2019 WIMBLEDON: R16 Matches Set For Manic Monday

The best day in tennis is tomorrow; the round of 16 at Wimbledon, where every player in both the men's and women's singles draw takes to the court! Here are the matches on offer:

Men's Draw

• [1] Djokovic v. Humbert
• [21] Goffin v. Verdasco
• [26] Pella v. [15] Raonic
• [23] Bautista Agut v. [28] Paire
• Querrey v. Sandgren
• Sousa v. [3] Nadal
• [8] Nishikori v. Kukushkin
• [19] Berrettini v. [2] Federer

Women's Draw

• [1] Barty vs. Riske
• [11] Serena v. [30] Suarez Navarro
• [21] Mertens v. Strycova vs.
• [6] Kvitova v. [19] Konta
• [8] Svitolina v. [24] Martic
• [3] Pliskova v. Muchova
• [7] Halep v. Gauff
• Zhang Shuai v. Yastremska

The matches to watch are Kvitova-Konta, Halep-Gauff, Barty-Riske, Berrettini-Federer and Goffin-Verdasco. In those 5 I pick: Kvitova, Halep, Barty, Federer and Verdasco.

2018 US OPEN: Halep(1), Muguruza(12), Kasatkina(11), Dimitrov(8), Murray All Lose early; Serena-Venus XXX Looms

Oh my! The first three days of the 2018 US Open have concluded and with it, most of the first two rounds of play. The tournament started with a bang with World #1 and #1 seed Simona Halep becoming the first top seed to lose first round in the 50 years of the US Open. Halep was my pick to win the whole thing this year, but hard-hitting Estonian Kaia Kanepi knocked her out in straight sets! Other seeded upsets in the early rounds were 2-time major champion Garbine Muguruza, the wily Daria Kasatkina, #9 seed Julia Georges and CoCo Vandeweghe.

On the men's side the wailing was a little quieter with only Top 10 seed to go out was #8 Grigor Dimitrov, who unsurprisingly lost to Stan Wawrinka for the second consecutive first round in a slam. Other male players who lost early are Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kyle Edmund, Jack Sock and Roberto Bautista Agut.

In the first rounds to watch, Caroline Wozniacki got past 2011 champion Sam Stosur and amaria Sharapova ended Patty Schnyder's dream run to a main slam draw at nearly 40 years old. On the men's side the young Canadian Clash between Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime took on a scary turn when 18-year-old Felix was forced to retire due to a racing heartbeat despite splitting the first two sets and competing well in the 3rd.

The marquee event is now going to be the thirtieth matchup between Venus and Serena Williams. I didn't expect this matchup to happen in this tournament and I doubt anyone expected that the two sisters would play 30 matches against each other when they both became professionals well over 20 years ago. Serena leads the head to head 17-12 overall and 9-5 in grand slams. They have only met this early in a major tournament once before, in their first meeting in Australia in 1998. It should be a good match, but I'll pick Serena to get through, even though Venus won their last meeting in Indian Wells earlier this year. They are both playing better than I expected. I didn't really think Venus would get through her first round match with Sveta Kuznetsova or her 2nd round match with Camila Giorgi. as for Serena, after reaching the Wimbledon final her summer hard court prep has been horrific.

Sadly, I don't arrive in New York until tomorrow, so I will only be able to see one of them play on Sunday.

2017 FRENCH OPEN: 3rd Round Almost Complete!

At the 2017 Roland Garros tennis tournament, the third round is almost complete on both the women's and men's sides of the draw, which would mean that there are only 16 remaining contenders  for this year's French Open title. Play has continued in the same vein as the early rounds, with few surprises or upsets.

On the women's side, people to watch who are safely through to the second week of the clay court major include: Simona Halep, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Garbine Muguruza, Venus Williams, Kiki Mladenovic, Caroline Wozniacki and Samantha Stosur. Because of rain delays, dark horse favorites Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina have been unable to even begin their 3rd round matches.

On the men's side of the draw, many of the favorites to win the tournament who are still around are: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic, Marin Cilic and Dominc Thiem. There is still a stable of Spanish-speaking dark horses remaining in the draw: Fernando Verdasco, Alexander Ramos-Vinolas, Horacio Zeballos, Pablo Carreno Busta and Roberto Bautista Agut. The third round match between Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet is frozen on serve late in the first set (the winner plays Wawrinka).  Kei Nishikori is stuck in a 4th set with Korean wunderkind Hyeon Chung.

2017 FRENCH OPEN: Round 1 Complete; Kerber, Konta, Tsonga, Zverev Out

The first round of the 2017 French Open is now complete. It took three days, and there were a relatively small number of upsets. The biggest upset (but not a surprise) was World #1 Angelique Kerber losing to Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-2 on the first day. There was some thought that World #1 Andy Murray would follow suit, but he came back from losing a 6-4 second set against Aelex Kuznetsov to win a 6-0 final set.

Other notable defeats were Jo Konta, 2017 Rome champion Sascha Zverev (to Fernando Verdasco), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The usual suspects are still around: Rafael Nadal, defending champion Novak Djokovic, tournament favorite Simona Halep and remaining top seed Karolina Pliskova all won relatively easily. Other players I am interested also won: Venus Williams, Sveta Kuznetsova, Garbine Muguruza and Madison Keys on the women's side and Dominic Thiem, Gael Monfils (who won a fun match with Dustin Brown) and Stan Wawrinka.

2016 AUS OPEN: Nadal Loses 1R To Verdasco; Venus(8),Halep(2),Wozniacki(16) All Upset

Verdasco Stuns Nadal With Incredible Display

The first two days of the Australian Open are complete with Day 3 action set to begin soon. (Australia is 19 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.) So far the biggest upset of the tournament has been the shocking departure of 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal at the hands of Fernando Verdasco, another Spanish left-hander. Nadal and Verdasco played one of the best matches at the Australian Open in the 2009 semifinals (It lasted well over 5 hours and was won by Nadal in the fifth set on a double fault by Verdasco).

This time the met in the first round (which I noted earlier was an intriguing first-round match up). After losing to Nadal over a dozen times in a row in his career, Verdasco turned things around last year and beat his countryman twice in 2015. In their 2016 1st round meeting Verdasco came back from 0-2, 30-40 in the 5th set to reel off 6 consecutive games and hand Nadal only his second ever first round loss in a major tournament (the other was in 2013 at Wimbledon to Steve Darcis). Verdasco hit an astonishing 90 winners over 5 sets (to Nadal's 37) and in the fifth set he hit 21 winners to 12 unforced errors. The 32-year-old Spaniard was repeatedly able to hit forehand winners clocked at well over 100 miles per hour.

Multiple Major Upsets In Women's Draw
Simona Halep, the #2 seed (who I picked to get to the final!), lost in the very first round to unheralded Zhang Shuai (ranked #133). Also losing in the first round were #8 seed Venus Williams
(who lost to Sydney-born British player Johanna Konta) and #16 Caroline Wozniacki (who has been doing progressively worse at the Australian Open as her career progresses) lost a tough 3-set marathon to Yulia Putintseva.

Other milder upsets were the early exits of 10 of the 16 seeds from #17 to #32, including well-known names like Sara Errani, Andrea Petkovic, Samantha Stosur,  Sloane Stephens and Caroline Garcia.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: 2-Time Major Champ Stan Wawrinka Poses Nude For ESPN Magazine

Stan Wawrinka is following in the foots of previous professional tennis players and posing nude for ESPN Magazine's "Body" issue. Wawrinka has a much higher profile right mow since he won his 2nd major title by defeating World #1 Novak Djokovic in the final of Roland Garros less than a month ago.

Othe rplayers who have posed nude for ESPN magazine include Serena Williams (June 2009 cover) and  John Isner (March 2013). Tennis players Tommy Robredo, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fabio Fognini have also posed nude for various magazines over the years.

Which tennis players would you like to see pose nude? My money would be on Gael Monfils, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco or Roger Federer. (In that order!)

TENNIS TUESDAY: Verdasco Stuns Nadal In Miami; Venus Beats #5 Woz

Verdasco Beats Nadal For 2nd Consecutive Match
Fernando Verdasco is a very popular player (for some obvious reasons!) but he has had a horrible record against his nation's #1 player for a long time. However the last time they met (in Madrid 2012) Verdasco handed Nadal one of his rare defeats on clay (and I was present to see it!!) The two met on hardcourts in Miami yesterday and amazingly Verdasco was able to win again (6-4 2-6 6-3). Sadly, Verdasco then lost his next round, against Juan Monaco.


Venus Shows She Can Compete With The Best
Venus Williams dispatched World #5 Caroline Wozniacki at the Miami Open in straight sets, managing to maintain her perfect head-to-head record of 7-0 against the Danish former World #1.
Unfortunately, Venus then lost her quarterfinal match against Carla Suarez Navarro despite winning the first set 6-0!

Nadal Likely To Fall To #5
Because Nadal reached the final of the Miami Open last year he has a lot of points to defend his loss to Verdasco means it is very likely that he will fall to World #5, surpassed by Kei Nishikori for the first time.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Aggie, Petra and Ana Upset, Murray 7-7 in 5th Set

Day 7 of the 2014 French Open is complete but the third round is not! On the women's side the final 16 is set, with some surprising omissions, such as Agnieska Radwanska[3], Petra Kvitova[5] and Ana Ivanovic[11]. That leaves the top seed in the tournament is Simona Halep[4] and only half of the top 10 seeds left standing. The match of the day was 2009 Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova's win over Kvitova 6-7(3) 6-1 9-7 despite being down a break three times in the deciding set. 2012 Champion Maria Sharapova[7] is now the highest seed in her draw and she faces the bitch she owns 13-2  Samantha Stosur for a place in the quarterfinals. The Russian seems destined for a 3rd consecutive final in Paris.

On the men's side Andy Murray is stuck at 7-all in the 5th against Philipp Kohlschreiber after blowing a 3-0 4th set lead and failing to close out the match. The winner of that match will face the winner of Richard Gasquet-Fernando Verdasco, which was suspended with the Spaniard up 2 sets and even at 2-all in the 3rd. The men's draw looks on course for a men's final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic although the two both have tough tests in David Ferrer for Rafa and Jo-Wilfried Tsona and Milos Raonic for Nole.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Li Na Loses 1st Round, Dimitrov Also Upset

For the first time in Grand Slam history the male and female winners of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year have both lost in the 1st round of the second Grand Slam tournament, the French Open.

Li Na lost to hometown player Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic a 7-5 3-6 6-1.  The 2-time major champion and World #2 was considered a favorite to win the title if defending champion Serena Williams falters.

Another surprising loss today was Grigor Dimitrov losing to Ivo Karlovic 6-4 7-5 7-6(4).
Andy Murray and Gael Monfils won 4-set matches. Othe MadProfessah faves that survived the first round were Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Fernando Verdasco.

2013 WIMBLEDON: Men's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the men's semifinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2013. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals and correctly predicted 2 of 2 women's semifinals. This year I have correctly predicted 2 of 2 women's semifinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs. David Ferrer (ESP) [4] Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) [8]. The inexorable march to a final between the two best players in the world continues. This match is between the two players in the tournament who through five rounds of play are the only two to win 15 sets each without losing any. This is the 12 professional meeting between Del Potro and Djokovic and although Djokovic has a healthy 8-3 lead the most important match the two have played, the Bronze Medal match from last year's year's London Olympics, was won by the 6'6" Argentine. I think it is very significant that Del Potro was able to win that match, since it was on grass and played at the same venue as Wimbledon.

These facts provide Del Potro with a reasonable source for the belief that he can win this match, as does his straight set demolition of David Ferrer, an opponent whom he now only has lifetime 3-6 deficit against. However, Del Potro is playing in his first Wimbledon semifinal while Djokovic is playing his 6th which is also his 3rd Wimbledon semifinal in the last 3 years--a period which includes his run to the title in 2011.  However, there's a reason Djokovic is the world #1 and is approaching the prime of what appears to be a career which could potentially rival Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (Djokovic has now made 17 major quarterfinals in a row and 13 major semifinals in a row. To put it simply, Del Potro is a very good player, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Djokovic is a great one. Nevertheless, I am quite confident that del Potro will take at least one set from Djokovic but I'm finding it hard to imagine how he will win three in the same match. PREDICTION: Djokovic.

Roger Federer (SUI) [3] Jerzy Janowicz (POL) [24] vs. Andy Murray (GBR) [2].  The great hope of Great Britain to win its home slam tournament has now reached the semifinals for the last 5 years in a row. Last year was the first time he was able to win a Wimbledon semifinal, defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Previously he had lost to Nadal twice (2010 and 2011) and Andy Roddick once (2009). Jerzy Janowicz is by the far a much lower ranked played than Murray could have imagined he would be facing to reach his second Wimbledon final. After all, both Nadal and Federer were in his haf of the draw, but neither of the Greats made it past the first Wednesday of the tournament!

Janowicz is the first Polish male player to reach a major semifinal, having won relatively easily the first quarterfinal between men from the same country at Wimbledon since 2000. He is a full-fledged phenom: 22-years-old, 6-foot-8 and moves like a much shorter man but serves like someone even taller! He announced his arrival in the upper echelon of tennis last November when he beat Murray in 3 tough sets on an indoor hard court at the Paris Masters. That win should give the youngster the idea that it is possible that he could thrill Poland while dashing the hopes of England by winning on Friday. Murray clearly did not play his best tennis on Wednesday, dropping the first two sets to Fernando Verdasco before coming back for only the 7th time in his professional career to win a 5-set match from a 0-2 set deficit. However, those were the only two sets that Murray has lost all tournament long. I suspect the Brit will right the ship pretty quickly and give us the Djokovic-Murray major final we have seen at the 2012 US Open (won by Muray) and the 2013 Australian Open (won by Djokovic). PREDICTION: Murray. 

SHOCK! Nadal Loses Clay Court Final In Comeback

AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo

Rafael Nadal, playing in his first tournament in seven months (since his shocking 2nd round exit from 2012 Wimbledon at the hands of Lukas Rosol), lost the singles final of the year's first clay court tournament in Vina del Mar, Chile to 73-ranked Horacio Zeballos 6-7(2) 7-6(6) 6-4. This was only the 5th clay court final Nadal had ever lost in his career and his first ever loss to a fellow left-handed player on red clay. (Nadal lost to Fernando Verdasco on the blue clay of the Madrid Masters tournament last May.)

Zeballos's title win was the very first ATP tour championship for the 27-year-old from Argentina despite turning professional in 2003. In 2012, Zeballos did not advance past the 2nd round of any tournament he entered on the ATP tour, but in Vina del Mar he beat four seeded players in succession to claim the title: #4 seed Pablo Andujar, #5 seed Albert Ramos, #8 seed Carlos Berlocq and #1 seed Nadal. The Argentinean won on his first match point at 4-5, 0-40 in the third set.

Nadal said that he felt some pain in his troublesome left knee earlier in the week. He teamed up with his good buddy Juan "Pico" Monaco to play the doubles and reached the final, losing to Potito Starace and Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-2 6-4.

Nadal will continue his comeback by playing another clay court tournament, in Sao Paulo, Brazil next week.

2012 US OPEN: Men's Draw Released

Finally one of the most pressing questions surrounding the 2012 US Open can be answered. Roger Federer and Andy Murray will be in the same (top) half of the draw, with 2011 US Open defending champion Novak Djokovic by himself in the bottom half of the draw, thanks to Rafael Nadal's absence from the tournament.

In fact, Federer has one of his toughest draws at a major tournament in a long time. In the 3rd round he has a potential match up with Fernando Verdasco with a 4th round encounter with Ivo Karlovic, Gilles Simon or Mardy Fish. His quarterfinal opponent could be Tomas Berdych  or Sam Querrey. Then Federer would face Murray in the semifinal and Djokovic in the final. Federer's first round match is with African-American lefty Donald Young who is having an annus horribilis with a 3-21 record for the year.

Other interesting first-round matches are Juan Martin del Potro versus David Nalbandian, Ernests Gulbis versus Tommy Haas and Robin Haase versus Feliciano Lopez.

2012 Wimbledon Day 5: Federer Passes 5-Set Test

Reuters

The day after the earth-shattering upset by World #100 Lukas Rosol from Czech Republic upsetting World #2 Rafael Nadal in the 2nd round everybody was wondering whether "upset fever" would be contagious among any of the other seeds. Encouraged by Rosol's success Julian Benneteau(29) and Radek Stepanek(28) nearly gave the Top 2 seeds as much as they could handle on their third round encounters. World #2 Roger Federer lost the first two sets and World #1 Novak Djokovic lost the first set in their matches but ended up winning. The seeds  that lost today were #8 Janko Tisarevich, #12 Nicolas Almagro,  #15 Juan Monaco, #17 Fernando Verdasco and #21 Milos Raonic.

On the women's side everyone who was expected to win did so, namely Maria Sharapova(1), Aggie Radwanska(3), Kim Clijsters, Angelique Kerber(8), Sabine Lisicki(15) and Maria Kirilenko.


Match of the Day: R. Federer SUI (3) d. J. Benneteau FRA (29) 4-6 6-7(3) 6-2 7-6(6) 6-1.
The 16-time major champion endangered his jaw-dropping streak of 32 Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances by flirting with disaster against the powerful Frenchman today. Benneteau played excellent tennis, staying close to Federer in the first set and sneaking away with it with one break. In the second set, Federer earned an early break but Benneteau was able to get the break back and again stay close, eventually pulling out the second set in a tiebreak. Now Federer had a tremendous task ahead of himself: coming back from 2-sets down to win a match at a major. He was able to step up his game and easily took the third set 6-2. In the fourth set, Benneteau was able to right the ship and was able to hold serve until the inevitable high-stakes tiebreak. The problem for Federer was that he was serving second in the 4th set so if his serve was broken it could mean sudden death; it turned out that five times he was two points from defeat but after a hard-fought tiebreak featuring amazing shotmaking Federer was able to win the 4th set, forcing a 5th set decider. Unfortunately, Beneteau's body betrayed him and he quickly succumbed 6-1 to lose his best chance to write his name in the history books. Interestingly, last year in the quarterfinals, Federer had been up 2 sets against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and never even earned a breakpoint in the last 3 sets in a stunning 5-set loss. This year the roles were reversed and Federer dropped the first two sets and then never faced a breakpoint in the final 3 sets, eventually winning.

Federer will have the entire weekend off and face Xavier Malisse in the 4th round and then either Denis Istomin or Mikhail Youzhny in the quarterfinals. Djokovic faces countryman Viktor Troicki in the 4th round and either Richard Gasquet or Florian Mayer in the quarterfinals. The #1 and #3 seeds are the only remaining players in the Top 16 in their half of the draw.

Madrid 2012: Federer v Berdych in Final

Roger Federer will face Tomas Berdych in the men's final of the 2012 Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday at 4:30pm local time (7:30am PDT/ 10:30am EDT). Federer beat Janko Tipsarevic 6-2 6-3 while Berdych sneaked by Juan Martin del Potro 7-6(5) 7-6(6).

Federer has won this clay court masters series title twice before, in 2006 and 2009 but this time he is probably more interested in the ranking points a win will give him, allowing him to surpass his arch-nemesis in the rankings for the first time since he lost the World #1 ranking to Rafael Nadal in June 2010.

Federer is playing excellent clay court tennis and so is Berdych. Federer has a 10-4 lead in their overall head-to-head but the tall Czech has won 3 of their last 5 meetings, including a very important victory in the 2010 Wimbledon quarterfinals. Berdych dismantled Fernando Verdasco 6-1 6-2 the day after the Spaniard became only the seventh person to defeat the King of (Red) Clay Rafael Nadal 6-3 3-6 7-5 on his favorite surface.

Federer is playing for history, and even if he doesn't overtake Nadal in this tournament, he will probably do so sometime this summer, probably around Wimbledon, and then continue on towards his primary goal, to reach #1 again.

PREDICTION: Federer.

Madrid Masters 2012: Verdasco Shocks Nadal

Fernando Verdasco defeated the King of Clay Rafael Nadal at the Mutua Madrid Open 6-3 3-6 7-5 in the 3rd round, the earliest defeat for the 10-time major champion in a clay court tournament since 2002. It was Verdasco's first win against his Spanish compatriot in 14 tries, and Nadal's first loss in clay in 23 matches played since his loss in the final of the Rome Masters against World #1 Novak Djokovic last year.

Nadal was very unhappy with the experimental blue clay the Madrid tournament is being played on this year and vowed to not return if it is not changed.

With his nemesis' early round exit, World #3 Roger Federer has an opportunity to reach the #2 position again if he somehow manages to win the tournament. Federer beat Richard Gasquet to reach the quarterfinals, where he will face David Ferrer. Also in the quarterfinals are Verdasco, Aleksandr Dologopolv, Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych and either Djokovic or Stanislas Wawrinka and  Gilles Simon or Janko Tipsarevic.

Nadal Leads Spain To 2011 Davis Cup Victory

From left to right: Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez, David Ferrer, Rafael Nadal,
Marcos Granollers and Spain's Davis Cup Captain Albert Costa. (AFP Photo/Cristina Quicler)

Yesterday World #2 Rafael Nadal powered his country of Spain to a 3-1 win in the Davis Cup final for the third time in his career, 5th time overall for Spain. Nadal whipped Juan Monaco on Argentina 6-1 6-1 6-2 and then came back from a set down to close out the tie by defeating Juan Martin del Potro 1-6 6-4 6-1 7-6(0) on clay in Seville, Spain. World #5 David Ferrer also contributed to his country's victory by outlasting del Potro in a gruelling 6-2, 6-7(2), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 five-set win.

Nadal had helped Spain win the 2004 Davis Cup over the United States in 2004 (as a teenager) and in 2008 over Argentina. Argentina becomes the first country to reach the final tie four times without a victory. The 6-time Roland Garros champion is not known as "The King of Clay" for nothing; despite suffering his most lopsided loss of a set on the surface in years, Nadal was able to devise a solution to the hard-hitting, 6'6" Argentinian and maintain his incredible record of only 7 clay court losses in professional play in his career. Beating Spain on clay, with Nadal, Ferrer, Verdasco, Lopez and the rest of "the Spanish Armada" is an almost impossible proposition for any country, as Spain proved once again on Sunday. Their only loss of a point in the match-up with Argentina was when David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank were able to defeat the doubles team of Lopez and Verdasco (hubba hubba!)

SPORN: Rafa Nadal Shows Off His Ass(ets)

Hmmmm, I guess Wednesday really is hump day. As part of his ongoing campaign with Armani Underwear, World #2, 10-time major tennis champion Rafaael Nadal of Spain joins his fellow Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez in showing off their sculpted physiques for profit and admiration.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

US OPEN 2011: DAY 6 Recap (What I Saw)

Italian tennis player Fabio Fognini, practicing shirtless on
the outer courts (photo credit: Ron Buckmire)

So, yes I was at the US Open yesterday. I had a grounds pass, so I was just walking around when I saw this incredibly hot guy, hitting balls, shirtless. Who did it turn out to be? None other than Italian stallion Fabio Fognini, who we last saw withdrawing from a quarterfinal match with Novak Djokovic at this year's french Open (and some say giving the Serbian 5 days off so that he then lost his first match of the year to Roger Federer).

Anyway, it was way out on Court 10 with some unknown female junior practicing with her coach on Court 9 next door. Fabio was hitting balls with his coach and playing some points with his doubles partner, Simone Bolelli (who is also gorgeous, but sadly was not shirtless). I was literally less than 10 feet from the players. The above picture was taken seconds before Fognini threw his racket into his bag and complained to his coach about his playing. There was quite a crowd around but almost nobody knew who the players were, except that they were speaking Italian. I recognized Fognini immediately and later figured out it was Bolelli he was hitting with. Leaving the court dazed, I literally walked into 80-year-old(?) Nick Bolleteri (watch where ya going, kid!) as he dashed off to another press interview I guess.

Oh, yeah what about the tennis?

I don't have more money than sense, so I didn't see the Serena Williams - Victoria Azarenka match in Ashe stadium, but you could literally hear it all over the grounds. Ashe is so big so that unless you are willing to spend 3 figures, you are better off watching the match on television. Bizarrely, the big screens around the grounds were mostly showing Mardy Fish's blase' dismissal of South African beanstalk Kevin Anderson in 3 sets. There was a huge line to get into Grand Stand to see the 3rd round match between Juan Monaco and Tommy Haas. Why, you ask? Because next on that court was Fernando Verdasco playing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and there are no assigned seats. First come, first served! About 5 thousand people sat patiently through Haas hitting some 71 unforced errors to lose to Roger Federer's next victim in order to experience the magic of Tsonga-Verdasco. Sadly, we didn't get to witness repeat magic of last year's incredible Verdasco-Ferrer match (with one of the greatest match points of all time). This time, Tsonga was just too good for 'Nando on the day. The Frenchman was routinely hitting serves into the 130s at will and showing incredible defensive skills. Still even with a scoreline of 6-3 7-5 6-4 it was two hours that were well worth the price of admission. I was in the 2nd courtside row, close enough to Tsonga I could see what color underwear he was wearing (brightly colored boxers). It was quite a treat to see two once and future Top 10 player in such a small stadium. I know there's a lot of hype about Mardy, but I suspect there's going to be another Federer-Tsonga grand slam quarterfinal. Surely he can't beat the Swiss great three times in a row?

Federer and Nadal Bounced From Cincy Quarters

At the Cincinnati Masters tournament World #3 Roger Federer and World #2 Rafael Nadal lost on the same day, to lower ranked by Top 10 opponents, Tomas Berdych and Mardy Fish, respectively. Nadal's loss was not unexpected, coming off of a hard-fought triple tie-break match with Fernando Verdasco that lasted 3 hours, 38 minutes. With his first win in 7 tries against Nadal, American Mardy Fish clinched his finish at the top of the US Open Series standings, potentially earning a $1 million bonus if he wins the US Open, which begins on Monday August 29.

World #1 Novak Djokovic lost the first set against Gael Monfils 6-3 and looked mentally tired doing so but came back to win the next two sets 6-4 6-3. He will play a semifinal against Berdych while Fish plays Andy Murray in the other semifinal.

Raonic, 20, Wins 1st ATP Title in San Jose

Canadian Milos Raonic defeated Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in
 the finals of the SAP Open in San Jose, CA to win his 1st ATP title

20-year-old Milos Raonic, the unseeded, 6'5" 200-pound Canadian player who reached the 4th round of the 2011 Australian Open, continued his excellent play by defeating defending champion (and erstwhile underwear model) Fernando Verdasco 7-6(6) 7-6(5). Raonic won his first ATP tour title and denied Verdasco his first chance to defend a tour title. The Canadian of Serbian descent (he was born in Montenegro) becomes the youngest man to win an ATP Tour title since Croatian Marin Cilic won the New Haven title at 19 in 2008. Raonic becomes the first Canadian to win a tour title since Greg Rusedski in 1995. He rises to #59 in the world rankings; he started the year at #184.

The final was played without a single break of serve. Verdasco held 4 consecutive set points at 6-2 in the first set tiebreaker and managed to lose the next 6 points to drop the first set. Raonic had a walkover in the semifinal over an injured Gael Monfils while Verdasco dismissed the always dangerous Juan Martin del Potro 6-4 6-4 in the other semifinal. In fact, Verdasco lost his service once in the entire tournament (against del Potro) and still did not defend his title.

Bzarrely, Raonic and Verdasco will meet again on Wednesday in the first-round of the hard-court tournament in Memphis.