2016 DAVIS CUP: Argentina Stuns Croatia As Delpo and Delbonis Win Last 2 Matches To Clinch Nation's 1st Win

Wow! The 2016 tennis season ended with a bang on Sunday as Argentina won its very first Davis Cup (in its 5th appearance in the final) when Juan Martin Del Potro and Federico Delbonis won two must-win matches to give their country a 3-2 win in the Davis Cup final over Croatia, in Zagreb.
The day began with Del Potro coming back from 2 sets to none down for the first time in his career against World #8 Marin Cilic to win in 5 sets: 6-7(4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in 4 hours 43 minutes. This is the third time this year Cilic has had a 2-0 set advantage in a five-set match and ended up losing it (Wimbledon quarterfinal against Roger Federer and the USA vs Croatia rubber versus Jack Sock.)

But Delbonis' feat was even more amazing. He had to win a live fifth rubber against a higher ranked opponent, playing at home. The 26-year-old lefty Argentine is ranked 41 in the world and is known as a solid clay court player but he defeated the 37-year-old 6-foot-11 Ivo Karlovic (World #20) in straight sets: 6-3 6-4 6-2. Karlovic leads the tour in aces and has the #2 best serve (behind John Isner) but it was Delbonis who never had his serve broken in the match.

Argentina was in the Davis Cup final in 1981, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2016, finally winning it for the first time this year. Croatia won it once before in 2005. Last year Great Britain won

2016 US OPEN: Schedule of Play For My Labor Day Visit

I will be returning to the U.S. Open today.  Yesterday was amazing so I hope today is even better! I have courtside tickets in Louis Armstrong Stadium. I never buy tickets to Ashe because there is never anything reasonably affordable where you can actually see the players well. (And by affordable, I mean less than a round trip plane ticket from Los Angeles to New York!) Venus and Serena Williams will be playing their fourth round matches in Ashe at the same time, against Karolina Pliskova and Yaroslav Shvedova, respectively.

Here's what I'm scheduled to see today:

WOMEN'S SINGLES - R4

Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) [11]

vs.

Simona Halep (ROU) [5]

MEN'S SINGLES - R4

Illya Marchenko (UKR)

vs.

Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [3]

MEN'S SINGLES - R4

Not Before: 3:00 PM

Kei Nishikori (JPN) [6]

vs.

Ivo Karlovic (CRO) [21]

MIXED DOUBLES - QF

Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)Marin Draganja (CRO)

vs.

Coco Vandeweghe (USA) [7]Rajeev Ram (USA) [7]

It should be fun!! Happy Labor Day!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Monfils Wins DC; Serena+Big 3 Skip Rogers Cup, Konta Beats #6 Venus

MONFILS WINS CITI OPEN IN WASHINGTON OVER IVO KARLOVIC
I visited the Citi Open in Washington, DC for the second time this weekend. In 2013 I saw Juan Martin del Potro beat Joh Isner in the final. This time I saw Gael Monfils beat Sascha Zverev in the semifinals. Monfils then faced Ivo Karlovic in the final the next day, which was played in brutally hot conditions (90-plus degrees, 50-plus percent humidity, court temperatures exceeding 140 degrees). I elected to stay home and watched on TV while Gael faced a match point but managed to win the match 5-7 7-6(6) 6-4 to claim the biggest title of his career. Gael had previously lost 8 of his 9 previous finals and has now won only 6 of the 25 finals in his career. The win jumped Monfils to World #14 (and #9 in the Race to London).

CANADA'S ROGERS CUP WITHDRAWALS: SERENA(1), MURRAY(2), FEDERER(3), NADAL(4) 
The summer tennis  schedule this year is overly packed and something had to give. It looks like it is the Rogers Cup tournament in Canada. The men's tournament was hit by a raft of high-profile withdrawals: three of the Big Four: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. The  women's draw was hit by the withdrawal of the World #1 player Serena Williams.

VENUS WILLIAMS RISES TO WORLD #6 RANKING AFTER LOSING STANFORD FINAL TO JOHANNA JONTA
36-year-old Venus Williams has reached the WTA ranking of #6 after a good run at the Bank of the West Classic on the campus of Stanford University. Even though she was the Top seed, Venus lost in the final 5-7 7-5 6-2 to Johanna Konta of Great Britain, who won her first WTA title, and is now ranked at #14.

2015 SHANGHAI: In SFs Tsonga Beats Nadal, Djokovic Beats Murray

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had not faced Rafael Nadal in more than two years and despite losing a bagel second set, the Frenchman was able to emerge victorious in the semifinals of the 2015 ATP Shanghai Masters 1000 tournament, winning 6-4 0-6 7-5. This result improved his head to head with Nadal to 4-8. Nadal is playing better than he has for most of 2015, having dismissed 2015 French Open champion Stan Wawrinka in straight sets the round before, so this was an impressive win by the Frenchman.

In a reprise of the 2015 Australian Open final, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic faced off in the other semifinal and as has happened in 9 of their last 10 meetings, the Serb came up the winner. This was revenge for Murray's surprising win in the Montreal Masters final this summer. Djokovic now has 20-10 edge over his British rival. The World #1 is having one of the all-time great seasons, having been in all four major finals, winning three of them, and he has actually made the final of thirteen consecutive tournaments he has played this year (he lost in the quarterfinals of the first tournament he played in to Ivo Karlovic), winning 8 titles so far and having only lost 5 times all year. His four other 2015 losses were to Roger Federer (Dubai Duty Free final, Cincinnati Masters final), Stan Wawrinka (Roland Garros final) and Andy Murray (Montreal final).  Can Tsonga join this list?

The Frenchman has a 6-13 record against Djokovic. Djokovic is playing for his 25th Masters shield and 3rd title in Shanghai. Tsonga has only won two Masters titles, both times in French speaking cities.

MadProfessah's pick: Djokovic.

2015 HALLE: Federer To Face Seppi; Trying For 8th Title In 10 Finals

Roger Federer survived two tiebreak sets with 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic to win a very tight semifinal while Kei Nishikori retired after losing all but one of the first five games in his match with Andreas Seppi.

So, Federer will face Seppi in his 10th final at Halle, where the Swiss great has won the title a record 7 times already. Federer has a record 14 grass court titles (7 at Wimbledon and 7 at Halle). Federer has a 11-1 head-to-head record against Seppi but he did lose to him at the Australian Open this year in the third round. Federer has previously lost to finals in Halle to Lleyton Hewitt in 2010 and Tommy Haas in 2012 but is the defending champion.

MadProfessah's pick: Federer.

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.

WIMBLEDON 2009: Men's Quarterfinals

6'10" Ivo Karlovic of Croatia

After going four out of four with my predictions for the Wimbledon women's quarterfinals, I will try my hand at predicting Wednesday's Men's Quarterfinals

Lleyton Hewitt AUS v Andy Roddick USA (6)

Andy Murray GBR (3) v Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP

Tommy Haas GER (24) v Novak Djokovic SRB (4)

Ivo Karlovic CRO (22) v Roger Federer SUI (2)

I believe the winners will be Roddick (in 4 sets), Murray (in 3 sets), Djokovic (in 5 sets) and Federer (in 4 sets).