LOOK: Davis Cup Teams For America and Britain In San Diego Now

The First Round Davis Cup is happening this weekend in San Diego. John Isner is injured so Donald Young will be facing off against World #6 Andy Murray.

The above photo shows the smartly dressed British team in blue suits contrasted with the casually dressed American team, in blue jeans.

2013 WIMBLEDON: Tournament Review

After spending a few days reflecting I think I am finally ready to put down my thoughts about the 2013 Wimbledon. Andy Murray winning Wimbledon, becoming the first British man to do so in 77 years is simply a great story. Additionally, that Marion Bartoli, the ultimate outsider, was able to seize her opportunity to join the exclusive club of major title winners is also a great story.

The Top 5 things I will remember from this year's Wimbledon are:

1. Andy Murray winning Wimbledon, establishing himself as multiple slam winner and ending Britain's 77-year drought of a male British champion at Wimbledon. He is now the current holder of 2 of the 4 major tournaments and has to be the favorite to defend his US Open title.

2. Roger Federer losing in the second round of the major tournament that he has won seven times to unheralded, serving-and-volleying Sergiy Stakhovsky, thus bringing to end one of the most remarkable streaks in sports, his consecutive streak of 36 major quarterfinals appearances. It should be remembered the great Steffi Graf  lost in the first round (to Lori McNeil) as a 5-time champion in 1994 and won multiple majors afterwards.

3. Right behind Federer's shocking exit in the 2nd round is Rafael Nadal's exit in the first round to Steve Darcis. It's hard to say which exit is more shocking, but as a Federer fan, I place his exit first. After all, Nadal has only won Wimbledon twice and had lost in the 2nd round here last year to Lukas Rosol. These two results just cement the fact that the era of men's tennis being dominated by the Federer-Nadal rivalry is well and truly over, and that the Djokovic-Murray rivalry is now the most important in tennis.

4. Marion Bartoli's amazing title win, not dropping a set, only the 6th player to ever do so, without facing a player in the Top 15. This was a result of the draw opening up after numerous stunning upsets of major champions, many executed by her opponent in the final, Sabine Lisicki who beat 5-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, Samantha Stosur and Agnieska Radwanska en route to her first major final. Bartoli is only the 3rd French woman to ever Wimbledon and the first to win her first championship after playing in as many as 47 major tournaments.

5. Doubles often gets short shrift but the Bryan Brothers won their 15th major title and are now the reigning champion in all four majors and they won the Olympics Gold last year, thus accomplishing their own Golden Bryan Slam. If they win the 2013 US Open doubles title they will be the first men's doubles team to win a calendar Grand Slam in the Open Era.

Now let me discuss the Men's Final because I have already published my thoughts on the Women's Final.

Men's Final Review
The straightforward match score 6-4 7-5 6-4 does not match the sheer drama of the final. Although it was not the best match of the tournament in terms of high-quality tennis by both players (that honor would go to the semifinal between Juan Martin del Potro and Novak Djokovic that lasted nearly 5 hours and ended in the 5th set), it was the most emotional and tension-filled.

Murray played some of his best tennis, while Djokovic (perhaps tired or negatively impacted by his long semifinal) did not. Even so, one never felt that Djokovic was out of the match. Murray won the first set despite blowing four break points in the very first game, but managed to capitalize on his chances later in the set after the two had traded breaks. Once Murray got his second break he was able to serve out the set on an ace. Djokovic started the second set with an early break and was up 4-2 when Murray was able to break back and even the match at 4-all. In the eleventh game, Murray returned Djokovic's serve well to force two errors and to go up 0-30. The two played some exhausting rallies and Murray and they each win one, but that means Murray has two breakpoints. Could Murray actually win a set against Djokovic after being down 1-4? The answer is yes, and again Murray serves out the set easily to go up 2-sets to love!

Murray extended his momentum at the beginning of the third set to go up 2-0 and just when you thought Djokovic would fade away and Murray would jog to the finish line, Djokovic not only broke back but was able to reel off a string of four games in a row and doubt rippled through the British public watching the match in unprecedented numbers. Could Djokovic really come back from 2-sets down to dash the home country's hopes at Wimbledon? But Murray was able to break back and again hold serve to even the set at 4-all despite being down a break earlier. It was then that Djokovic blinked for the last time, getting broken and then Murray was up 5-4 and serving for the championship!

The final game was absolutely excruciating. Murray went up quickly to 40-love on two Djokovic return errors and a Murray forehand winner. Triple championship point. From that point on Murray could not make a first serve and Djokovic came back to deuce with some very strong service returns and deep groundstrokes. Eventually, Murray had to save three(!) breakpoints after having blown three Wimbledon championship points, a mentally tough performance that very few players could ever manage. I believe that if Djokovic had been able to break for the third time in that 3rd set, he would have won it. And he almost certainly would have used that momentum and Murray's despair at having squandered 3 opportunities to win the title to get an unsurmountable lead in the 4th set. Then who knows what would have happened in the 5th set, but I think most people would bet money on Djokovic coming out on top. However, none of that happened and finally on his 4th match Murray served a very strong serve into the corner, which Djokovic returned well and then when Murray hit his forehand deep into Djokovic's backhand corner, the Serb missed his attempted backhand down-the-line into the top of the net. Game, set and match, Murray!

It was the first time in 80 grand slam matches that Djokovic had failed to win a set (which last happened in the 2010 Wimbledon semifinal against Tomas Berdych) and it was his 3rd loss in the last four major finals he had contested (l. 2012 French Open to Nadal, l. 2013 U.S. Open to Murray, l. 2013 Wimbledon to Murray). Murray on the other hand has reached the final in the last 4 majors he has entered winning 2 of them. It should be noted that prior to Murray's emergence Djokovic had won 4 of 6 major finals and is currently on a 16-major quarterfinal appearance streak. The future is bright for both these great champions.

U.S. vs. Serbia: Serena-Jankovic and Nole-Querrey

The 24th meeting between Venus Williams and Serena Williams was their most lopsided, with Serena winning easily 6-1 6-2 in the semifinals of the 2013 Family Circle Cup in Charleston. More than 9,000 fans attended the match, a record figure for the venerable WTA tournament that has been around since the 1970s. It was the first time the sisters had played each other on tour since the Year-End Championships in late 2009, so interest was high. Serena's 5th consecutive win in the all-Williams series improved her career head-to-head against her sister to 14-10. The score reflected the lowest number of games won (3) by the loser of the match in 24 meetings.

Serena is the #1 player in the world and is on a winning streak, having just picked up the Sony Open Tennis title in Miami last week. On the other hand, Venus is ranked #24 in the world (a huge improvement from one year ago when she was barely in the top 100) and is still learning how to remain competitive on the WTA tour while managing an auto-immune disorder (Sjogren's syndrome) which leads to fatigue, joint pain and lack of stamina. The fact that both sisters had to play 3 matches in under 24 hours must have been much more difficult on Venus than Serena.

Jelena Jankovic will be in the final, attempting to stop Serena from winning her 3rd consecutive title here. Jankovic is a former #1 player herself and has a surprisingly close 4-5 head-to-head career record against the current #1, including an important 4-6 6-3 7-6(5) semifinal win on clay in Rome (where she also beat Venus the round before in the quarters and then lost the final to the much lower ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez). Jankovic is having a resurgence of her own and has already won a clay court title (her 13th career title overall) this year (in Bogota).

Serena's goal for the year is to improve her results at Roland Garros from last year (where she suffered her first round loss in a major) and on clay generally. She won both Charleston (w. Lucie Safarova) and Madrid (w. Victoria Azarenka) in 2012 (I was able to Serena in Rome during my vacation). Defending her Charleston title is a very likely occurrence, although it should be a fun to watch, and reasonably close match. The women's final will air on ESPN2 at 1pm EDT.

This is an interesting weekend for the Serbia-America rivalry in tennis. Serena is facing Jankovic in Charleston, while more than halfway across the country in Boise, Idaho the United States is facing Serbia in a Davis Cup quarterfinal. World #1 Novak Djokovic is trying to carry his team past a U.S. team that includes World #24 John Isner, World #20 Sam Querrey and the Bryan Twins. Amazingly, Serbia is one match win away from eliminating the United States if either Djokovic defeat Querrey or Victor Troicki defeats John Isner. The Querrey-Djokovic match will be played first. Djokovic has recently lost two matches in as many weeks (in Indian Wells to Juan Martin del Potro and in Miami to Tommy Haas) to end his red-hot start to 2013 and Querrey had been the last player to beat the World #1, on an indoor hard court in Paris last October. However, Djokovic has a 5-1 career head-to-head edge over Querrey, and dismissed the top American relatively easily 3 weeks ago and should be able to repeat that success in a best-of-five match.

The Tennis Channel will continue its live coverage of the Serbia-United States Davis Cup quarterfinal most of the day.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena in 3 sets, Serbia d. United States in Davis Cup.

2013 AUS OPEN: Djokovic Wins 6th Major; 4th in Oz

AP

As I predicted, World #1 Novak Djokovic defeated World #3 Andy Murray 6-7(2) 7-6(3) 6-3 6-2 in the final of the 2013 Australian Open to become the first man in the open era to win three consecutive titles in Melbourne and capture the 6th major title of his career at age 25.

This was the fourth time the two had met in a major tournament, with Djokovic extending his lead to 3-1 over his rival, with the only loss coming in 5-sets at the 2012 US Open final. Additionally, Djokovic now leads their overall head-to-head 11-7.

The match was not of the extraordinary quality of either that previous final they played 4 months ago or the semifinal the two contested in Australia last year, both of which were on my list of the best men's matches of the year.

In this match, there were only 3 breaks of serve, while in those previous 2 there were 35 breaks combined. In fact, it was well after the first two-and-a-half mark before the first break occurred, although, surprisingly there were breakpoints saved by both players in the first two tiebreak sets. The player who saved the breakpoints in each case was the person who won the tiebreaker. After Murray was broken it became apparent something was wrong with his feet (or toes) and his movement was not as explosive to the ball, which Djokovic was able to ruthlessly exploit to earn two more breaks in the 4th set and close out thee match without ever losing his. This is a pretty astonishing achievement for someone who was playing against the person who is arguably the best service returner in the game right now. Another, aspect of the game where Murray fell short was that although he has the bigger serve and had only served two double faults in the entire tournament up to the final, he only managed 7 aces and squandered 5 double faults (including one on break point) in the championship match.

Djokovic's win means that all four major titles will continue to be held by the Top 4 players in the world: World #1 Djokovic (Australian Open), World #2 Roger Federer (Wimbledon), World #3 Murray (US Open) and World #4 Rafael Nadal (French Open).

Many people, myself included, expect Djokovic to make a huge push to try to complete his career slam on the red clay of Roland Garros this spring. He made the final last year and for a stretch of 8 games completely dominated the best clay court player of all time before losing in 4 sets. Can he do so again for 3-4 sets? That is the question that remains to be answered.

Olympiad XXX Tennis: Williams Sisters Win Gold!

Venus Williams and Serena Williams cemented their place in history by winning their 3rd Olympic Women's Doubles gold medal by defeating the Czech team of Lucie Hradecka and Andrea Hlavackova 6-4 6-4. The American sisters also won Gold together in Sydney in 2000 and Beijing in 2008. They did not compete in Athens in 2004. Younger sister Serena, 30, also won the Gold medal in singles on Saturday. Older sister Venus, 31, had won the Gold medal in singles in 2000.

Amazingly, the Williamses were not the only American siblings to win Gold Medals in doubles today. Bob and Mike Bryan, twin brothers, won the Men's Doubles by beating the French team of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michel Llodra.

Olympiad XXX Day 4: Nole(2),Masha(3),Venus Win

Day 4 of the tennis competition at the XXXth Olympiad in London was historic, with the longest match in Olympic tennis history occurring between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Milos Raonic.

Additionally, #2seed Novak Djokovic dismissed 3-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick in straight sets 6-1 6-2. Venus Williams continued her excellent play by beating Aleksandr Wozniack in straight sets.

Other noted players to win today include Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Sabine Lisicki.
Also winning were David Ferrer(4), Andy Murray(3) and Lleyton Hewitt.

In other news,Venus and Serena Williams defeated the German team of Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki 7-5 6-2. They will face the #2 seeded team from Italy Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.

Surprisingly, Serena has decided NOT to compete in the mixed doubles competition, instead deferring to the doubles specialists on the American team, Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber, the #1 women's doubles team in the world, who will play with the men's doubles team, Mike and Bob Bryan. Huber will play with the lefty Bob Bryan, while Raymond will play with Mike.

Serena had said she could not decide whether to play with John Isner or Andy Roddick, but in the end decided that competing in the women's singles and the women's doubles was more than enough.

Olympiad XXX Day 1: Most Seeds Get Through

Serena Williams, Roger Federer, John Isner, Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters all won their first round matches in the singles competition of the London Olympics at Wimbledon today. Serena beat Jelena Jankovic 6-3 6-1 while World #1 Roger Federer took 3 sets to defeat Alejandro Falla after failing to convert a match point in the second set. Isner and Roddick won their singles match but then lost their doubles match to a veteran Brazilian doubles team. The Bryan Twins defeated another Brazilian doubles team of Tomaz Belluci and Andre Sa in 3 sets.

Other winners on the first day of competition included Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Juan Martin del Potro, Janko Tipsarevic and Ana Ivanovic. 


Li Na was upset by Daniela Hantuchova and Sam Stosur was upset by Carla Suarez Navarro. Tomas Berdych lost in the biggest upset on the men's side to Steve Darcis.

USTA Names Men's and Women's Olympics Teams

The United States Tennis Association today named the members of the men's and women's teams who will represent the United States at the London Olympics. As I predicted, Venus Williams and Serena Williams were named to the team in both singles and doubles. Interestingly, John Isner and Andy Roddick  (as well as Mike and Bob Bryan, of course) were named to the doubles team, so I wonder who will get to play with Serena in the new mixed-doubles competition?

2012 FRENCH OPEN Day 12: The Dream Continues

Sara Errani had never beaten a Top 10 player before her win over Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. After today's 7-5 1-6 6-3 win against #6 seed champion Samantha Stosur, Errani will become a Top 10 player herself on Monday. The crafty Italian followed in the footsteps of her countrywoman Francesca Schiavone to use her superior movement and guile to outwit, outlast and outplay a strongly favored opponent in Sam Stosur. Stosur had never lost to Errani in 5 meetings, but the Australian appears to prefer to play her best tennis when she is an underdog, like when she won her first major final against Serena Williams at the 2011 US Open. Stosur is now a shocking 6-36 when she loses the first set in a grand slam match. Errani saw her opportunity and seized it, shocking the tennis world (and yours truly) to continue her dream 2012 and reach her first major final. Errani is also the first player since Kim Clijsters in 2003 to reach both the singles and doubles final in the same year here. (Mary Pierce was the last player to win the singles and doubles at Roland Garros in the same year in 2000.)

In the other semifinal,(as I predicted) results followed the rankings as World #2 Maria Sharapova beat her rival World #4 Petra Kvitova 6-3 6-3 to return to the pinnacle of women's tennis, cementing the World #1 ranking regardless of what happens in Saturday's final match. It was a very windy day, and for some reason the hard-hitting Czech was unable to take advantage of any wobbles on the Russian's serve and was also surprisingly ineffective in her own service games. Sharapova now has a 4-2 career head-to-head lead on Kvitova and has won the last three matches these two have played since the Czech shocked Sharapova in the 2011 Wimbledon final. Kvitova has yet to beat a Top 10 player in 2012. Now, Sharapova's dream of completing the career Grand Slam requires one more match win over a player who will be playing in her first major final.

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won the mixed doubles title. Serena Williams and Bob Bryan lost in the 1st round.