TENNIS TUESDAY: Grass Court Season Begins with Berrettini, Garcia, Riske Titles; Woz Gets Hitched; Venus Warms Up

GRASS COURT SEASON BEGINS: BERRETINI, GARCIA, RISKE WIN TITLES
Matteo Berrettini is having a sensational year. The 23-year-old Italian beat Felix Auguer-Aliassime 6-4 7-6(11) in the finals of Stuttgart to win his 3rd title in the last year. This was the 18-year-old Canadian's first grass court tournament and he reached the final. Berrettini i up to #22 in the rankings while the man he beat is at #21 despite never having completed a Grand Slam main draw match. In fact, it is looking like Auger-Aliassime's grand slam debut will  be at Wimbledon, where he will be seeded! Other grass court titlists were Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia who outlasted Donna Vekic in a 3-set thriller  2-6 7-6(4) 7-6(4) to win Nottingham and Allison Riske defeated Kiki Bertens in the Dutchwoman's home turf in even more dramatic fashion, losing a bagel set and saving 5 championship points to win 0-6 7-6(3) 7-5.

FORMER WTA WORLD #1 CAROLINE WOZNIACKI GETS MARRIED
Caroline Wozniacki got married in Tuscany,  Italy over the weekend, to David Lee. WTA players Serena Williams (bridesmaid), Angelique Kerber and both Radwanskas (Ursula and Agnieszka) were in attendance.

VENUS PLAYS RARE WARM-UP GRASS COURT TOURNAMENT
Now 39-year-old Venus Williams is still doing new things! She signed up to play doubles with 22-year-old British player Harriet Dart as a wildcard doubles pair at the Birmingham tournament. The two lost in the first round. Venus will play her first round singles match Wednesday against Alexandra Sasnovitch

TENNIS TUESDAY: Big 3 Are All Top 3; Tsitsipas Beats Nadal; Djokovic Wins Madrid; Kiki Beats Halep

THE BIG THREE (DJOKOVIC, NADAL, FEDERER) ARE ATOP THE ATP RANKINGS AGAIN
The big 3 first occupied the Top 3 spots at the top of the rankings on July 9, 2007 (when Djokovic joined Nadal and Federer). Last week, Federer returned to the Top 3 where Djokovic and Nadal were holding down the two top spots. Together the three players account for an astonishing 792 weeks at #1, with Federer owning the record 310 weeks, followed by Djokovic with 251 and Nadal with 196.

TSITSIPAS BEATS NADAL IN MADRID SF, OWNS WINS OVER BIG 3 AT AGE 20!
The Madrid Masters ended with Rafael Nadal suffering his 3rd consecutive semifinal loss in a clay court tournament in 2019. He lost to Fabio Fognini (in straight sets) in Barcelona, to Dominic Thiem in Monte Carlo and he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Madrid! This is the first time since 2004 that Nadal has reached this point in the season without having won a title. His last chance at a clay title will be Rome, where both World #1 Djokovic and (surprisingly!)  World #3 Federer are also playing. The key take-away from Madrid though is despite being just 20-years-old Tsitsipas already has wins over all of the members of the trivalry and is up to World #7 in the rankings. He beat Federer in the 4th round of the 2019 Australian Open, he beat Nadal in Madrid and he beat Djokovic in Montreal last summer.

KIKI BEATS SIMO TO WIN MADRID; RISES TO WORLD #4
Surprisingly, Kiki Bertens became the first player to ever win the Madrid Open without dropping a set when she defeated 2-time champion (2016 & 2017) Simona Halep 6-4 6-4. Bertens had lost the final last year to Petra Kvitova but she has had some of her best results in her career in the last year, including a win over Venus Williams at Wimbledon. With the biggest title of her career she becomes the highest ranked Dutch player ever, rising to World #4 this week!

DJOKOVIC RETURNS TO FORM WITH WINS OVER THIEM & TSITSIPAS TO WIN MADRID MASTERS
For the first time this year, the person who beat Nadal on clay did not win the tournament. Less than 24 hours after beating Nadal, Tsitsipas had to face Djokovic in the final, and was fairly easily dismissed, 6-3 6-4. Djokokic had more trouble in the semifinals against Dominic Thiem, whome he defeated in two tiebreak sets despite being down a service break in both sets! With his win, the World #1 cements his place at the top of the rankings, especially considering he has won the last three major tournaments in a row and now has tied Nadal with 33 Masters shields. Federer lags behind with 28.

FEDERER HITS 1200 WIN MILESTONE; DECIDES TO PLAY ROME
Roger Federer hit another career milestone by winning his 1200 match in Madrid (by coming from behind to beat Gael Monfils). After losing a tight 3-set match to Dominic Thiem (despite holding two match points) he decided to play Rome for the first time since 2016.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Nole,Rafa Suffer Shock Clay Defeats; Fognini Wins Monte Carlo Masters; Fed Cup Final Is FRA v AUS;

FOGNINI WINS FIRST MASTERS SERIES SHIELD IN MONTE CARLO
Amazingly, the flamboyant and talented Fabio Fognini, 31,  won his first ATP Masters series event in Monte Carlo by following up his stunning defeat of Rafael Nadal with a relatively tight 6-3 6-4 win over Dusan Lajovic who beat the person who took out Djokovic the round before. Lajovic became the lowest seeded player in Monte Carlo in 18 years while Fognini became the first Italian player to win the Monte Carlo tournament in 50 years, and only the fourth player to win the tournament in the last 15 years since Nadal has won it 11 times, Djokovic twice, and Stan Wawrinka once (2014). It was  aoyhood dream for Fognini, who was born a short 40-minute drive away in San Remo, just over the border in Italy and often visited the famous tennis club as a youngster.

DJOKOVIC AND NADAL SUFFER SHOCK CLAY COURT LOSSES
In Monte Carlo, the two best players in the world, #1 Novak Djokovic and #2 Rafael Nadal both suffered shock upsets to start  their clay court season. Djokovic lost to Daniil Medvedev in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals in a tough 3-set match, while Nadal lost what he called "his worst clay court match in 14 years" to Fabio Fognini in the semifinals 6-4 6-2. Nadal was down 5-0 in the second set with Fognini serving for a bagel set before staging a mini-comeback that was ultimately unsuccessful.

FED CUP SEMIFINALS: FRA DEFEATS ROU 3-2, AUS DEFEATS BLR 3-2
Two exciting Fed Cup semifinals were played this weekend, with France utlasting Romania despite some heroics from Simona Halep to win 3-2 and Ash Barty continuing to drag her squad over the finish line, this time, against Belarus. In November France will face Australia down under!

2017 MIAMI: Final is #FedalXXXVII 13 Years After First Federer-Nadal Match

The 37th meeting between 18-time major champion Roger Federer and 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal is happening at the same tournament as their first, 13 years later: the Masters tournament in Miami.

The two also played an epic 5-set final here in 2005, which was won by Federer. Nadal is playing in his 5th final at the Miami Open but has never won the title, while Federer won it in 2005 and 2006.

It's pretty amazing that the two have played 36 times, with Nadal leading 23-13 overall, 9-9 on hard courts but Federer has won their last 3 consecutive meetings. The most important was Federer's amazing come from behind win in the 2017 Australian Open final just 2 months ago. He followed that up with a beatdown of Nadal in straight sets in Indian Wells Round of 16.

In Miami this year both Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray (who have won this tournament 7 times between them) withdrew, leaving the field wide open but few expected this dream final. Nadal has not been seriously challenged, easily dismissing Fabio Fognini in the semifinal and Jack Sock in the quarters. Meanwhile Federer had to save 2 match points in a  final set tiebreaker to get through a slugfest with a resurgent Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinal and then played an epic, extremely high-quality 3 tiebreak sets (each over an hour) with Nick Kyrgios on Friday night. The Kyrgios match is the longest 3-set ATP match Federer has ever played in terms of points played, 7-6(9), 6-7(9), 7-6(5). Amazingly, the two have only played twice, and both matches have featured only tiebreak sets!

So, going into today's final Nadal should have the edge, despite Federer's 18-1 record on the year. If Federer wins he will be able to claim his 3rd "Sunshine" double of winning Indian Wells and Miami, while if Nadal wins he will finally be able to claim the Miami title on his 5th try.

MadProfessah's prediction: Federer in 3 sets.

BEIJING 2015: DJOKOVIC-NADAL XLV in the China Open Final Tomorrow!

The forty-fifth career meeting between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will occur tomorrow in Beijing, China, in the finals of the 2015 China Open, where Djokovic has won 27 consecutive matches. Nadal, 29, currently holds a slim 23-21, lead over his 28-year-old rival who is having one of his best years on tour. Djokovic has beaten Nadal twice this year, most importantly in straight sets in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and has also won 6 of their last 7 meetings. This match is on hard courts in Asia where Djokovic plays his best tennis (and the surface where he leads his rival 14-7). This is the World #1's 12th consecutive final of the year (he is 7-4) while this is Nadal's 5th (he is 3-1) and this is Nadal's first hard court major of the year. To get here, Nadal had to dispatch Fabio Fognini who has beaten him three times this year (including, crucially, in the 3rd round of the U.S. Open, ending the 14-time major champion's chance to win a major in 2015).

Djokovic is probably at his peak right now, having won 3 majors in 2015 and many think it is very possible that he could go on to eclipse not only Nadal's major total of 14, but possibly even  Roger Federer's at 17. I doubt Djokovic will get that far, but I do suspect his final major total will be in the "teens."

If Djokovic wins it will be his 56th career ATP title (currently 55-26) while if Nadal wins it will be his 68th career title (67-29). Djokovic is trying to win his 6th China Open title (5-0) while Nadal is trying to win his 3rd (1-1). Djokovic beat Nadal in straight sets to win the 2013 title.

MadProfessah's pick: Djokovic.

2015 US OPEN: Pennetta Wins 1st Major (And Announces She'll Retire By End of 2015!)

In the first ever all-Italian major women singles final, Flavia Pennetta defeated Roberta Vinci 7-6(4) 6-2 (as I predicted) to win the 2015 U.S. Open. The #26 seed completed her fairy tale run at the last major tournament of the year by beating one of her best friends and compatriots just one day after Vinci had achieved the biggest upset in tennis history by ending Serena Williams' streak of grand slam matches won at 33. Pennetta had to beat the #2 seed Simona Halep in the semifinals, #5 seed Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals and 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in the 4th round. Her opponent in the final was one of her best friends, someone she has known since they were both 10 years old and were roommates for four years in Rome. Their camaraderie could be seen after the match in the warm embrace at the net and their interaction during the trophy presentation.

Pennetta stunned the tennis world by announcing her retirement during the trophy ceremony, by saying that she had "made a big decision a month ago" and that "this is how I say goodbye to tennis."
She later clarified in  post-match press conference that this was her last U.S. Open but that she would continue playing until the end of the year. She became the oldest first-time Grand Slam winner ever, and also the person who played the most major tournaments (49) before capturing a title. (The previous record holder was Marion Bartoli who had played 47 majors before winning Wimbledon in 2013; she decided to retire within  a month of that victory.)

By winning this match, Pennetta will receive $3.3 million, almost 30% of her previous career total of $10.5 million. In the stands was not only the Prime Minister of Italy who flew from Italy through the night, but also Pennetta's fiance' Fabio Fognini (ATP player currently ranked #32 who made a big splash at the tournament himself by eliminating Rafael Nadal in the 3rd round.)

Pennetta will move to World #8 in the rankings on Monday and could possibly qualify for the year-end championships in Singapore. Even though Serena's bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam ended yesterday against Vinci, she tweeted out her support for Flavia's win and reaction to the retirement news.

2015 US OPEN: Men's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the US Open for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I have also predicted the women's quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP) [19] Rafael Nadal (ESP) [8]. It was expected that the World #1 would have to face a Spanish lefty in this quarterfinal, but Feliciano Lopez was not the Spanish lefty that the draw would have indicated would have made it this far. Thanks to a career-best performance by Fabio Fognini on Friday night, the 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal was bounced from the last major tournament of the year. However, as is often the case, Fognini could not recover from such a huge win in time to build on it, and instead went down in straight sets (blowing a 4-1 lead in the 2nd set) two days later to Lopez. Although Lopez was the initial beneficiary of Fognini's upset of Nadal, ultimately it will almost certainly accrue to Djokovic's benefit, because he is playing someone whom he has never lost to in 5 meetings (although they have not faced each other since 2012 but even so, Djokovic leads the set count 11-1). Lopez gets some great pop on his serve and is a good volleyer, but his backhand side is simply not a Top 20 shot and Djokovic is talented enough to direct many, many shots to that wing to make this match up a mismatch. This is Djokovic's 26th consecutive major quarterfinal, a positively Federian statistic. A win here will let Djokovic reach his 8th consecutive U.S. Open semifinal, which, somewhat bizarrely, he has only won once (in 2011, when he also won the Australian and Wimbledon) Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [19] Kei Nishikori (JPN) [4] vs Marin Cilic (CRO) [9].  This quarterfinal was predicted to be a reprise of last year's major final, with the defending champion attempting to get revenge for the defeat he had against Nishikori at the Citi open in Washington. However, despite winning the U.S. open final, Cilic is 3-6 career against Nishikori lifetime so he actually caught a big break when Nishikori was bounced out of the tournament by his Frenchman Benoit Paire, who  is the person Tsonga eliminated in straight sets to reach this quarterfinal. Tsonga has been playing excellent, efficient tennis through four rounds: he has not had his service broken in the 12 sets he has played and won so far. Cilic on the other hand has lost three sets in his last two rounds, although he has been winning the decisive set each time by a dominating margin. Somewhat surprisingly, Cilic has a distinct advantage in their career head-to-head and is currently sporting a 4-1 lead.  However, Tsonga dominated their first two earlier meetings on the challenger tour and their hard court matches have always been close. This should be a cracker of a match. I definitely believe Tsonga has the weapons to beat anyone on the day that all his weapons are working at maximum effect. If he does so, he will reach his seventh career semifinal (his first at the U.S. Open--Cilic only has one career semifinal, but then he went on to win the tournament). Mad Professah's pick: Tsonga.

Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [5] vs Andy Murray (GBR) [3] Kevin Anderson (RSA) [15]. The tall South African player has been getting closer and closer to his first major quarterfinal, despite having lost seven previous 4th round matches at majors, including at Wimbledon this year where he led the defending champion Noval Djokovic 2-sets-to-0 up and was at 5-all in the 5th set before succumbing to the eventual tournament winner. It must have seemed like deja-vu when Anderson won the first two sets against Andy Murray on Monday evening but despite Murray winning a 3rd set tiebreak, he could not win a 4th set tiebreaker, and thus his string of 18 major quarterfinal appearances ended in a dramatic 7-6(5) 6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(0) that lasted well more than four hours. and delighted and entertained the capacity-plus crowd on Louis Armstrong stadium (including  yours truly!) Thus Anderson will play 2-time major champion Stan Wawrinka, who dismissed American lefty Donald Young in four sets. Could Anderson's breakthrough against Murray duplicate Marin Cilic's breakthrough last year? Cilic had never beaten Gilles Simon in 5 meetings and won a tough 5-setter against the French player and used that confidence to win his first major title, beating two Top 5 players along the way. Anderson actually has a 4-3 head-to-head edge against Wawrinka, and has won the last 4 matches he played against him, including at Queen's Club, just a few months ago. However, the two have never played in a major (best-of-five set match) before. You have to believe that Anderson must believe that he can beat just about anyone at this point, considering his recent results, and this is a winnable match for him. I think that pressure may get to him, and I suspect Wawrinka will use his experience in these situations to pull through. Mad Professah's pick: Wawrinka.

Roger Federer (SUI) [2] vs Tomas Berdych (CZE) [6] Richard Gasquet (FRA) [12].  Amazingly, in both men's matches I managed to be in the audience for on Labor Day there were surprising upsets (where the  lower seed one). Gasquet has been playing excellent tennis all summer, as his Wimbledon semifinal indicates, but I doubt very many people thought that the Frenchman would get past the tall Ccech player despite their even head-to-head at 6-all. Because, the Murray match was so long and it's conclusion coincided with the beginning of the Federer match, Louis Armstrong was deserted b the crowd and barely a few hundred hard-core fans (like yours truly!) stuck around to watch this important match. Happily, this meant I was able to view the match from courtside! Gasquet's backhand and movement is very impressive but what won him this match was his impeccable serving. After blowing the first set, Gasquet dominated the next 3, winning 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-1. This is great news for Federer, because he is 14-6 against Berdych but 14-2 against Gasquet. Gasquet has only been in two major semifinals in his career, while Federer has been in a record 37 (6 more than Jimmy Connors previous record) and he is clearly not finished breaking records, especially here in New York. Mad Professah's pick: Federer.

2015 US OPEN: Fognini Upsets Nadal In Late Night Thriller!

I just arrived in NYC to attend the 2015 U.S. Open so I did not have time to blog about the huge surprise result that happened last night. Fabio Fognini beat Rafael Nadal for the third time this year, but this time was definitely not a charming experience for the 14-time major champ! It was the first time in a major tournament that Nadal had won the first two sets and not won the match (150-0).

Nadal was up two sets and a break before somehow Fognini turned the match around. (I saw the first set and a half and then went to pack and get ready for bed last night). Somehow the Italian leveled the match at 2-sets all (3-6 4-6 6-6 6-3) and then broke first to up 2-1 in the fifth set. Then there were an incredible SIX consecutive breaks of serve in a row, with Fognini finally holding at 5-4 to win the match well after 1am in New York City (I was long asleep--I turned off the coverage after Nadal broke back to even the match at 4-all.)

The amazing thing about this match is that Fognini won it, Nadal didn't lose it. The Italian hit 70 winners (to 57 unforced errors), more than twice Nadal's 30 winners (to only 18 unforced errors).
The loss means that for the first time since 2004 Nadal will not win a major. This was basically guaranteed when he did not win the French Open this year (only the second time in 11 years that has happened). So Nadal's streak of 10 consecutive years of major titles (2005-2014) surpasses Federer's streak of major titles from 2003-2010. (It should be noted, that in Federer's worst year, 2013, he at least reached a semifinal and a quarterfinal and he has reached finals in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015--winning only once.) The $80 million question is, now that he has stopped winning majors regularly, will Nadal come back to challenge and win another? (I think the answer is yes he will get to multiple finals, I'm not completely sure he will win multiple majors, however.)

Nadal has slipped to World #8 in the ATP rankings and his best Grand Slam results this year are Quarterfinals in Australia (l. Tomas Berdych) and Roland Garros (l. Novak Djokovic) with 2nd round losses at Wimbledon (l. Dustin Brown) and and now a 3rd round loss to Fognini at the U.S. Open.

Federer easily won his 3rd round match and still has not lost a set. He faces John Isner in the fourth round on Monday and I'll be there to see it!

Both 2014 French Open Champs Lose Clay Matches In Europe

The two best players on clay last year, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, who respectively won the men's and women's 2014 French Open have suffered surprising losses in European red clay tournaments this week.

Sharapova, lost in Stuttgart to Angelique Kerber where she was the defending champion and had a 13-match winning streak. Nadal lost in Barcelona, a tournament he has won 8 times previously. He lost to Fabio Fognini on clay for the second time this year.  (The Italian hottie beat Nadal earlier this year in Brazil.)

Both matches were relatively close, with Nadal losing 6-4, 7-6(6) despite being up a break three(!) times in the second set. Sharapova lost 2-6 7-5 6-1 against Kerber playing inspired defense in front of a partisan crowd of her compatriots.

TENNIS TUESDAY: #3-#4 Swap Places On WTA & ATP Rankings

Murray and Nadal Swap Places

Andy Murray moved up 1 spot to #3 in the World ATP rankings today following Rafael Nadal's surprising loss to Fabio Fognini in the semifinals of the Rio Open last weekend. Nadal fell to #4 and has yet to reach a final in 2015, let alone win a title. He is playing on clay in South America while the Top 2 seeds (and most of the rest of the Top 10) are in the Middle East at the Dubai Duty Free Open.

Halep and Kvitova Swap Places
Reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova fell from #3 to #4, swapping places with Simona Halep. This weekend Halep won her second title of the year at the Dubai Championships by beating Karolina Pliskova, one of the hottest players on the tour right now.

Dimitrov Returns To Top 10
Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov re-entered the Top 10 by switching places with 2014 U.S. Open champ Marin Cilic.

Celebrity Friday: Fabio Fognini Poses Nude!

Well-known tennis hottie Fabio Fognini is posing nude for UK Cosmopolitan to raise awareness for male cancer. I ran into Fognini in person practicing shirtless when I was at the 2011 US Open. I guess the idea of tennis players posing nude is getting more popular!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Davis Cup Semifinals Set: Switzerland v Italy, France v Czech Republic

The big news in the tennis world this weekend was the result of the Davis Cup quarterfinal ties which for the most part proceeded as I predicted when it was announced: Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-2 (a close result even though the Swiss team had two Top 5 players and the Kazakh team has no one in the Top 50), Italy (surprisingly) beat Great Britain 3-2, defending champion Czech Republic beat Japan 5-0 and France beat Germany 3-2.

Switzerland will face Italy and France will face the Czech Republic. I predict a Switzerland versus France showdown if Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils remain healthy.

BEIJING 2013: Djokovic d. Nadal To Win 38th ATP Title

As I predicted yesterday, this week's World #1 Novak Djokovic defeated next week's World #1 (and current World #2) Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-4 to win his 4th China Open title in Beijing. Djokovic improved his overall head-to-head to 16 wins and 22 losses against Nadal, evened their finals record at 9-all and extended his hard court lead to 12-7. It was Djokovic's second win over Nadal in a final in 2013 but he lost the meeting that meant the most to them both, the 2013 US Open men's final.

Defending champion Djokovic improved to 19-0 in Beijing, picking up his 4th title in 5 years at the event (did not play in 2011).

Nadal is now 67-4 for the season and will be the new World #1 when ATP rankings are released on Monday.

2013 US OPEN Day 3: Murray Wins, Venus Loses, Blake Ends Career

By the end of Day 3 of the US Open, the entirety of Round 1 of the men's draw is finally completed. Although 10 of the Top 32 seeds were eliminated, none of them were in the top 10. However some big names (and players I like to watch) departed the last major of the year early: Kei Nishikori, Jerzy Janowicz, Fabio Fognini, Nicolas Almagro, Grigor Dimitrov and Fernando Verdasco. Andy Murray playing his first match at a major tournament where he is the defending champion, looked very sharp with only 5 unforced errors in his dismissal of Michael Llodra in straight sets.
The highlight of Day 3 was James Blake's heartbreaking loss in a 5th set tiebreaker after being up 2-sets against Ivo Karlovic. It was the 33-year-old American's last professional match, since Blake had announced earlier that the US Open would be his last tournament.

On the women's side of the draw, the seeds are not falling as rapidly, with the biggest names to exit being 2-time champion Venus Williams and 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur. Stosur lost a 3-set match to unheralded American Victoria Duval while Venus lost a 3rd set tiebreak to Zheng Jie after a marathon match that lasted three hours and three minutes. Sloane Stephens has reached the third round and will face fellow American Jamie Hampton. The winner could face defending champion Serena Williams who will play her rain-delayed 2nd round match today.

HAMBURG 2013: Fognini Saves 3 MPs, Wins 2nd Title in 2 Weeks

Italian Fabio Fognini won his 2nd title in as many weeks by saving 3 match points on the way to defeat Federico Delbonis 4-6 7-6(8) 6-2 in the final of the bet-at-home open in Hamburg. Delbonis had defeated Roger Federer in the semifinal to reach his first career ATP tour final.

Fognini is on a 10 match-winning streak and won his first career ATP title last week in Stuttgart. He will rise to #19 on the ATP World Tour when the rankings are released on Monday. He has 25 match wins on clay this year, second behind the King of Clay Rafael Nadal.

HAMBURG 2013: Federer Loses To #116; Serena Gets 50th Win of 2013

Roger Federer lost to a player ranked outside the ATP Tour Top 100 for the second time in 2013 (and only the twelfth time in his career) when Argentine qualifier Federico Delbonis beat him in the semifinals of the Hamburg bet-at-home Open 7-6(7) 7-6(4). In the final Delbonis will face Italian Fabio Fognini, who will be playing in his second consecutive ATP Tour final after winning his first career ATP Tour title in Stuttgart last week. Fognini is now on a 9-match winning streak after sweeping past #3 seed Nicolas Almagro in his semifinal. 22-year-old lefty Delbonis was playing in the semifinal after defeating Fernando Verdasco following one of the Spaniard's now-legendary meltdowns on the court in 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Federer lost to another player outside the top 100 (Sergiy Stakhovsky) in the very last tournament he played in, the 2013 Wimbledon championships, in the second round. Stakhovsky was ranked #116 at the time while Delbonis is ranked #114. Federer made news this week because he has traded in his old racquet with a relatively small head of 90 square inches for one that has 98 square inches. Most top-level tour players play with racquets with at least 100 square inches. It's not clear what impact the racquet had on his game, but he played two tough 3-set matches, against Daniel Brands and Florian Mayer, two good players, but not players whom a 17-time major champion would be expected to struggle against.

16-time champion Serena Williams is now 50-4 for 2013, the fastest she has ever won 50 matches in a calendar year. She will play in the final of the Swedish Open, where she will face hometown favorite Johanna Larsson.

Fognini Wins 1st ATP Title in Stuttgart

Fabio Fognini has finally won his first ATP title, by defeating Philip Kohlschreiber 5-7 6-4 6-4 at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. Fognini, 26, is ranked #25 on the ATP World Tour and had been one of the highest ranked players not to have won a title. That distinction now falls to Jerzy Janowicz, who is at #17 after having recently reached the semifinals of Wimbledon.

This weekend 31-year-old Nicolas Mahut replaced John Isner as the champion of the grass court tournament in Newport, Rhode Island by coming back from to defeat Lleyton Hewitt. Mahut also won the doubles title, with Edouard Roger-Vasselin, becoming the first ATP player to win both singles and doubles title at an ATP tournament since Mikhail Youzhny did it in February 2012 in Zagreb.

MONTE CARLO 2013 Final: Djokovic-Nadal XXXIV

In a repeat of last year's final, 8-time defending champion Rafael Nadal will face World #1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday at the 2013 Monte Carlo Rolex Masters 1000 tournament in Monaco. As I predicted last night, Nadal was able to defeat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets, although the Frenchman did put a bit of a scare into the Spaniard by coming back from 1-5 down in the 2nd set (saving four match points!) to force a tiebreak which he lost 7-3, along with the match 6-3 7-6(3). In the other semifinal Djokovic played the irrepressible Fabio Fognini, who was playing in his first Masters Series-level semifinal after dispatching Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych in consecutive rounds. Djokovic looked very sharp and dismissed the hunky Italian in under an hour 6-1 6-2.

Sunday will be the 34th meeting in the burgeoning rivalry between Djokovic and Nadal. Their last 10 meetings have been in final with Nadal winning the last 3 and Djokovic winning the first 7. Overall, Nadal lead 19-14 and 8-7 in tour finals. But, amazingly, Djokovic has beaten Nadal in two clay court finals (2011 Madrid Masters and 2011 Rome Masters) but has lost to him in four clay court finals, including the 2009 Monte Carlo final and the 2012 Monte Carlo final. Nadal leads 11-2 in clay court matches while Djokovic leads 11-5 on hard courts. Last year the Serbian was reeling from a personal crisis and lost relatively easily 6-3 6-1 to the King of Clay. This year Djokovic's difficulties will be more physical than mental. He injured his ankle ina Davis Cup match versus Sam Querrey two weeks ago and until hours before he played his first match on Wednesday, it was unclear whether the World #1 would even play the tournament. He won a scratchy match against Mikhail Youzhny 4-6 6-1 6-4 but has looked sharp during the business end of the tournament. Nadal surprisingly lost a set against fast-improving Grigor Dimitrov in his quarterfinal on his way to his 9th consecutive final here.

However, he is playing the King of Clay, who has reached 5 consecutive finals this year (winning three of them so far) and who has won this tournament 8 times in a row, something no one has ever done at any tournament. In fact, Nadal has won 44 matches in a row in Monte Carlo including the now classic 5-set tussle with Roger Federer in 2008, which some might argue is almost as good as their 2008 match in the Wimbledon final a few months later. Nadal wants to win in order to increase his total of the number of career ATP Masters 1000 shields from the current record total of 22, win his 9th title here and also not lose ranking points.

Djokovic, on the other hand, probably feels pretty good just to get the final and can probably go home and rest his ankle after this tournament until the Madrid-Rome double starts in two weeks. It is on that terrain that he will need to bolster his claim that he can prevent Nadal from winning his 8th French Open title.

MadProfessah's prediction: Nadal.

MONTE CARLO 2013 Semis: Fognini-Djokovic, Nadal-Tsonga

Fabio Fognini is in his first ATP Masters semifinal of his career at the 2013 Monte Carlo Rolex Masters 1000 tournament. The handsome Italian is currently ranked #32 in the world, but the 25-year-old has beaten two of the world's Top 10 players in the world in consecutive matches: Richard Gasquet 7-6(0) 6-2 and Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2. His opponent in the semifinal will be World #1 Novak Djokovic who has beaten him all four times they have played. Fognini is one of the highest ranked players on the tour who is yet to win a tour event (only Julien Benneteau and Jerzy Janowicz are higher ranked and still like ATP titles).

Rafael Nadal has won an astonishing 8 titles in Monte Carlo and most people expect him to win his 9th this year. Grigor Dimitrov (reportedly Maria Sharapova's boyfriend) had other ideas and  
showed why he is widely believed to be an important player in the (near) future by winning a set from the King of Clay in a 6-2 2-6 6-4 loss. Nadal will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who dismissed Stanislas Wawrinka 2-6 6-3 6-4. Murray's early round loss to Wawrinka means that his more well-known compatriot Roger Federer will regain the World #2 spot on Monday.

Tsonga and Nadal will face off on clay for only the 2nd time despite having faced each other ten times before, with the Spaniard leading 7-3. I believe Tsonga will be able to win a set, but it's very doubtful that he can win the match. Even though Djokovic is playing with an ankle that was recently badly twisted, he will still probably have no problem defeating Fognini again and setting up a reprise of last year's final.

MadProfessah's prediction: Nadal-Djokovic final.

2012 US OPEN Day 8: Serena and Federer Win

REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Serena Williams reached the quarterfinals of the 2012 US Open where she will face 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic by winning 6-0 6-0 against Czech doubles specialist Anna Hlavackova. Earlier, Roger Federer reached his record 34th consecutive major quarterfinal by also not losing a (or winning) a single game when Mardy Fish withdrew from the tournament on the advice of his doctor. Fish has been struggling with a heart condition (accelerated heart rate) for most of the 2012 tennis season. The world #1 will face Tomas Berdych, who beat Federer in the quarterfinals en route to his appearance in the 2010 Wimbledon final. Serena is in dominating form, having won 38 of her last 40 matches, with losses only to Angelique Kerber in Cincinnati and Virginie Razzano in Paris, grabbing the Wimbledon title and gold medals in Singes and Doubles.

The double bagel Serena served was only the 5th in her career and the first at the US Open since Maria Sharapova did it in 2009. Speaking of the Russian, she came back from being down 0-2 in the deciding set against Nadia Petrova after a brief rain delay last night to eventually win her 11th 3-set match of 2012 6-1 4-6 6-4.

The other big result of the weekend was Marion Bartoli taking out 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 1-6 6-2 6-0 to reach a quarterfinal match up with Sharapova. #1 seed Victoria Azarenka has reached her very first US Open quarterfinal by losing a mere 10 games in her first four rounds. (Even with the double bagel, Serena has lost more games than Vika: twelve in four rounds.) Kerber lost a very tough, tight match against 2012 French Open finalist Sara Errani 7-6(5) 6-3.

Andy Roddick continued his last run at a major tournament after announcing his retirement by taking out his handsome buddy Fabio Fognini 7-5 7-6(1) 4-6 6-4. He will face Juan Martin del Potro in a tough 4th round match tomorrow night.