2015 AUS OPEN Day 1: Ivanovic(5),Kerber(9),Gulbis(11) Upset; Rafa,Raja,Andy,Masha,Halep,Genie Win 1st Round

The Happy Slam has begun! The 2015 Australian Open, with defending champions Stanislas Wawrinka on the men's side and no defending champion on the women's side (due to Li Na's retirement) began yesterday.

On Day 1, there were a slew of upsets on the women's side with two of the Top 10 seeds exiting in pretty shocking upsets when Ana Ivanovic (who reached the final here in 2008) and Angelique Kerber (who has been underperforming in the majors since she entered the Top 10) both lost. Other seeded players who wasted the long flight Down Under were: Svetlana Kuznetsova(27), Sabine Lisicki(28), Carla Suarez Navarro(17) and Lucie Safarova(16).

On the men's side #11 seed Ernests Gulbis lost a match to Aussie youngster Thanasi Kokkinakis while the other Aussie phenom Nick Kyrgios did well to win a five-setter. The only other seeded player to fall was #15 seed Tommy Robredo.

So, who did win? The usual suspects: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych all won their 1st round matches, as did Grigor Dimitrov, in a much-0hyped showdown with flashy Dustin Brown. On the women's side Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep, and Genie Bouchard all won their first round matches.

On day 2 both Williams sisters will be in action, along with Novak Djokovic. One popcorn match is Victoria Azarenka versus Sloane Stephenes while another is Caroline Wozniacki versus Taylor Townsend--I think it's gonna be a rough day for the Americans!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Halep Reaches WTA World #3; Nadal (Barely) Holds On To ATP World #1

The new Top 10 rankings are out on the men's and women's tours following the 2014 French Open wins by Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, respectively this weekend. Sharapova returned to the Top 5 of the women's tour. (If she had lost, she would have fallen out of the Top 10) but surprising to some is that her opponent in the final, Simona Halep went up one more spot to World #3, a career high.

Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic (for the 6th time at Roland Garros) and 4th time in a major final, thus retaining his hold on World #1 by not losing any points from last year, while Djokovic did not gain enough to overtake the Spaniard. The Serb is only 170 points behind Nadal, but Nole has championship final points to defend at Wimbledon while Nadal has barely nothing, so it is likely Nadal will remain at the top spot until at least August when Nadal has championship title and 2 Masters 1000 titles to defend.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Men's Semifinals Preview

The men's semifinals for the 2014 French Open are set. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals. I also have already made predictions for the women's semifinals. Below are my predictions for this year's men's semifinals.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [1]  vs Andy Murray (GBR) [7]. Murray did not even play this tournament last year because of an injury but is playing in his 2nd career Roland Garros semifinal and 15th career major semifinal overall. Despite the fact that he has had his best results on hard courts, he is experienced on clay. However, like he does against all his contemporaries Nadal leads Murray 14-5  including 5-0 on clay.

Murray and Nadal played on clay just a few weeks ago in Rome and Murray won the first set 6-1 but ended up losing that three set match. Murray is tall enough that he should not be bothered by Nadal's extreme top spin. Since Murray is coming back from injury many felt that he wouldn't do well in Paris. Some of us didn't even think he would win his previous match against Gael Monfils in front of a Parisian crowd. Nadal has lost three times on clay this year (to Novak Djokovic in Rome, David Ferrer in Monte Carlo and Nico Almagro in Barcelona) so he is more vulnerable (and less confident) in Paris than he has ever been. However, it must help the King of Clay's confidence that he was able to dispatch one of these rivals surprisingly easily when he beat Ferrer 4-6 6-4 6-0 6-1 in the quarterfinals. I'm fairly confident that Murray will put up a better fight than that, but the eventual result will almost certainly be the same. Mad Professah's pick: Nadal in 4.

Tomas Berdych (CZE) [6]Ernests Gulbis (LAT) [18] vs Novak Djokovic (SRB) [2].  Since losing to Nadal in the final of the 2013 US Open, Novak Djokovic has only lost 3 matches and played 56. He lost to  Stan Wawrinka in Melbourne and to Roger Federer in Monte Carlo and Dubai.

Djokovic is playing at a high enough level that in my mind he is now actually the favorite to win here in Paris. He knows that he has the game to beat Rafa in five, he has just been unlucky the last two years. This year he has had quite a tough draw at Roland Garros but has been destroying excellent Top 10 players like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Milos Raonic in straight sets. His opponent in the semifinals surprised me by following up his dismissal of Roger Federer in the 4th round with a straight-sets shellacking of Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. The Latvian is finally living up to his prodigious talent and is most definitely a dangerous player but the inevitable high-stakes clash between the World #1 and World #2 is unlikely to be derailed by this 1st time major semifinalist. Instead, for the third consecutive year, the winner of the clash  between Nadal and Djokovic is almost certainly going to determine the winner of the French Open (and probably the year end World #1 ranking).  Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic in 4.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Federer Loses In 4th Round To Gulbis In 5-Sets

Roger Federer has made the quarterfinals of the French Open ever year since 2005 but he will not be extending that streak as he lost in the fourth round to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in an impressive display of calm, powerful play from the 25-year-old World #17. Gulbis is now undefeated in France for the year, having won titles in Nice and Marseilles. Federer failed to close out the second set and then played a poor tiebreak to even the match after two sets. It looked like history might repeat when Federer went up 5-2 in the 4th set but Gulbis took an injury tiebreak and returned playing carefree, error-free tennis to make things complicated for the 17-time champ. Although Federer was able to close out the 4th set, Gulbis broke early in the deciding set and held serve to close out the match 6-3.

In ohter matches, Canada had a good day as Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic reached their first major quarterfinals at Roland Garros. Bouchard dispatched World #8 Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-2 while Raonic beat Spaniard Marcel Grenollers.

2013 FRENCH OPEN Day 3-4: French Players Surging; Raja, Serena, Vika Thru

For the first time in recent memory, on the 30th anniversary of the last male French player (Yannick Noah) to win the Roland Garros title, the French players are surging at their country's major tennis tournament in Paris. Gael Monfils, fresh off his incredible 5-set "come back from ahead" win over #5 seed Tomas Berdych (still the biggest upset of the rain-soaked first four days of the tournament), eliminated very talented and mercurially dangerous Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis is also an entertaining player to watch and the two brought something special to their 2nd round encounter, won in 4 tight, thrilling sets by Le Monf: 6-7(5) 6-4 7-6(4) 6-2. One day before, the French hero was Marion Bartoli, who came back from a 3-5 deficit in the 3rd set, despite looking exhausted after more than 3 hours of play saved two match points and managed to win the last four games of the match to end her titanic struggle with Olga Govortsova 7-6(8) 4-6 7-5. Other French players to win include Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is into the third round along with Monfils, Gilles Simon, Jeremy Chardy (who plays Tsonga) and Julien Benneteau (who plays Roger Federer--someone he has a win over in 2013!) Meanwhile, Benoit Paire and Richard Gasquet still need to play their 2nd round matches.

Also doing surprisingly well at the French are the American players, who have 10 players left in the tournament, led by World #1 Serena Williams who defeated a future French hopeful, Caroline Garcia 6-1 6-2 and now has lost 4 games in 4 sets of play at the 2013 French Open. Federer is also on firing on all cylinders, making his way through his "easy bake oven" of a draw--he should not have anything to worry about until he potentially faces Tsona in his quarterfinal, although if Benneteau gets hot, he could put up a stiff challenge.

Victoria Azarenka played her first match on Day 4 of the tournament due to rain delays, and with Day 5 starting both defending champions have yet to play their second match. Although it is possible to play for awhile in rain, there's no question that every major venue needs to have at least one court that is covered so that play can continue regardless of weather. And don't get me started about electronic line calling on clay! It needs to be done, now. I'm sure that Sergiy Stakhovsky would agree with me!

2012 Wimbledon Day 1: Berdych(6),Isner(11) Upset

AP

Day 1 of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships was dominated by the not-very-shocking defeat of 5-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round. However, Venus was not seeded, although she was expected to win. The biggest upset of the day was the surprising loss of 2010 Wimbledon finalist and #6 seed Tomas Berdych in 3 tiebreak sets to Ernests Gulbis.

The other big upset was Big John Isner, the #11 seed, going down in 5-sets (6-4 6-7(7) 3-6 7-6(7) 7-5) to Argentinian Colombian Alejandro Falla who two years ago when Isner was playing his seemingly interminable match against Nicolas Mahut served for the match against 6-time defending Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

Other winners on Day 1 were Kim Clijsters playing in her final Wimbledon taking out former World #1 Jelena Jankovic(18), World #1 Maria Sharapova, World #3 Aggie Radwanska, World #5 Samantha Stosur and World #8 Angelique Kerber  all won their first round matches. Seeded losers were Flavia Penneta(16) and Daniela Hantuchova(27).

On the men's side World #1 Novak Djokovic, World #3 Roger Federer, World #8 Janko Tipsarevic (who surprisingly took out 2002 Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian), Gilles Simon(13), Juan Monaco(15), Fernando Verdasco(17), and Richard Gasquet(18) allwon their first round match with Berdych, Isner and Andreas Seppi(23) losing.

Federer-Nadal Final Set For Madrid Masters

For the 17th time, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will play against each other in a final, this time in Madrid. Federer scored a rare 6-4 6-4 win against Nadal in last year's final, after the Spaniard played a draining 4-hour 3-set thriller against Novak Djokovic. Nadal and Federer have competed together in 7 Grand Slam finals, with Nadal winning 5 to Federer's 2, although Federer has won 16 major titles overall, to Nadal's 6. Overall,Nadal has won 13 of their 20 matches, 11 of which have been on clay (and Nadal has won 9 of those matches).

Federer has not been playing well on clay this year, having lost his very first clay court match of the year to Ernests Gulbis (who he beat in the quarterfinal in Madrid) while Nadal is undefeated. I would be surprised if Federer even wins a set tomorrow. However, it should be helpful for Federer's chance of repeating as French Open champion to have to at least face Nadal in a non-major tournament to calibrate his game before Roland Garros which starts Monday May 23rd in Paris.

Nadal's place in the final assures his return to the World #2 position. If he wins on Sunday, he will have 18 Masters series titles, 2 more than Federer and 1 more than Andre Agassi, the all-time leader.

Federer Opens 2010 Clay Court Season With Loss

Julian Finney/Getty Images

World #1 and 2010 Australian Open champion Roger Federer lost his first clay court singles match of the year 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia at the Rome Masters series tournament. Gulbis, 21, won his first ATP Tour title in Delray Beach, Florida earlier this year and is known for his big-serving, hard-hitting style. It took him 7 match points to earn his first win over the 16-time Grand Slam champion and current World #1. Interestingly, Federer won a clay court doubles match with countryman Yves Allegro on Monday.

World #2 Novak Djokovic cruised to the 3rd round, while World #3 and defending champion Rafael Nadal will open his title defense on Wednesday. World #4 Andy Murray stopped his tour match losing streak at three in a row by winning his first clay match of the year