Men's Notable Wimbledon First Round Matches

27. Marin Cilic vs Ivan Ljubicic: The Croatians will meet for the second time in their careers at the All England Lawn Championship in the first round. Cilic had two nice wins over Arnaud Clement and Thomaz Bellucci at Queen's Club on grass before he had to withdraw from the tournament due to an ankle injury. It seemed like a precaution so that Cilic wouldn't further injure the ankle before Wimbledon. Cilic is looking to make it past the round of 16 at Wimbledon for the first time in his career but he has played pretty well in his four years at the All England Lawn Championship. Ivan Ljubicic also played at Queen's Club but he only survived two rounds, as after his first round victory over Ryan Sweeting, he lost to Radek Stepanek in three sets. Ljubicic's worst surface is grass. His career record on grass is under .500 at 22-25. The farthest he has ever gone at Wimbledon is the third round.

Prediction: Marin Cilic over Ivan Ljubicic in 3 sets.

22. Alexandr Dolgopolov vs Fernando Gonzalez: The 22 year old Dolgopolov will only be playing in his second Wimbledon this year. In his first tune-up for Wimbledon, he beat Robin Hasse in the first round before losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second. He lost at Eastbourne in the first round to Carlos Berlocq in two sets the next week. Dolgopolov has only played 9 matches in his young career on grass, so he doesn't have nearly the experience that Gonzo has on the surface. The advantage for Dolgopolov coming into the match is that he has played a lot of good tennis in 2011, while Gonzalez has not been able to get on the court much. After the U.S. Open, Gonzo had to get surgery on his right hip and his right knee. He didn't return until the end of April but has been out since then. Wimbledon will only be Gonzalez's second tournament of the year and first on grass. He will definitely show some rust because of his long layoff. Gonzalez has played pretty well on the surface before, as he made a quarterfinal run back in 2005.

Prediction: Alexandr Dolgopolov over Fernando Gonzalez in 4 sets.

John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut: The rematch of the longest men's tennis match in history is upon us. Last year for three days, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut battled it out on court 18 in the first round for an astonishing 11 hours and 5 minutes until John Isner finally won in the fifth set 70 to 68. To put that in perspective, the longest match in Australian Open history between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco back in 2009 lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes. The fifth set of John Isner's match against Nicolas Mahut took 8 hours and 11 minutes alone. The fifth set of their match required a record 138 games. Isner also set the record for most aces in a match with 113 and Mahut also had 103 aces, which is the second most by a men in a match. Before the draw for Wimbledon came out this year, John Isner joked with his now close friend Nicolas Mahut, "Watch us play each other." Mahut replied, "No, there's no way. That's not even funny." Although there was a 0.7 percent chance that Isner would play Mahut in the first round for the second year in a row, it has occurred and obviously there was a lot of reaction. Andy Murray said, "Isner vs mahut drawing each other in the first round after last year is the most amazing thing I've seen in tennis! Centre court anyone?!" Andy Roddick said, "Isner/mahut again. Unreal Do they play it on the same court???" Patrick McEnroe said, "ISNER MAHUT rematch in round 1. Since I have'nt been able to get my big brother on twitter yet I will say it-you cannot be serious." Isner said about the rematch, "we're going to enjoy it and laugh at it at the same time." 

Prediction: John Isner over Nicolas Mahut in 5 sets

32. Marcos Baghdatis vs James Blake: Marcos Baghdatis has always loved to play on grass. He made it to the semifinals in 2006, the quarterfinals in 2007, and the round of 16 in 2008. In his tune-up tournament for Wimbledon at the UNICEF Open in the Netherlands, Baghdatis won three matches before losing to Ivan Dodig in the semifinals. The success that Bagdatis has had on grass is the opposite of how Blake has been on the surface. He has lost in the first or second round 6 out of 8 years and in the other two years he only reached the third round. The combination of Blake's lack of success of grass and his recent play makes it a difficult task for him. The last ATP tournament Blake played in was in the beginning of April. He has been recovering from a knee injury that caused him to miss much of the clay court season including the French Open.

Prediction: Marcos Baghdatis over James Blake in 4 sets

Cory Tell All Sports

Welcome to my blog, Cory Tell All Sports! Before you begin to read my posts and my sports analysis and opinion, you should know a little about me and the teams who I live and die with. Helping me on the blog with all my articles and expert analysis will be my brother Rory. (We seldom have the same opinions). You can follow my blog by joining the fan page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cory-Tell-All-Sports/201558063212620 or by following me on twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/ctallsports.

My love for the Colts goes back to their days in Baltimore where they won three championships in 58, 59, and 68 and one super bowl in 71. My dad and his father were die hard Colts fans when they lived in Baltimore. My dad also went to school down in Baltimore at Maryland Dental School. When my dad was only nine years old on his birthday on January 12, 1969, he had to watch Broadway Joe Namath and come through on his guarantee to defeat the heavily favored Colts in Super Bowl II with the New York Jets. Although I got my super bowl in 07 and the monkey off the back of Peyton, I had to go through the anguish of a super bowl loss to the Saints in 2010.

When I was a little kid, I went to Boston three times a summer on the way up to my camp in Maine. Each year I went to a Red Sox game and I have just fallen in love with Fenway Park. In 2001 when the Red Sox only finished three games over .500 I felt like the curse may never be broken. Not winning a championship since 1918 isn't the easiest thing for a young kid to handle. I've had so many great memories with the World Series in 04 and then again in 07. I remember the cake that my mom wouldn't let me eat although the Sox were up three games to zero and the score was 3 to 0. I also remember the happy birthday wish on the big screen at the Red Sox game for my 11th birthday. I can say that I have seen my beloved Sox's win two world series and not lose one world series game. After next season that record in World Series will hopefully be 12-0. My obsession over the Red Sox has also helped me outside of baseball. For example, I know that France declared war on Austria to begin the French Revolutionary Wars on April 20, 1792 because on the same day 20 years later Fenway Park opened.

My dad went to Lafayette undergraduate school and although I love my Leopards and hope they beat Bucknell in the Patriot League championship game to get into the tourney, my dad's dental school and the Maryland Terps is the team that I have followed since I was young. I was pretty lucky to be alive for the final four in 01 and the national championship in 02. Although since the title we have only had one sweet 16 appearance in 03, I am looking forward to having a run in the ACC tournament this year. The Maryland football team has somewhat had the same kind of story as the basketball team. In 2001, we only lost two games all season to Florida St. and then to Florida in the Orange Bowl, after going 5-6 the previous season. We haven't won any ACC championships since then but we are looking forward to Randy Edsall coming to the program.

I love the Devils because I know most of the players and coaches as many of them live in my town. The former coach of the Devils John Maclean is my dads friend and I know Brodeur and his kids. Although I was disappointed over the firing of Maclean and their early season struggles, I am happy they are beginning the play well and are only eight points out of the final playoff spot.

When I was in London with my family, I begged my parents to take me to a soccer game. There were no games in London at the time because of the international break but since there was no game I wanted a shirt. There were Chelsea shirts everywhere in the city and I fell in love with the Chelsea blue. Little did I know that Chelsea was owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. I feel like I am Chelsea's good luck charm as they have won the league three times since my trip to London in 04-05, 05-06, and 09-10. They also reached the Champions League final in 2008 and I think we all have seen Terry's slip in the penalty shoot-out vs who else but Manchester United.

My love for sports doesn't end there though.

I love James Blake as I have read his auto biography and fallen in love with his story. He overcame a broken neck, his father's death, and shingles, to be ranked as high as number 4 in 2006. He currently is ranked 164 in the world.

I have never been a big Tiger fan and I love to see the underdog stories at the majors. What is better than Y.E. Yang outplaying Tiger on the final day of the 2009 PGA championship or Louis Oosthuizen just destroying the field at the 2010 Open championship? I have always loved lefty, Phil Mickelson as well.

Although I don't have one favorite NBA team, I love to watch the association. I am not a LeBron hater (sorry) and I have love Stephen Curry ever since his days at Davidson.

Now you know all you need to know about me. By the way, don't worry I am not crying in the locker room after writing this post (Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra)