TENNIS TUESDAY: France Wins Fed Cup Merci A Kiki; Zverev, Thiem and Tsistipas Get Surprising Wins at #ATPFinals

KIKI STEALS THE SHOW AS FRANCE WINS FED CUP IN PERTH

Much to the surprise of many observers, France defeated Australia in the Davis Cup Final held in Perth, Australia last weekend. After the first two matches were 6-1 6-1 France (Kiki Mladenovic d. Ajla Tomljanovic) and 6-0 6-0 Australia (Ash Barty d. Caroline Garcia), most people expected the World #1 to lead her team to their first Fed Cup in 45 years. But after leading 6-2 against Mladenovic Barty's game went off and eventually she lost in a 3rd set tie-break. Amazingly, Tomljanovic was able to win her match to even the tie at 2-all but then Garcia and Mladenovic teamed up to win the decisive doubles tie against Barty and Samantha Stosur and victory for France.

SOME SURPRISING RESULTS AT THE 2019 ATP YEAR END CHAMPIONSHIPS

The ATP Year-End Championship is happening now in London. Currently called the Nitto ATP Finals, it will be moving to Turin, Italy in 2020. Although it started off slowly, there have been some surprising results. Dominic Thiem has defeated Roger Federer for the third time this year. He followed up that win with a 3rd set tiebreak victory over Novak Djokovic which many people are calling the best 3-set men's match of the year. However, in the even more surprising results section is the fact that both Alexander Zverev and Stefans Tsitsipas defeated players whom they had 0-5 head-to-head records against in straight sets. Zverev defeated World #1 Rafael Nadal and Tsitsipas defeated Daniil Medvedev.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Osaka Splits From Sascha, Fed Cup Semis Set, Serena Back to WTA Top10

NAOMI OSAKA ANNOUNCES SPLIT FROM COACH SASCHA BAJIN
Wow! World #1 Naomi Osaka has announced she has ended her coaching relationship with Sascha Bajin, who was with her as she raced up the rankings from #72 a year ago to winning the 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open and become the #1 ranked player in the world.  Bajin was a longtime member of Serena Williams's support staff and was named WTA Coach of the Year in 2018. This is the fourth example of a Grand Slam winner dropping a coach within a short time afterwards: Angelique Kerber split with Wim Fisette after winning 2018 Wimbledon, Simona Halep split with Darren Cahill after winning the 2018 French Open and Sloane Stephens split with Kamau Murray after winning the 2017 US Open.

FED CUP SEMIFINALS SET UP: ROMANIA V. FRANCE, AUSTRALIA V.  BELARUS
In a surprising result, Romania beat defending champs Czech Republic and Australia beat the  United States (playing without any major champions), Belarus beat Germany (without Kerber) and France beat Belgium. The Fed Cup semifinals will be played in April. Ash Barty won all 3 ties for Australia. Halep had a key win over Pliskova in the #CZEROU matchup.

SERENA WILLIAMS WILL RETURN TO TOP 10 NEXT WEEK
Amazingly, even though she has only played in 7(!) tournaments in the last year, reaching 2 major finals (2018 Wimbledon and 2018 US Open), Serena Williams will be rejoining the WTA Top 10.

TSONGA ENDS TITLE DROUGHT AT OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his 17th career title (his first title in more than a year). He defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the final of the Open Sud de France 6-4 6-2.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Croatia Wins (Last?) Davis Cup, Beats France 3-1; Venus Settles; Radwanska Retires; Kerber Picks Schuettler, Halep Picks No One!

CROATIA DEFEATS FRANCE 3-1 TO WIN 2018 DAVIS CUP FINAL
The 2018 Davis Cup was won by Croatia, somewhat surprisingly defeating France 3-1, who was the defending champion (beating Belgium last year). There was extra attention on this year's Davis Cup because tennis is being roiled by the changes to the format of the Davis Cup and the creation of two(!) new team competitions: the Laver Cup (an exhibition competition that happens a few weekends after the conclusion of the US Open primarily associated with Roger Federer and based on a Europe versus The World concept) and now the ATP and Tennis Australia have announced the ATP Cup which is scheduled to start in January 2020 before the Australian Open. The ATP Cup will be a 24-team competition of 6 groups of 4 played in 3 Australian cities over 10 days.
Marin Cilic was the tie's hero, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday in straight sets and followed that up with a straight sets win over Lucas Pouille on the final day to win Croatia's 3rd point after Borna Coric easly dismissed Jeremy Chardy in straight sets on the first day. It's not clear why France's other stars (Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet or Gilles Simon) did not participate in the Davis Cup Final this year. The one bright spot for France was their win in the doubles as Pierre-Hughes Hebert and Nicolas Mahut won their match.

AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA RETIRES FROM TENNIS AT AGE 29
The Polish tennis superstar Aggie Radwanska announced her retirement from the sport at the age of 29, ranked World #75. However, between 2008 and 2016 she was ranked in the Top 15 (rising as high as World #2) and won the WTA Fan Favorite award 6 years in a row. In 2012 she won the middle set against Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final but lost the match.

VENUS SETTLES WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT WHERE SHE HAD NO FAULT
Venus Williams announced that she had settled a lawsuit filed by the estate of a man who had died in a car accident in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida where Williams was an unwilling and faultless participant. The settlement terms were not disclosed.

KERBER PICKS NEW COACH RAINER SCHUETTLER, HALEP PICKS NO-ONE
The end-of-season coaching merry-go-round continues with World #1 Simona Halep deciding not pick a replacement coach for Darren Cahill who said that he has decided to reduce his travel commitments in 2019 to spend more time with his family. Despite winning Wimbledon with Wim Fisette this year, Angelique Kerber has dismissed him and hired with former ATP Top 10 player Rainer Schuettler as her new coach.

08/08/18: My 10th Wedding Anniversary Is Today!

Today is 08/08/18, the tenth anniversary of my wedding day on 08/08/08. Here are some rare pictures of MadProfessah with The Other Half, taken on our recent trip to Reykyavik (Iceland) and Paris (France) in summer 2018. (See my Instagram feed for more images from our trip, and lots of pictures of my the outfit I wear every day!)

Coincidentally, August 8 is a famous tennis birthdate: (Roger Federer is 37 and Felix Auger-Aliassime is 18)

TENNIS TUESDAY: Coric Outplays Federer In Halle; Kvitova Wins 5th Title of 2018; Cilic Outlasts Nole On Grass; ATP #1 Flips Again; France Picks Amelie

FEDERER LOSES TO CORIC IN SEARCH OF 10TH HALLE TITLE (IN 12TH FINAL)
After saving 2 match points against an inspired Benoit Paire 2 rounds before, Roger Federer's luck finally ran out when a determined 21-year-old Borna Coric outplayed the world's best grass-court player 7-6(6) 3-6 6-2 to win his first grass-court title and notch his first win over the G.O.A.T. It was Federer's 12th final in Halle and he was seeking his 10th title there, but now he is 9-3, having lost to Corci (2018), Lleyton Hewitt (2010) and Tommy Haas (2012).

FEDERER SWAPS RANKING PLACES WITH NADAL (AGAIN)
Federer's failure to defend his 2017 Halle title means that he ends up with, 8,220 ranking points, 50 less than Rafael Nadal, so the two will swap places at the top of the ATP rankings again. his has happened several times this year already. However, unlike last year, this time as the defending champion Federer has 2000 points to defend at Wimbledon while Nadal has almost none (180) so it is likely Federer wil not be able to regain #1 until the end of the summer hard court season.

CILIC OUTLASTS DJOKOVIC TO WIN SECOND QUEEN'S CLUB TITLE
Novak Djokovic is showing vastly improved form and demonstrated this by reaching the final (and earning championship point!) against 2017 Wimbledon and 2017 Queens Club finalist Marin Cilic. Despite boasting a 14-1 record against Cilic, Djokovic lost the match by being broken (for teh first time in the tournament!) i the 3rd set and his Croat opponent was able to serve out the win 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3. Cilic clearly deserves to be near the pinnacle of the men's game, having reached two major finals in the last year. Even though Djokovic is improving, this loss shows h's not back to 100% and for the first time in over a decade, he goes an entire 12 month period without winning an ATP tour title.

KVITOVA SHOWS SHE IS IN NEAR PEAK FORM WITH FIFTH 2018 WTA TITLE
The 2014 and 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is demonstrating her return to form with another grass court title, this time in Birmingham over her friend Magdalena Rybarikova 4-6 6-2 6-1. Kvitova leads the tour with 5 titles in 2018.

AMELIE MAURESMO NAMED CAPTAIN OF FRANCE'S DAVIS CUP TEAM
In other good news, 2-time major champion and former World #1 Amelie Mauresmo has been named the first female captain of France's Davis Cup team. Interestingly, Julien Benneteau will take over coaching France's Fed Cup team. Both appointments go into effect for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

2018 Vacation: Reykjavik, Iceland and Paris, France (May 18-30)

I'll be on vacation from May 18th through May 30th as I celebrate my birthday. The Other Half and I will be traveling to Reykjavik, Iceland (6 days) and Paris, France (5 days). On this trip I will be attending the 2018 French Open!

Posting on the blog will be light, but I invite you to follow me on Instagram (@ronbuckmire) and Twiiter (@madprofessah)

TENNIS TUESDAY: France-Spain, USA-Croatia Davis Cup semis; Djokovic Drops Radek; Dellacqua Retires

DAVIS CUP SEMIFINALS SET: FRANCE VS SPAIN AND CROATIA VS USA
The quarterfinals of the Davis Cup were played this weekend and the results were: Spain (featuring the return of Rafael Nadal) defeated Germany 3-2 with David Ferrer outlasting Philipp Kohlschreiber in a 5-hour marathon match. United Staes blitzed Belgium (with ) 4-0, France beat Italy 3-1 and Croatia beat Kazakhstan 3-1. This set up a blockbuster semifinal between France and Spain in September and an intriguing tie between Craotia and the United States.

DJOKOVIC DROPS STEPANEK AS COACH, MAY BE WORKING WITH VAJDA AGAIN
After announcing a split with Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic also ended his coaching relationship with Radek Stepanek last week.

KIKI BERTENS AND GARBI MUGURUZA START CLAY SEASON WITH TITLES
Garbine Muguruza won a clay title in Monterrey while Kiki Bertens won the Charleston tournament after having to play her semifinal (a tough 3-set win against Madison Keys) and final (a quick win against Julia Goerges) on Sunday.

HALEP AND NADAL REMAIN ON TOP OF RANKINGS
The rankings are mostly frozen with most players taking a break as the surface change goes into effect and the clay season begins. Simona Halep has nopw spent 22 weeks at #1, more than Viktoria Azarenka or Maria Sharapova. On the men's side, Rafael Nadal stays in the #1 spot.

TENNIS TUESDAY: WTA & ATP Year-End Rankings; France Wins Davis Cup

FRANCE WINS DAVIS CUP BY DEFEATING BELGIUM 3-2
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Lucas Pouille, Richard Gasquet and Pierre-Hugues Herbert all contributed to France's win over Belgium in the 2017 Davis Cup final. The most important win was Pouille's over Belgium's Steven Darcis in the live fifth rubber after David Goffin defeated Gasquet and Tsonga in the singles matches but Herbert and Gasquet teamed up to win the crucial doubles point. This was France's 10th Davis Cup win and its first since 2001 after losing in the final in 2010 to Serbia and 2014 to Switzerland.

END OF YEAR ATP RANKINGS

END OF YEAR WTA RANKINGS

TENNIS TUESDAY: Belgium-France Davis Cup Final; Fedal Thrills At Laver Cup; Caro Wins 1st 2017 Title; Many Upsets in Wuhan

LAVER CUP ENDS IN DRAMATIC FASHION WITH FEDERER-KYRGIOS NAILBITER
The inaugural Laver Cup, featuring a Team World (John Isner, Frances Tiafoe, Nick Kyrgios, Jack Sock, Sam Querrey, Denis Shopavolov) versus a Team Europe (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Marin Cilic, Sascha Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Tomas Berdych) happened this weekend and on the third day, the entire match came down to a 3rd set match tiebreak between Kyrgios and Federer where Kyrgios was up 5-2 and had match point at 8-9 on Federer's serve. If Kyrgios had won, the entire match would have been tied at 12-12 and 1 set of doubles (probably with Nadal and Federer teaming up again) would have been played. Instead, Federer won his two service points to go up 10-9 and then won Kyrgios' first service point to win the match tiebreaker 11-9 and clinch the 2017 Laver Cup for his team.

DAVIS CUP FINAL SET: BELGIUM VERSUS FRANCE
Two weekends ago the Davis Cup semifinals occurred and France easily beat Serbia (without Novak Djokovic) while Belgium came back from 2-1 down to defeat Davis Cup powerhouse Australia 3-2 when David Goffin and Steve Darcis won their reverse singles matches on the final day, with Goffin coming back against Nick Kyrgios to even the tie. France will host Belgium on an indoor hard court  November 24-26 in Lille.

WOZNIACKI WINS FIRST TITLE IN 2017 ON 7TH ATTEMPT
Coming into the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Japan where she is the defending champion, Caroline Wozniacki had played in 6 finals in 2017 and lost every single one of them. However, in Japan she dispatched World #1 Garbine Muguruza 6-2 6-0 in the semifinals and then Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final 6-0 7-5 to win her 3rd title in Japan. The former #1 is on track to reach the WTA Tour finals.

KVITOVA, KEYS, KONTA, KERBER, KUZNETSOVA AND STEPHENS CRASH OUT OF WUHAN
The race to reach the WTA Tour Final is heating up during the Asian swing of the year. Both 2017 U.S. Open finalists, Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens lost in the first round of the Wuhan Open. Also getting bounced early were Jo Konta, Angie Kerber, and Sveta Kuznetsova. Petra Kvitova, 2-time Wuhan champion, lost the longest WTA match of 2017 in 3 tiebreak sets  and 3 hours 34 minutes to Peng Shuai

2016 Fed Cup: Czech Wins 3rd Year In A Row; 5 of last 6

For the third year in a row the Czech Republic won the Federation Cup, the annual country-based tennis competition on the women's tour. Just like last year, the title came down to the fifth tie, the doubles match, and again Barbora Strycova was the Most Valuable Player, in providing the third point for her team and country.

This year, Czech faced France, and although Caroline Garcia was able to upset 2-time major champion Petra Kvitova and 2016 US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova she was unable to win the doubles tie with her partner Kiki Mladenovic when Pliskova teamed with Strycova.

Czech Republic has now won the Fed Cup title every year except 2013 since 2011.

2016 US OPEN: #Fedal Era Officially Ends As Pouille Nips Nadal In 5th Set TB R16 Win

Wow! In one of the best matches of the year, 22-year-old Frenchman Lucas Pouille heralded the final death knell for the "Big Four" era by eliminating 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal in the 4th round of the 2016 US Open in a thrilling 5-set, 4-hour affair. The score was 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6(6). With 17-time major champion Roger Federer out for half the year rehabbing a knee injury neither Federer or Nadal reached a major final this year. In fact, Nadal has only reached 2 major quarterfinals in his last 10 major appearance dating back to 2014  Wimbledon. Federer reached (and lost) 3 major finals in the same time period. In contrast, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have each made the QF or better in 9 of the last 10 majors they competed in, with Djokivic's loss coming at the 2016 Wimbledon (to Sam Querrey in the 3rd Round) and Murray's here last year to Kevin Anderson (I saw that match in person!) in the 4th round. The two played against each other in the first two major finals of the year and then Murray won Wimbledon for the second time so it's becoming clear the Big Four era is now over and the era of Djokovic-Murray has begun, with the next generation battling to see if they can break through.

Pouille became the third French player to reach the final 8 of the 2016 US Open, reaching his career first major quarterfinal. He joins his countrymen Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the first time France has had 3 quarterfinalists in the major era (which is somewhat surprising considering they have had 4 separate Top 10 players in the last decade: Gilles Simon, Richard Gasquet and Tsonga and Monfils).

Pouille's match against Nadal was an astonishing performance, especially since it was Pouille's 3rd consecutive 5-set match, and despite bludgeoning Nadal off the court in a smoking 6-1 opening set in about a half-hour and after losing the second set 2-6, he squeezed out the 3rd set 6-4. However, after losing the 4th set 6-3, Pouille fell behind 0-2, 1-3 and 2-4 in the final set until he finally came back to break at 4-all and both players held serve to reach the 5th set tiebreak (which should be mandatory in all slams!) Pouille played an awful first point but then won 4 consecutive points to go up 4-1, but Nadal fought back and despite going down 3-6, the Spaniard was able to level the match at 6-all when he made a horrofying forehand error into the next, giving Pouille his 4th match point (on Nadal's serve) and after a tense groundstroke battle Nadal was forced into an error and lost the match.

I was in the crowd of tens of thousands of people waiting for Nadal's match to end the the day session before the night session began. There were few cheers when Nadal lost, but even his fans could appreciate the high level of tennis played and the effort it took for Pouille to complete the stunning upset in his very first time playing on the renovated Arthur Ashe, tennis' biggest stage.

EYE CANDY: Pierre Abena (3rd time!)

Pierre Abena is a multiracial model of French and Cameroonian descent. He has appeared as Eye Candy twice before (January 26, 2015 and March 9, 2015).

2014 DAVIS CUP: Federer Clinches Final for Switzerland By Defeating Gasquet

World #2 Roger Federer was able to recover from his straights sets loss to Gael Monfils on Friday to partner with World #4 Stan Wawrinka on Saturday to win the all-important doubles match in straight sets over Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau. Then on Sunday, Federer clinched his country's first Davis Cup with a straight sets singles win over Gasquet, 6-4 6-2 6-2. Gasquet was substituted for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost to Wawrinka in 4 sets on Friday.

Federer gave props to his countryman Wawrinka and the rest of the Swiss team:

"I'm happy I was able to stay calm and play a good match, and I'm really happy for the guys in the team, everybody worked incredibly hard to get me match ready," Federer said. "Stan has put in so much effort over the years and played an unbelievable weekend that gave me the opportunity today. I'm very much aware of that, this one is for the boys."

The 17-time major champion first competed in the Davis Cup in 1999 so it has taken 15 years to win this prestigious title for the player many people feel is the Greatest Of All Time.

2014 PARIS MASTERS: Djokovic Demolishes Raonic To Defend Title

As I expected, World #1 Novak Djokovic defeated Milos Raonic to win his 20th ATP Masters shield at the 2014 Paris Masters. The score in the match was 6-2 6-3 and the victory marked  Djokovic's 600th career win on the ATP Tour (Roger Federer has 991 and Rafael Nadal has 706) and his 56th win of the year (8 losses). It was Djokovic's 4th Masters 1000 title of the year, having previously won Indian Wells (d. Federer), Key Biscayne (d. Nadal) and Rome (d. Nadal)  and the first time anyone had ever defended the Paris Masters title.

The win mean's that the Serb's lead for the #1 position is now 1310 points ahead of Federer and so all he would need to do is win one match in London to seal his third year-end #1 (2011 and 2012). Djokovic has won the year-end championships the last two years without losing a match.

SHOCK! Serena Retires In 1st Set With Cornet For 3rd Loss Against Frenchwoman in 2014

Serena Williams retired from her 2nd round match against Alize Cornet up a service break 6-5 when she complained of dizziness and nausea on the changeover and was helped off the court by a trainer after she told the umpire she could not continue to play.

Her retirement from the match means that for the first time since 2007 Serena has lost to the same player three times in a calendar year. Earlier this year, Serena lost to Cornet in the semifinals of Dubai and then she lost to her again in the 3rd round of Wimbledon in 3 sets.

Some players just do not match-up well together and perhaps Cornet is Serena's kryptonite. Hopefully, Serena will recover from whatever ails her in time for her birthday on Friday and the China Open which begins in Beijing on Monday.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Li Na Retires, Ivanovic Wins 4th 2014 Title, Davis Cup Final Set For Lille

Li Na Retires

The big news this week (confirms the rumors from last week) is the official retirement of China's Li Na, which somewhat bizarrely, happened on the eve of the WTA holding a  $2-million tournament in her hometown of Wuhan with almost the entirety of the Top 20 making an appearance, including both Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova and many more top WTA stars.

Ivanovic Keeps Winning
Ana Ivanovic won her biggest (and fourth)  title of the year by defeating 2014 US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 7-6(2) to win the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. Ivanovic has now won 52 matches in 2014, the most of her career and one of the best records on tour this year.

Location Of Davis Cup Final
The location of the Davis Cup Final showdown between Switzerland (featuring ATP Top 5 players Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka) and France (featuring Gael Monfils, J-Wilfried Tsonga Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon) will happen in Lille, France November 21-23 in a stadium that holds 27,000 fans. The record for a Davis Cup match is the 2004 final between Spain and United States in 2004 (27,200). I suspect that record may fall!

2014 DAVIS CUP: Switzerland Versus France In Final Nov 21-23

For the first time in 22 years, Switzerland will be competing to take the Davis Cup home. They will face France, who is competing for its 10th Davis Cup. Switzerland has World #3 Roger Federer and World #4 Stan Wawrinka while France has 4 former (and future) Top 10 players at its disposal: Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. France beat defending champions Czech Republic 4-1 this weekend while Switzerland beat Italy 3-2 with Federer contributing two singles victories while sitting out the doubles.

The final will be played November 21-23.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Men's Final Preview

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [2] vs Rafael Nadal (ESP) [1]

The 2014 French Open men's final will be between Rafael Nadal of Spain and Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Last year I correctly predicted Nadal would beat David Ferrer in the final. This year I correctly predicted Maria Sharapova would beat Simona Halep in the women's final. I also correctly predicted 2 of 2 women's semifinals, 2 of 2 men's semifinals, 2 of 4women's quarterfinals and 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals. After a review of the men's semifinals, here are my predictions for the men's singles championship match at Roland Garros this year.

How Did They Get Here? Men's Semifinals Review
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]  d. Andy Murray (GBR) [7] 6-3 6-2 6-1. No one expected Murray to win this match, but I did expect that the Scot would at least be able to make it competitive in moments. However, Nadal started perfectly, breaking early and holding to take a 3-0 lead and basically never looked back from there. He was perfect on breakpoints, winning 6 or 6 and did not face any breakpoints himself. Murray clearly didn't play his best tennis, but Nadal was playing at a level that it probably would not have mattered.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [2]  d. Ernests Gulbis (LAT) [18] 6-3 6-3 3-6 6-3.  This could have been a dangerous match-up because Gulbis is most definitely a dangerous player so Djokovic did well to escape with just the loss of one set, squeezing out a break in the 8th game of the fourth set to serve out the match and reach his 2nd major final in Paris.

Who Will Win? Men's Final Preview

This final is the 42nd meeting between Nadal and Djokovic (Djokovic-Nadal XLII), a record for the most times any competitors on the ATP tour have ever faced each other in the Open era. Nadal currently leads 22-19 but Djokovic has won their last four meetings, including the very last one which was on clay in the Rome Masters final just a few weeks ago. Djokovic leads Nadal 12-9 in tour finals but Nadal leads 8-3 in grand slam matches. However, Djokovic leads 3-2 in major finals but Nadal won the last final they played, in New York. Since that loss, Djokovic has only lost 3 times, and played 60 matches.

Besides the 2014 French Open championship, which would finish the career slam for Djokovic and bring Nadal his 14th major and record 9th title in Paris, the two are competing for the World #1 ranking. Whoever wins this match will be World #1 on Monday.

Although it is incredibly hard to bet against someone who is 65-1 lifetime at the French Open I just feel that it is time for Djokovic to win and that he knows that he can beat Nadal on clay and that this is the year it will happen. I do believe that Nadal will almost certainly win a 9th (and probably a 10th) title at Roland Garros, but not this year. From looking at the statistics, Djokovic is simply playing better tennis than Nadal this year. Nadal has had more double faults (5) than aces (4) while Djokovic had many more aces (30) than double faults (10) over the first 6 rounds. Additionally, Nadal is at +24 (133 winners to 109 unforced errors) while Djokovic is at +41 (189 winners to 148 unforced errors). It's true that Nadal has only played 19 sets to Djokovic's 20 but I think that is still a measurable edge to Djokovic.

In the end it comes down to who is playing better on the day itself, and last September it was Nadal. However, you never know what can happen. In this year's Australian Open final, Nadal injured himself in the warm-up and ended up losing a major final everyone (including me) thought he would win to Stan Wawrinka. This final, most people expect Nadal to win but there are a significant contingent who are also in Djokovic's camp. Withough doubt, we do expect to see a truly great match, possibly twice as long as today's epic women's match and hopefully up to the quality of last year's semifinal match which most people are calling the best clay court match of all time. Will tomorrow's clash exceed that one? Only time will tell!

Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic in 4 sets.

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.