the edge coming into this match. He is playing better, knows what it takes to win this tournament, and has more big match experience. Wawrinka will have to bring out his A-game to beat the champion, though, as he knows from last year, even that may not be enough. It’s important for Wawrinka to remain mentally strong against Djokovic, who will not give him an inch.

Prediction: Djokovic to win in four sets