2019 INDIAN WELLS: Andreescu and Thiem Win Their Biggest Titles In Thrilling Upset Over Major Champs

Defying the predictions of many observers (including yours truly) Bianca Andreescu and Dominc Thiem won the women's and men's championships at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Sunday. Andreescu received a wildcard into the event, becoming the first wildcard to win the title and the youngest player since Serena Williams won it at age 17 in 1999. Andreescu beat 3-time major champion Angie Kerber 4-6 6-3 6-4 in a very compelling contest which was decided by the 18-year-old Canadian's power and determination to win against her opponents guile, stamina and defense.

In the men's championship, Roger Federer won the first set and looked to be extending his streak of winning finals after having won the first set from 20 to 21 when Thiem raised his intensity and the power of his strokes to simply overpower the 100-time ATP singles champion. The 25-year-old Austrian was the tour leader in 2018 with the average speed of his groundstrokes on both wings (depsite a one-handed backhand) and in the final with Federer he exceeded his 2018 average in the match. The final score was 3-6 6-3 7-5. At 4-5 30-30 Federer came within 2 points of his 101st title when he approached the net on a good, deep cross-court approach shot only to find Thiem blasting a backhand directly at him which was too much to handle. A quick service winner later and Federer was unable to hold his serve at 5-all, getting his service broken and allowing Thim to serve out the championship with little hesitation.

Both youngsters came from behind in the match to win their biggest titles of their career. Of the two, Andreescu's was the more surprising result. Thiem has been known as a clay-court specialist, having reached (and lost) two Masters 1000 finals in Madrid and the 2018 Roland Garros final but with  a signature win over Federer (playing in his 9th Indian Wells final) on a hard court, Thiem showed he is  developing into an all-court player. Andreescu was playing in only her second WTA tour-level final and career earnings of $300,000; she earned $1.3 million on Sunday. There were echoes of last year when now World #1 Naomi Osaka was unseeded and won her first career title and then went on to win two consecutive hardcourt majors.

2019 INDIAN WELLS: Federer-Thiem and Kerber-Andreescu Finals

The finals of Indian Wells are now set. Sadly, Fedal39 ended up being a bust because Rafael Nadal withdrew from the tournament (and, eventually, the Miami Open) a few hours before his semifinal clash with Roger Federer. Bizarrely, after getting a walkover from Gael Monfils in the quarterfinal, Dominc Thiem defeated Milos Raonic 6-4 in the 3rd set to reach his first final in the Desert. So Federer and Thiem will compete for the first Masters series title of the year. The two have a 2-2 head-to-head record, but both of Federer's wins have occurred on hard courts. Federer is playing in his 9th final in Indian Wells, but last year he lost the final here (after having match point!) against Juan Martin del Potro. I suspect that won't happen this year. MadProfessah's prediction: Federer.

The women's side of the draw has been the more interesting tournament. After Belinda Bencic continued her incredible win streak by taking out World #1 Noami Osaka and Karolina Pliskova before falling to Angelique Kerber in the semifinals. Venus Williams had a resurgence in form, reaching the quarterfinals, winning one of the best matches of the tournament against Petra Kvitova. However, the biggest story of the tournament was the performance of 18-year-old Canadian wildcard Bianca Andreescu. She is in the final of her first WTA premier mandatory tournament on the strength of beating Garbine Muguruza 6-0 6-1 in the quarterfinals and outlasting Elina Svitolina in the semifinals (6-4 in the 3rd set). However, she will face Kerber, who has shut down the two other red-hot players in the tournament already (Venus and Bencic) and can probably do it a 3rd time. MadProfessah's pick: Kerber.

2019 INDIAN WELLS: Djokovic(1),Osaka(1),Halep(2),Bertens(7),Cilic(10) All Lose!

Major upsets in the Desert today! Both World #1's lost. Novak Djokovic lost 6-4 6-4 to Philip Kohlschreiber while Naomi Osaka lost 6-3 6-1 to Belinda Bencic. Other seeds who lost included World #2 Simona Halep, World #10 Marin Cilic, World #7 Kiki Bertens among others.

Winners included Venus Williams  and Garbine Muguruza (reaching the quarterfinals).

2019 INDIAN WELLS: Serena Withdraws After Losing 7 Consecutive Games Against Muguruza

Bad news from Indian Wells! After playing brilliantly to win in straight sets against Victoria Azarenka on Friday night, Serena Wiliams had her 3rd round match against Garbine Muguruza on Sunday and while she started off well, winning the first 3 games (1 break). she ended up retiring. Something went horribly wrong around the 5th game and she started having difficulty keeping a ball in the court and was side-arming her serve into the court. She ended up losing 7 consecutive games and abandoned the match and the court down 3-6 0-1 when it became clear it was unlikely she was going to win another game.

This is sad because I will be spending all day Wednesday at the tournament and had hoped to see her in action. Oh well, it is still a great tournament, and I look forward to visiting again.

2019 INDIAN WELLS: Venus Upsets Kvitova, Serena Beats Vika, FAA Stuns Tsitsipas

Venus Williams surprised very many naysayers by completing one of the biggest upsets in the early rounds of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells today by coming back from a 6-4, 3-0 (double break) deficit against World #3 Petra Kvitova to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Venus and Kvitova have played 7 times and all of their matches have gone to three sets, with the American now having a 4-3 edge.

Serena Williams played her first competitive match since she departed the Australian Open five weeks ago. This match  was against Victoria Azarenka and it was a reprise of the 2016 BNP Paribas Open final with a different result this time. Serena won in 2 very tight, high-quality sets 6-4 6-3.

Felix Auger-Aliassime pulled off his very first Top 10 win by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas  6-4 6-2 in the youngster's first appearance in the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open. FAA saved all 7 of the breakpoints he faced while converting all 3 that he had, and that was basically the match.

TENNIS TUESDAY: #RF100; Osaka Picks New Coach; Kyrgios Bulldozes Acapulco

FEDERER WINS 100TH TITLE IN DUBAI OVER TSITSIPAS
Roger Federer got revenge against Stefanos Tsitsipas in t.he finals of the Dubai Duty Free Open by winning 6-4 6-4. By doing so, he was able to win the 100th title of his career, becoming the second man in history to reach this milestone. The 21-year-old Tsitsipas made history to become the first player from his country (Greece) to be ranked in the Top 10. He will almost certainly continue to make history, as many observers expect to him reach the Top 5 and potentially win a major title.

OSAKA PICKS JERMAINE JENKINS AS NEW COACH
World #1 Naomi Osaka has followed up her dismissal of  Sascha Baijin as her coach by replacing him with Jermaine Jenkins, another person who knows the game of her idol, Serena Williams, very well. Baijin was Serena's hitting partner for years, and Jenkins had been part of Venus Williams camp for years, including serving as hitting partner. His twin brother served as Serena's hitting partner at the 2018 French Open, and has recently been named Director of Women's Tennis for the United States Tennis Association.

KYRGIOS BEATS NADAL, WAWRINKA, ISNER AND ZVEREV TO WIN ACAPULCO
Two weeks after Belinda Bencic had an amazing week to win her first title in memorable fashion, Nick Kyrgios did the same thing by beating Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, John Isner and Sascha Zverev to win the title in Acapulco. The mercurial Australian Player demonstrated  that when he focuses on his game, he can basically beat anyone.

2018 US OPEN: Women's Final (and Semifinals Review)

Serena Williams (USA) [17] vs. Naomi Osaka (JPN) [20]

This is my prediction post for the 2018 US Open women's final. Last year I incorrectly predicted that Madison Keys would beat Sloane Stephens in the 2017 US Open final.  This year I have correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals, 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals, 1 of 2 men's semifinals and 1 of 2 women's semifinals. I will also predict the winner of the 2018 US Open men's final between Juan Martin del Potro and Novak Djokovic.

WOMEN'S SEMIFINALS REVIEW

Serena Williams (USA) [17] d. Anastasja Sevastova (LAT) [19] 6-3 6-0. I thought that this match would be a bit tougher than it turned out to be, thanks to the willingness of Serena to go to the net to finish points quickly.  Sevastova has aspects of her game similar to Roberta Vinci who provided Serena one of  her most devastating losses here in New York in 2015 when she was attempting the calendar Grand Slam. Because Serena's game is so powerful, people often have difficulty coming up with an effective game plan against her, but moving the ball around and mixing up pace is usually a better idea than trying to outhit her. She can get frustrated and impatient if she makes too many errors and then starts to press and make more errors. Sevastova attempted this strategy, but Serena remained calm and cool as she overwhelmed the Latvian with powerful strokes hit deep into the corners of the court.

Naomi Osaka (JPN) [20] d. Madison Keys (USA) [15] 6-2 6-4. This was a very impressive performance by the 20-year-old Japanese player. Keys is one of the most powerful players (on both tours). I was also impressed with the gains she has made in her movement and defensive abilities. But she still goes for broke way too often, leading to errors at inopportune times. However, it's not clear that Keys could have done much to avoid this result due to the level of play of her opponent. Osaka faced 13 breakpoints and saved all 13, oftentimes with aces (even on the second serve!) or unreturnable serves.  Meanwhile, she earned 4 breakpoints on Keys' serve and converted 75% of them. Both players served well, but, surprisingly, it was the younger player who played the bigger points better. She totally deserved to win this semifinal and reach her first major final, where she will play her idol.

WOMEN'S FINALS PREVIEW

Serena is appearing in her 31st major final (23-7) while Naomi is in her very first. In fact, Serena appeared in  (and won) her very first major final in 1999 in New York, exactly 19 years ago, when her opponent was not yet 2 years old. As I have mentioned very many times before, very few players win their very first major final (especially if they are playing against someone who has already played in one previously). As usual, both players have huge achievements at stake on the result of this match. If Serena wins she will finally match Margaret Court's grand slam total of 24 major titles (amazingly, exactly 45 years to the day Court won her last major) and will become just the 4th woman to win a major title after becoming a mother (Court, Evonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters). If Osaka wins she will become the first Japanese player to win a major title (she's already the first Japanese woman to reach a major final) just four years after Kei Nishikori reached the US Open final. Their games are very similar, because Osaka has modeled hers after her idol and she has the physical gifts to do so. The problem is that Serena is the original, and even though she is almost 18 years older, she basically does everything better than Naomi. The only advantage Naomi has is her age, but that is a double-edged sword that can count for and against her. MadProfessah's pick: Serena.

2018 INDIAN WELLS: Osaka-Kasatkina, Federer-Del Potro Finals

The finals of the 2018 Indian Wells are now set. The men's final is exactly what I predicted on Friday. Roger Federer versus Juan Martin del Potro.

This is their 25th meeting and Federer leads 18-6, although Del Potro famously defeated Federer in the 2009 U.S. Open final and also last year in the 2016 U.S. Open quarterfinal last year. However, Federer survived an amazing 3-set match with Borna Coric, coming back from losing the first set and being a break down in the second set and twice in the third set to win 5-7 6-4 6-4.

 MadProfessah's pick: Federer.

 The women's final is exactly the opposite of what I predicted would happen. This time youth was served, with 20-year-old Daria Kasatkina defeating Venus Williams in one of the most hard-fough 3-set matches of the year while fellow 20-year-old Naomi Osaka blitzed World #1 Simona Halep 6-3 6-0. Whoever wins this match will have the best result by a player born in 1997 on the WTA tour since Jelena Ostapenko won the French Open last year. The two have never played before but I think that Kastakina has shown more mental toughness although Osaka has the more powerful game.

MadProfessah's pick: Kasatkina.

2018 INDIAN WELLS: Semifinalists Set Halep-Osaka, Venus-Kasatkina; Federer-Coric, Raonic-Del Potro

The roster of  players in the men's and women's semifinals of the 2018 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells is now complete. The #1 seeds are still in the hunt on both sides of the draw.

On the men's side these are the matchups:

Roger Federer [1] versus Borna Coric
Juan Martin del Potro [6] versus Milos Raonic [32]

MadProfessah's pick: Federer and Del Potro.

On the women's side these re the matchups:

Simona Halep [1] versus Naomi Osaka
Venus Williams [8] versus Daria Kasatkina [20]

MadProfessah's pick: Halep and Venus Williams.

On my visit to Indian Wells on Wednesday I saw both women's quarterfinals featuring Halep and Osaka and was quite impressed with both players. I think Halep likes this court a bit more and this is Osaka's first time at this stage of a big tournament. Kasatkina demolished Angie Kerber on Thursday (6-0 6-2) and can give anyone fits so I would not be surprised to see her win, but after Venus beat Serena on Monday in a solid 6-4 6-3 performance I think her confidence is sky high.

INDIAN WELLS 2018: Order of Play For My Visit Today

I am going to visit Indian Wells today and will be seeing some interesting matches on Stadium 1:

• Morning Session -- 11am
• Taylor Fritz vs Borna Coric
• Simona Halep vs Petra Martic
• Roger Federer vs Jeremy Chardy
• Juan Martin del Potro vs Leonardo Mayer
  
• Evening session -- 7pm: 
• Naomi Osaka vs Karolina Pliskova
• Marcos Baghdatis vs Milos Raonic

I'll be doing updates during the day on Instagram (@ronbuckmire) and Twitter (@madprofessah).

2018 INDIAN WELLS: Venus-Serena XXIX, Azarenka Loses To Sloane; Nole, Sascha, Grigor, Petra, Garbi All Out Early!

The 2018 Indian Wells, the first ATP Masters series event of the year, is underway. I will be attending  the tournament all day (and night) on Wednesday. Sadly, it is not clear who I will see because there have been a number of upsets early on. World #2 Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Sunshine double and will not return t the tour until the clay begins.

World #3 Grigor Dimitrov lost to a resurgent Fernando Verdasco, World #4 Sascha Zverev lost to Joao Sousa (losing 5 games in a row from up 4-1 in the 3rd!) and Novak Djokovic lost #109 Taro Daniel.  There have also been upsets on the women's side with Petra Kvitova's win streak ended at 14 with a loss to teenager Amanda Anisimova and World #3 Garbine Muguruza lost to American Sachia Vickery. 2-time Indian Wells champion Victoria Azarenka lost to Sloane Stephens in her first comeback match in nearly a year.

However, the marquee comeback was that by Serena Williams of course. With her ranking currently in the 400s having not played a serious match since winning the 2017 Australian Open, giving birth and getting married, Serena managed to win her first two matches at Indian Wells. Her reward is that she will play her sister Venus. This will be the 29th meeting  and Serena leads 17-11. It will be around 7pm tonight. I'll be watching!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Federer Wins Title #90; Vesnina Shocks; Kerber Regains #1; Miami Draw Decimated

INDIAN WELLS ENDS WITH A BANG AS VESNINA AND FEDERER WIN TITLES 
The first important (non-major) tournament of the year is the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Last year Novak Djokovic and Vika Azarenka won the title. This year Roger Federer defeated Stan Wawrinka and Elena Vesnina outlasted Svetlana Kuznetsova (in just over 3 hours) to win the titles.

FEDERER'S 90TH TITLE FUELS HIS RISE TO WORLD #6
35-year-old Roger Federer has reached his pre-Wimbledon goal of reaching the Top 8 in the world 3 months early by reaching World #6 this week. After a 6-month absence from the tour to recuperate after knee surgery, Federer has won 13 of his first 14 matches played in 2017. His only loss this year came to Evgeny Donskoy in a 3rd set tiebreak in Dubai. By winning Indian Wells for the 5th time, Federer won his 90th ATP tour title and record 49th "big title" of his career (18 Grand slams, 6 ATP Tour finals and 25 Masters shields).

MIAMI OPEN LOSES MURRAY, DJOKOVIC, SERENA
The "Sunshine Double" is a rare feat in tennis that occurs when a player wins the Indian Wells tournament and then the Miami tournament which follows it; last year both Azarenka and Djokovic completed the sunshine double. The draw at this year's Miami Open will have reduced firepower because 8-time champion Serena Williams, 6-time champion Novak Djokovic and 2-time champion Andy Murray all have withdrawn from the tournament.

KERBER REGAINS WORLD #1 RANKING 
 As expected, the World #1 ranking on the women's side changed from Serena Williams to Angelique Kerber due to Serena Williams' withdrawal from the Indian Wells and Key Biscayne tournaments.

2017 INDIAN WELLS: Federer-Wawrinka, Kuznetsova-Vesnina Finals

The finals of the 2017 BNP Paribas Open are now set. On the men's side it will be an all-Swiss affair, with Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer. The two last met in the semifinals of the 2017 Australian Open, where Federer defeated the higher ranked Wawrinka in 5 tough sets on his way to winning his long-sought 18th major title. Federer is playing in his 43rd Masters final (now tied with Novak Djokovic) while Wawrinka is playing in his 4th. The two compatriots have played 22 times before and Federer has only lost 3 times, all on clay. I expect Federer will win this match tomorrow.

On the women's side the WTA tour has been devastated with World #1 Serena Williams' withdrawal from the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments. New World #1 Angelique Kerber lost early to Elena Vesnina, and although Venus Williams took the momentum from her first-round escape against Jelena Jankovic to reach the quarterfinals, she lost against Vesnina who is now playing the best tennis of her careers in her first Premier Mandatory final. The Russian will face another compatriot, 2-time major champion Sveta Kuznetsova, who last reached the final here twice before (2007 l. Daniela Hantuchova and 2008 l. Ana Ivanovic). For the second time this year, a final will be contested between two female players over age 30. Kuznetova is 31 and Vesnina is 30. The two are tied 1-all in their head-to-head. I'm rooting for Kuznetsova to win!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Muguruza Soars To WTA #2, Thiem Hits ATP #7, Grass Season Begins

WTA Rankings: Muguruza #2 (And Closing On Serena), Venus Back In Top 10, Kiki Goes +68
This week's WTA rankings are out and, as expected, 2016 French Open champion Garbine Muguruza is at World #2. She is close enough behind Serena that it is possible (but unlikely) that if the Spaniard were to defend all her 1365 Wimbledon finalist points and Serena Williams not defend her Wimbledon champion points, the 22-year-old could claim the #1 spot for the first time. Venus Williams has returned to the WTA top 10, landing at #9 and will most likely be seeded #8 at Wimbledon because #8 Belinda Bencic is injured. After her Roland Garros triumphs, Kiki Bertens jumps 68 places from #96 to #27. She will almost certainly be seeded at Wimbledon, and play for a medal in Rio.

ATP Rankings: Thiem Enters Top 10, Goffin Knocking At #11, Djokovic Nearly Double #2
After battling each other for a major semifinal spot, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin have career high rankings, landing at #7 and #11, respectively. By dint of his holding all four major titles simultaneously, Djokovic has a record number of ATP ranking points (16,950) which is almost double the total of World #2 Andy Murray. Despite leaving his favorite tournament early due to a serious wrist injury, Rafael Nadal moved up to #4 in the rankings which should prevent him from a quarterfinal meeting with anyone else in the Top 4 at Wimbledon.

Djokovic Blows Past $100 Million Career Prize Money:  $101,917,404
With his win on Sunday, Novak Djokovic is slowly making his case to be considered the greatest of all time. By holding all four major titles simultaneously he has accomplished something neither of his contemporaries (Federer and Nadal) have done, and thanks to the monotonic increase in prize money with time, Djokovic is almost certain to end with more prize money than either of them either. Due to his unprecedented success in the ATP Masters Series event, he has earned more than $101 million in his time on tour, and he is not yet 30.

The Grass Season Begins And Federer Returns In Stuttgart, Brown Wins in Manchester
This year Federer is playing not one but two Wimbledon warm-up tournaments, in Stuttgart and Halle. He has reached the Wimbledon final the last two years, losing both times to Novak. Dustin Brown won a grass court challenger tournament in Manchester over the weekend and is now back into the Top 100.

Tommy Haas Hasn't Retired (Yet) But Has Been Announced As Indian Wells Tournament Director
After the collapse of support for Raymond Moore as longtime director of the ATP masters tournament in Indian Wells due to his rampant misogyny and sexism, a search was conducted for a new TD. The announcement was made last week that Tommy Haas (who is still an active member of the ATP Tour, and very popular among the players) has been named as the new Indian Wells tournament director, subject to the approval of the boards of the WTA and ATP.

2016 INDIAN WELLS: Vika Shocks Serena In Straight Sets, Nole Humiliates Injured Milos

Vika Azarenka stunned World #1 Serena Williams 6-4 6-4 in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open. It was Azarenka's first title since 2014 and means that  it has been more than 6 months since Serena won her last title (2015 Cincy). This means that Azarenka becomes the first player to beat Serena in four finals, and improves her record to 4-17. She claimed her 2nd career title in Indian Wells and denied Serena the chance to win a record third title here and her first since 2001. She will return to the Top 10 when the ranking come out, landing at #8.

On the men's side Novak Djokovic was merciless against a clearly injured Milos Raonic, winning  6-2 6-0. Djokovic won his 5th title in Indian Wells and his twenty-seventh ATP Masters Series 1000 title, tying Rafael Nadal.

Serena-Azarenka XXI: 2016 Indian Wells Final

Serena Williams is in her first final at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells since 2002, primarily since she refused to attend the tournament for the years 2003-2014, famously coming back in 2015 (and retired before her semifinal match). Serena beat the new #2 player in the world, Aga Radwanska in an entertaining match on Friday night, 6-4 7-6(1) an earlier in the tournament dominated the former World #2 Simona Halep in the quarters. She will face what most people think is her primary rival, Vika Azarenka, in today's final (despite Serena's 17-3 overall head-to-head lead). Serena and Azarenka played some of the best women's tennis matches in 2015 (3 times) but Serena prevailed all three times they played last year. In fact, Vika hasn't beaten Serena since she won a 3rd set tiebreak in the 2013 Cincy Open final.

Vika has gotten her ranking up to #15 and will soon be back in the Top 10 where she definitely belongs. Serena is looking to reinforce her dominance after her surprising loss to Angie Kerber in the 2016 Aussie Open final and make new records, which she would do by becoming the first female player to win this tournament 3 times.

MadProfessah's pick: Serena.

Djokovic-Nadal XLVIII: 2016 Indian Wells Semifinal

The Indian Wells tournament is reaching the serious section of the draw with the men's semifinals being played today. The final four are David Goffin, Milos Raonic, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Somewhat unluckily, Djokovic and Nadal are in the same half of the draw, so their record 48th meeting will be occurring in the semifinal today and not tomorrow's final. The winner will face either Goffin or Raonic, who will be playing in their very first ATP Masters 1000 final.

Djokovic now leads his head-to-head with Nadal 24-23 and should be expected to win this match up today, but he has looked vulnerable this week in the desert, inexplicably being hit off the court for a set and a half against American Bjorn Santangelo and taken to two tight tie-break sets versus Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals.

Nadal is still looking for his first final of 2016, having lost (embarrassingly) 6-1 6-2 to Djokovic in Doha earlier this year.

Going To Indian Wells To See Serena and Venus Play Today!

Woo hoo! I'm off to see Serena Williams and Venus Williams play at Indian Wells today. Sad that Roger won't be there this year.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Youth Breaks Through; Raja Skips US Hardcourt Season

22-Year-Old Dominic Thiem Soaring To World #14 on 13-1 Record in February
Dominic Thiem of Austria has big ears but an even bigger game. He is currently the hottest player on the ATP Tour and has won two of his five career titles in 2016. He has done so by compiling an impressive 13-1 record in the month of February, winning titles in Acapulco and Buenos Aires. He even beat Rafael Nadal on clay on the way to winning in Buenos Aires despite being match point down!

22-Year-Old Sloane Stephens Outlasts 2014 Aussie Open Finalist To Win Acapulco
Sloane Stephens has now won her 3rd consecutive final after outlasting Dominika Cibulkova in the final of the Acapulco hard court tournament. The score was 6-4 4-6 7-6(5) and the match lasted over 3 hours.

Federer Withdraws From Indian Wells, Adds Monte Carlo Masters To Schedule
Roger Federer had previously announced that he was going to skip the Miami Masters as well as almost the entire clay court season. However, after losing in the semifinals of the 2016 Australian open Federer injured his knee and had arthroscopic surgery which has caused him to withdraw from the Indian Wells Masters. So, he has now decided to add the Monte Carlo Masters to his 2016 schedule.

Djokovic's 2016 Unbeaten Streak Ends After Eye Infection Leads To
Novak Djokovic withdrew from his Dubai Duty Free semifinal against Feliciano Lopez down 3-6 with a bizarre injury: an eye infection caused him to forfeit the match. The World #1 is now 14-1 and will have to wait a few more weeks to take his place at the top of the list of all-time best win-loss percentages on the ATP tour.

2015 INDIAN WELLS: Djokovic and Halep Win 3-Set Thrillers

Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic are the 2015 BNP Paribas Open champions. Djokovic, as I predicted, defeated Roger Federer in an exciting 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 match (that was much closer than the score indicates). Halep defeated Jelena Jankovic 2-6 7-5 6-4 in a drama and error-filled encounter that featured 18(!) breaks of serve between the two players.

It's Djokovic's 21st ATP Masters Shield title, just 2 behind Federer and 5 behind Nadal on the all-time leaders list and 50th ATP career title overall. He is now 18-20 in his career head-to-head with Federer and ties him with 4 titles at the Indian Wells tennis garden, becoming the first player since Federer did it twice (from 2004-2006) to defend this title.

It was Halep's first Premier Mandatory title, and her 11th career WTA title overall.