TENNIS TUESDAY: Czech Republic Wins Davis Cup For 2nd Year in a Row

For the second year in a row, the Czech Republic won the annual Davis Cup competition, with Radek Stepanek claiming a win in the live 5th rubber. Last year, the Czech team beat the Spanish team when Stepanek defeated Nicolas Almagro. This year the Czech team beat the Serbian team when Stepanek defeated World #117 Dusan Lajovic. Novak Djokovic won both his singles matches, extending his current winning streak to 24 consecutive matches, but playing without Janko Tipsarevic or Victor Troicki those were the only ties the Serbian team was able to win, possibly because Djokovic did not play in the doubles rubber, where Tomas Berdych and Stepanek were able to beat the team consisting of doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozolac. Even Zimonjic is questioning that decision, although press reports claim it was a team-based decision.

2013 US OPEN: Men's Quarterfinal's Preview

Last  year I correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I also have made predictions for the women's quarterfinals. Below are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the 2013 US Open.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) [21]. The World #1 has been devastating so far through the first four rounds, serving up three bagel sets (including two in his 4th round demolition of Marcello Granollers) and losing on 22 games and no sets. Youzhny is coming off one of the greatest comebacks in US Open history, having beaten 2001 US Open champion Lleyton Hewitt despite being down 1-4 in the 4th set and 2-5 in the 5th set, eventually winning the match 6-3 3-6 6-7(3) 6-4 7-5 in four hours of play to reach his 3rd US Open quarterfinal. Even though he'll have two days to recover and has won his two previous quarterfinal appearance (against Rafael Nadal in 2006 and Stanislas Wawrinka in 2010). Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Andy Murray (GBR) [3] vs Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) [9] Tomas Berdych (CZE) [5]. For the second major tournament, Wawrinka has reached deeper into the tournament than his more celebrated countryman. Although the defending champion Andy Murray has an 8-5 head-to-head record against Wawrinka, he has lost to him before at the US Open, just three years ago. However that was before Murray had won his two major titles. The Swiss is now a legitimate Top 10 player with his 4-set upset of World #5 Tomas Berdych in the round before so he has already had a very good tournament. Wawrinka is playing in only his 4th major quarterfinal while Murray has reached the final of the last four major tournament he entered. Murray is also one of the top 2 or 3 hard court players in the world and sports a 6-2 lead on Wawrinka on this surface. Mad Professah's pick: Murray.

Richard Gasquet (FRA) [8] vs David Ferrer (ESP) [4]. This should be the popcorn match of the four quarterfinal round. Both Ferrer and Gasquet had to get through stern tests to reach this point. Gasquet survived the serving barrage (39 aces!) of Milos Raonic in the 4th round, escaping with a win despite hitting fewer winners (45 to Raonic's 102) by playing well on the important points: 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 2-6 7-6(11) 7-5. Ferrer ground down the talented Janko Tipsarevich  in four sets despite trying to choke away his win repeatedly. However the history between these two players indicates that Ferrer has Gasquet's number. The Spaniard has an 8-1 head-to-head record over the Frenchman and despite his prodigious talents Gasquet has only reached a major semifinal once in hs career and this is his second quarterfinal appearance despite reaching the 4th round 16 times before. Mad Professah's pick: Ferrer.

Roger Federer (SUI) [7] Tommy Robredo (ESP) [19] vs Rafael Nadal (ESP) [2].  Robredo is coming off the greatest win of his long career, a straight sets upset of 17-time major champion Roger Federer, while Nadal is undefeated on hard courts this year. Let me say that again. Nadal has won 19 consecutive matches on his worst surface and is having one of the best seasons of his life. Robredo has never beaten Nadal in 6 meetings (he had never beaten Federer in 10 meetings) but Nadal is near his peak while it is becoming painfully clear Federer is playing nowhere near his best tennis. This match should be the least interesting of the four quarterfinals and Nadal has to be considered the favorite to reach his second US Open final and cement his position as the best player of 2013 by winning his second major title of the year. Mad Professah's pick: Nadal.

ATLANTA 2013: Isner Beats Anderson To Win 7th ATP Title

6'10" American John Isner won his 7th career ATP tour title by defeating 6'8" South African Kevin Anderson in a wild 6-7(3) 7-6(2) 7-6(2) final of the BB&T Open in Atlanta, the first stop on the 2013 US Open Series. It was the tallest final in ATP history and the first final since Milos Raonic won the 2012 Chennai Open over Janko Tipsarevic that a title was decided by a match with no service breaks. The 3-set match lasted just 5 minutes shy of 3 hours.

Isner saved 11 break points and had 24 aces, compared to 21 aces (and only one break point on his serve) for Anderson. Two of the breakpoints that Isner saved were also match points at 5-6 in the 3rd set, and he also fought his way out of 0-40 in his first service game at 0-1 in the deciding set as well.

Isner improves to 7-7 in career finals (and a tour leading 26-7 for the year in tiebreaks) while Anderson falls to 2-4. The American will return to the Top 20 after today's win in Atlanta when the new rankings come out tomorrow. Isner had played tennis in college for the nearby University of Georgia Bulldogs and this was the third time in four years he was playing in the final of what he considers his hometown tournament (losing to fellow American Mardy Fish in 2011 and 2010). Isner's win puts him in the lead of the US Open Series on the men's side.

In other ATP news, Fabio Fognini's amazing win streak on clay came to an end at 13 when he lost in the finals of the Croatia Open in Umag to Tommy Robredo 6-0 6-3. It was the pulchritudinous Italian's 3rd consecutive final in as many weeks, but the Spanish veteran used his experience to win his 12th career title (11 of which have been on clay).

2013 WIMBLEDON Round 1: Nadal(5), Errani(5), Kirilenko(10) Upset

Round 1 of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships is complete. Of course the most significant result of the first two days of play is 2-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal's shocking loss in the first round to Belgian Steve Darcis. However there were other surprising results in the first round on the men's side: Former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt eliminated #11 seed Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. In another curious result Feliciano Lopez beat #17 seed Gilles Simon; this was the second time in three days they had met because Lopez also beat Simon in the finals of Eastbourne on Sunday.

On the women's side of the draw, the #5 seed also went out in the first round when Puerto Rican teenager Monica Puig beat clay court specialist Sara Errani and British hope Laura Robson ignored the pressure of a nation and beat Maria Kirilenko in straight sets.

Top seeds Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, David Ferrer, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all won their first round matches relatively easily. Additionally, on the women's side Serena Williams won her first match in 57 minutes, extending her current winning streak to 32 consecutive matches. She will face talented French youngster Caroline Garcia in the 2nd round. Maria Sharapova, Angelique Kerber, Aggie Radwanska, and Victoria Azarenka all won their first round matches. Azarenka had an injury scare after she went down hard in her match but she was still able to win easily. If she is not 100% she could be in trouble in her second round match against Flavia Pennetta.

Second Round matches to take note of
Li Na [6] versus Simona Halep, Madison Keys versus Mona Barthel [30], Sloane Stephens[17] versus Andrea Petkovic and Marion Bartoli [15] versus Christina McHale.

Feliciano Lopez versus Paul-Henri Mathieu, James Blake versus Bernard Tomic, Tsonga versus Ernests Gulbis and Hewitt versus Dustin Brown.

Best Men's Tennis Matches of 2012

Here are my picks for the Top 10"best" (or most memorable) tennis matches by men in 2012. These are basically the matches that had the most impact on me while they were occurring (or later on, upon subsequent reflection), feature some of the best play or most amazing shots, had the most impact on the rest of the tennis season or are matches that I would most likely to watch again in the future. You can see my lists from last year: Best Men's Tennis Matches of 2011 and Best Women's Tennis Matches of 2011. I also have lists of best men's matches for 2010, 2009 and 2006. (There were no men's lists in 2007 or 2008.) I have also compiled lists of the Best Women's Tennis Matches for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010.

All of these lists can be accessed at my MadProfessah.com Tennis tab.

1.  N. Djokovic SRB d. R. Nadal ESP, 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7(5) 7-5, 2012 Australian Open final, Melbourne.

     The third consecutive grand slam final in a row was a contest between  Nadal and Djokovic, this time on the hardcourts of Australia where the Serbian has had his greatest success. Even more importantly, it was the first time the two met after Djokovic completed one of the most amazing years in tennis history in 2011, beating Nadal in 6 consecutive tour finals, including the two previous majors (2011 Wimbledon final and the 2011 #1 match of the year, the 2011 US Open final). The primary question was whether Djokovic could extend his near-perfect record from 2011 into a new calendar year or would he be able to be stopped by the indomitable Spaniard. The result was a near 6-hour gladiatorial slugfest, a mental marathon and physical punishment, where the victor would secure their place at the top of men's tennis. By winning this match Djokovic proved that he was willing to do whatever it takes to win, even if meant reaching his physical and mental limits and going beyond them. 
     After dropping the first set (despite being up a break) and stealing the second (6-4), Djokovic used the subsequent momentum to easily win the third from his demoralized opponent. Djokovic then had victory at his grasp in the fourth set and was mere points from the win when some bad decisions in the tiebreak (after being up 5-3!) brought the match back to dead even again, with Nadal confident that his stamina and newly found momentum (due to his escape from defeat in the 4th set) would seal his victory. In fact, the Spaniard was up 4-2, 30-15 in the fifth and final set when he made two bad errors and lost his slim 1-break advantage. Although Djokovic seemed worse for wear, he managed to hold serve to again bring the match to dead-even again: 4-all in the 5th after nearly 5 and a half hours of play. But it was Nadal who blinked first, losing his serve in the 11th game of the set, and allowing Djokovic to serve out the match and win his 5th major title and 3rd Australian Open.
     This was the most significant match of 2012 in that it marked a 7 consecutive win of Djokovic over Nadal in as many final match-ups and confirmed that the Federer-Nadal duopoly at the top of men's tennis was now a trivalry between the top 3 players. Some have quibbled that the reason the match was so long was because both players refused to come to the net to finish points, as well as their deliberately unhurried pace between points. I don't see how anyone can complain about the level of the tennis and shotmaking involved, but what really sets this match apart from the others in 2012 was the sheer drama on the court and the stakes involved for men's tennis. It was so physically draining that both players nearly collapsed during the on-court trophy presentation and eventually someone noticed and brought the two combatants to sit down during the ceremony.

2.  A. Murray GBR d. N. Djokovic SRB, 7-6(10) 7-5 2-6 3-6 6-2, U.S. Open final, New York.
      For years Andy Murray could only watch while two (and then three) of the all-time greats gobbled up the lion's share of grand slam titles, usually beating him in the process. The problem for Murray, everyone said, was that in order for him to win a major title, he would almost certainly have to beat one, if not two, of either Federer, Djokovic or Nadal. Plus, no British player had won a major title since Fred Perry did it in 1936. And although the Scot had reached 3 major finals before his 24th birthday, he had not acquitted himself very well in any of them, failing to win a set in all three contests. However, despite losing his 4th major final at Wimbledon in July (to this same opponent!), Murray was able to come back a handful of weeks later and beat Federer on the same court to win a Gold Medal. He had been up a set and break in that 4th major final, and by actually winning a gold medal while his country was hosting the Olympics indicated that he had finally broken through whatever was hindering him from success in historically important matches.
     Many people stated that Murray would never win a major, but he had hired Ivan Lendl who also had lost his first four major finals but then Lendl went on to eventually win 7 majors and appear in a record 8 consecutive US major finals. Murray had played an astonishingly good match against Djokovic in the semifinals of the 2012 Australian Open, only eventually succumbing 7-5 in the fifth. 
     Through some good (and bad) fortune, neither Djokovic nor Murray needed to face Nadal or Murray in their path to the final, thanks to an inspired upset by Tomas Berdych of Roger Federer in the quarterfinals and Nadal's disappearance from the game due to injury after Wimbledon.
     The match itself was played on Monday afternoon, the fifth consecutive year the US Open men's final had been postponed due to the inclement weather. The wind definitely impacted the level of play at points but even so the two were able to combine for some absolutely incredible rallies and many momentum shifts and dramatic moments,beginning with an opening set decided by a 22-point tiebreak. Murray was able to use the momentum from winning the first set to take a presumed insurmountable 2-set leave but then Djokovic was able to dig deep and run away with next two sets to level the match. Almost everyone would have expected the more successful player to pull out the win at this point but instead Murray started playing more freely and was able to quickly break Djokovic's serve twice while holding on to his own to claim his first major title. Time will tell if Murray will be able to follow up this win with more victories in 2013

3.  R. Federer SUI d. A. Murray GBR, 4-6 7-5 6-4 6-3, 2012 Wimbledon final, London.

     This match result clarified many open questions about the state of men's tennis in 2012 and cemented Roger Federer's status as the Greatest Of All Time. Just by reaching the final of Wimbledon, Andy Murray made history and sent his entire country into paroxysms of joy mingled with anxiety. There is no player on tour who has faced as much pressure on him to do well as Murray has in the last few years since he became a serious contender to win majors, and possibly the Great Green One itself.

     Murray used the pressure to sneak the first set away from Federer and was quickly up a break in the second, which he probably should have won also. If he had, this match would probably have been the #1 match of the year instead. However, Federer was able to win the second set and once the roof was closed due to pouring rain towards the beginning of the third set the contest became a best-of-3 indoor match (albeit on grass) which gave the Swiss Master an overwhelming advantage which he used to his benefit to win his record-tying 7th Wimbledon and jaw-dropping 17 major singles championship. He also reclaimed the World #1 ranking, ensuring that he would finally hold the last major record he was lacking in his overstuffed list of accolades: Most Weeks at #1.

4.  R. Nadal ESP d. N. Djokovic SRB, 6-4 6-3 2-6 7-5, French Open final, Paris. 

     Novak Djokovic sealed his place in history by becoming only the third man in the Open Era to be one match away from holding all four major titles simultaneously (Rod Laver and Roger Federer). Amazingly, his opponent in all 4 consecutive major finals had been Rafael Nadal, the greatest clay court player of all time, and Djokovic had already bested him in three consecutive major finals. Nadal was also playing for history, trying to win his record 7th French Open final and end the conversation about who is the greatest clay-court player of all time. The two had met in clay-court finals twice earlier in 2012 (in Rome and Monte Carlo) and Nadal had won both times, ending the streak of 7 consecutive finals that he had lost to Djokovic in the previous 18 months. However, Nadal still led their overall head-to-head record 18-14 and Djokovic was playing in his very first Roland Garros final so the Spaniard was the overwhelming favorite.
     Nadal took the first two sets relatively easily on a cold, dreary Sunday morning and the match looked it would soon be over. However, after losing the first two games of the 3rd set Djokovic threw caution to the wind and started connecting with some go-for-broke shots and managed to throw some doubt in Nadal just as the weather conditions deadened the effect of his excessive spin as the balls got wetter and heavier. Djokovic ended up winning eight games in a row as Nadal grew more upset and more animated, petitioning the umpire to suspend play, and finally got his wish just after he was able to finally hold serve. When they came back Nadal was able to quickly break back in the very first gaand the two held serve until the 12th game when Djokovic's mental resolve finally crumbled and he double faulted on breakpoint which was also championship point.
     Nadal's victory was his 3rd consecutive win over Djokovic and brought him to 11 major titles. However, it may have been something of a pyrrhic victory, even while he was winning the French for a record 7th time he was grappling (and hiding) a significant knee injury which he was able to overcome while playing on the gentle clay but was unable to survive long on grass just a few weeks later and he was unable to compete for the rest of the year.

5.  L. Rosol CZE d. R. Nadal ESP, 6-7(9) 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4, 2012 Wimbledon 2nd Round, London.

     It's not surprising that the four finals of the major tournaments are my picks for the Top 4 best matches of the year, although that has not happened on any of my previous year-end best-of lists. What is surprising is that the next match on the list is not even a final, it is merely a 2nd round match;  without question it was the Biggest Upset of the year, and had a profound impact on the order at the top of men's tennis for the foreseeable future.
     What made Luke Rosol's achievement so noteworthy was that it was a lightning strike, coming out of nowhere, and just as electrifying. Despite being a clay court wizard, Nadal's record at this grass court tournament on the day of his defeat was that he had been in 3 Wimbledon finals in his last 3 appearances in the tournament and he had won two of those (2008 d. Federer; 2010 d. Berdych; 2011 l. Djokovic). The idea that an unseeded Czech that no one had heard of could take Nadal to 5 sets (and very nearly beat him in straight sets--it was primarily lack of experience which led to Rosol's loss of the first set) was unthinkable.
     A key important point of the greatness of this upset is that the quality of tennis was high throughout. Nadal played well (although obviously not his best tennis--but then again he wasn;t in his best physical shape, as we learned later) but Rosol played absolutely at the complete peak of his ability and sustained it through 5 sets and with a crowd that was going absolutely insane with delirium at witnessing history. Nadal had a mere 16 unforced errors for the entire match (compared to Rosol's 29) but the lanky, powerful Czech youngster had a blistering 65 winners to the Spaniard's 41. The kid served out of his mind for the entire 5th set, and ended the match with a blistering ace, writing his name in indelible ink in the history books and ending Nadal's 2012 season.

6.  R. Federer SUI d. J.-M. del Potro ARG, 3-6 7-6(5) 19-17, Olympiad XXX semifinal, London.

     Federer and Juan Martin del Potro met eight times in 2012. At the beginning o the year, Federer had an overwhelming 7-2 record over the 6'6" gentle giant from Argentina. Del Potro was still recovering from wrist surgery after becoming the first man not named Federer, Djokovic or Nadal in over 5 years to win a major final (over Federer) in September 2009 in New York. By the end of the year the new head-to-head was 13-4 in favor of Federer. This showdown at the London Olympics semifinal was the 6th meeting of the year and the stakes were to ensure that the winner would be going home with an Olympic medal (either Gold or Silver). 

     The two were playing in Federer's house, Centre Court Wimbledon, where a mere few weeks after the GOAT had won his 7th men's singles crown. Most people predicted Federer to win relatively easily but Del Potro had been getting ever closer in his matches against Federer and really should have won their quarterfinal match at Roland Garros when his body (knee) started failing him after winning the first two sets. The decision by the London Olympics Committee to have a best-of-3 sets format with no tiebreak in the final set resulted in some incredibly long matches (the Tsonga-Raonic 48 game 3rd set should be noted here), such as this one. These contests are not really fair to the player, and it is my position that either this policy should be reserved to the final itself, or all matches should have a super tiebreak at some pre-defined point, say 12-all. For Federer, winning this match may have been a pyrrhic victory, because he did not win another showdown with del Potro for the rest of the year, and when he played Murray two days later in the Gold Medal match he lost meekly in straight sets.

7.  N. Djokovic SRB d. A. Murray GBR, 5-7 7-6(11) 6-3, Shanghai Masters final, Shanghai.

     Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray met 7 times in 2012. Djokovic had the slight edge, winning 4 to Murray's 3. But Murray won two of their most important meetings, at the 2012 US Open final and the London Olympics semifinal while Djokovic won their 2012 Australian Open semifinal.

     This match in the finals of the Masters tournament held in Shanghai was important for their rivalry because it was their first meeting after Murray became a grand slam champion and was during Djokovic's end-of-year push to reclaim the #1 ranking from Federer. Murray was the 2-time defending champion of the tournament (2011 d. Ferrer, 2010 d. Federer). The two ended up creating a classic, with the headline statistic being the handful of match points Djokovic managed to save in the second set. It was the most number of match points saved by any victor on the ATP tour in 2012. In addition to the match points saved, Murray and Djokovic put on a display of intense shotmaking and high drama for nearly 4 hours to make this the best regular best-of-three set ATP tour match of the year.

8.  N. Djokovic SRB d. J.-W. Tsonga FRA, 6-1 5-7 5-7 7-6(6) 6-1, French Open quarterfinal, Paris.
     In 2011 Djokovic dominated the year by winning and winning and winning. In 2012, Djokovic again prevailed all year long, but with a slight difference: he just refused to lose. This quarterfinal with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came a few days after Djokovic had been surprisingly pushed to 5-sets against Andreas Seppi of Italy, in a match he very well could have lost. Instead of taking advantage of the #1 seed's dip in confidence, Tsonga started off flat and was down a set and a break before he found the range on his shots. He won the 2nd and 3rd sets and in the 4th set he ended up having four match points, including one on his own serve but somehow, Djokovic managed to win each of those do-or-die points and then blew the devastated Tsonga out of the water in the final set.
     This match was an example of just how different a competitor Djokovic had become in just a few years. Where before he would retire in 2nd week grand slam matches now he won't even give up when he's down multiple match points, even against a player with a very good record against him. This match is an indication of how (and why) Djokovic is likely to be at the top of the rankings in 2013 and beyond.

9.  N. Djokovic SRB d. A. Murray GBR, 6-3 3-6 6-7(4) 6-1 7-5, Australian Open semifinal, Melbourne.

    One can tell that Djokovic was the most important player in 2012 by his presence on this Top 10 list: he appears in more than half of the best matches of the year (even when not in the winner's circle). This match is important because it indicated how close Murray was getting to breaking through into the trivalry at the top of men's tennis. It also cemented Djokovic's superior physical ability and mental toughness. Despite playing a nearly 5-hour-long semifinal against Murray, Djokovic was able to come back within 40 hours and play a nearly 6-hour-long final against Nadal. The only other person in the Top 4 who could possibly have won both of these matches was Nadal, but it's doubtful that even Nadal would have ended up victorious playing 11 hour of tennis against 2 of his 3 rivals.

     This match was another example, like other matches which also appear on this list (the Shanghai final, the US Open final, and the Australian Open final) of the new standard in men's tennis: blistering service returns, indefatigable rallies of 20, 30, 40 strokes and turning defensive shots into aggressive winners, all at a speed and intensity not seen before and almost entirely from the baseline. We shall see how long this style of play will dominate men's tennis, but for now it looks like it will continue to do so in 2013 as it did in 2012. And if so, the person who executes this style of play the best, which is usually Novak Djokovic, will also dominate the ATP tour.

10 M. Raonic CAN d. J. Tipsarevic SRB, 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 7-6(4), 2012 Chennai Open final, Chennai. 

    Just like the previous match can be considered the canonical example of the best of men's tennis in 2012, this last match can be thought of as an example of where men's tennis is (probably) going. Milos Raonic is a 6'5" 200-pound 22-year-old of Serbian descent who plays for Canada and has a gigantic first and second serve and improving, powerful groundstrokes on both wings. Raonic is in the mold of other "Big Guys" such as John Isner, Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych and Sam Querrey who have been predicted for years to break through and dominate men's tennis. So far it hasn't happened because none of these named players have really put all the pieces together consistently to do so, although it must be noted that del Potro won the 2009 US Open by basically overpowering Roger Federer in the final. 

     In this match there were no breaks of serve but despite the identical score in all three sets the match was anything but monotonous. Even though there were no breaks of serve there were very many breakpoints, all saved! The key to this match was incredible serving by the youngster. Despite being played at a pretty insignificant tournament during the first week of the year it should still be noted for it's potentially predictive nature of the future of men's tennis. Both Raonic and Tipsarevic ended up having very good years in 2012, with the former ending the year at World #13 an the latter at World #9.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The following matches are ones that should not be forgotten, but because of mathematical limitations, could not be in the Top 10 matches of the year. Each one either featured some amazing shots or extended periods of high-quality tennis or were entertaining or important to me as a tennis fan. (They are provided here, in no ranked order, for historical posterity, for your perusal, and to jog your memory of some great tennis matches that occurred in the last year.)

R. Federer SUI d. N. Djokovic SRB, 6-3 3-6 6-4 6-3, Wimbledon semifinal, London.

J.-W Tsonga FRA d. M. Raonic CAN, 3-6 6-3 25-23, Olympiad XXX 3rd Round, London.
T. Berdych CZE d. R. Federer, 7-6(1) 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-3, 2012 U.S. Open quarterfinal, New York.
D. Ferrer ESP d. J. Tipsarevic, 6-3 6-7(5) 2-6 6-3 7-6(4), 2012 U.S. Open 4th round, New York.
N. Djokovic SRB d. R. Federer SUI, 7-6(6) 7-5, 2012 Barclays World Tour Finals final, London.

R. Federer SUI d. J.-M. Del Potro ARG, 3-6 6-7(4) 6-2 6-0 6-3, 2012 French Open quarterfinal, Paris.
R. Federer SUI d. N. Djokovic SRB, 6-0 7-6(7), 2012 Western & Southern Financial Open, Cincinnati.
J.-M. Del Potro d. ARG R. Federer SUI, 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(3), 2012 Swiss Indoors final, Basel.
R. Stepanek CZE d. N. Almagro ESP, 6-4 7-6(0) 3-6 6-3, 2012 Davis Cup final (Czech Republic v. Spain), Prague.
A. Roddick USA d. R. Federer SUI, 7-6(5) 1-6 6-4, 2012 Sony Ericsson Open, Key Biscayne.
R. Nadal ESP d.  R. Federer SUI, 6-7(5) 6-2 7-6(5) 6-4, 2012 Australian Open semifinal, Melbourne. 
J. Isner USA d. N. Djokovic SRB, 7-6(7) 3-6 7-6(5), 2012 BNP Paribas Open semifinal, Indian Wells.

ATP TOUR FINALS 2012: Nole, Raja, Andy in Semis

Novak Djokovic qualified for the semifinals by  going 3-0 in the round-robin section of the 2012 ATP World Tour Finals in London, beating his rival Andy Murray for the 4th time in 7 meetings this year as well as Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Murray also qualified for the semifinals, by beating Berdych and Tsonga. Berdych beat Tsonga for the 3rd consecutive time in an important match, leaving last year's World Tour finalist winless in the tournament this year.

Roger Federer is already through to the semifinals by winning his first two matches without dropping a set and today will face Juan Martin del Potro. David Ferrer faces Janko Tipsarevich in the other round-robin match.

If Federer wins a set off of del Potro he will be at the top of his group and thus play Murray in the semis while Djokovic will play either Del Potro or Ferrer (whichever wins by losing the fewest number of sets or games).

So, the most likely semifinal match-ups are Djokovic vs Ferrer and Murray vs Federer with a Djokovic-Murray final match for the title of player of the year on the line.

PARIS MASTERS 2012: Ferrer Wins 1st Shield

5'9" David Ferrer of Spain won his first ATP Masters shield by defeating 6'8" Jerzy Janowicz of Poland 6-4 6-3 in Paris. The 21-year-old qualifier made quite a splash at the tournament by defeating World #3 Andy Murray and World #9 Janko Tipsarevich both of whom will be joining Ferrer in the ATP World Tour finals which begin in London on Monday. He became the first qualifier to reach the final of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament since Guillermo Canas did it in 2007 at the Key Biscayne Masters tournament.

Ferrer's win was also historic, becoming the first player outside of the world's top 4 seeds (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Murray) to win a master's shield since Robin Soderling won the 2010 Paris Masters.

It was the hard-working Spaniard's 7th title of 2012 and the 18th of his career. He now has won 72 matches in the year (one more than Djokovic) compared to 14 losses.

ATP TOUR FINALS 2012: The Final 8 Are Set

With the surprising results at the ATP Masters in Paris (Andy Murray being upset by a qualifier, and Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro both losing early) the final 8 who will be at the ATP World our Finals at the O2 Arena in London starting Tuesday November 6th are now set.

They are Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Murray, David Ferrer, Berdych, del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Janko Tipsarevic. Rafael Nadal qualifiied but withdrew earlier in the year and has not played a single professional match since Wimbledon 2012.

LOOK: Nadal and Monaco Shirtless After Swim

If you have been wondering, like most of the tennis world has, what Rafael Nadal has been up to on his long injury-induced sabbatical from tennis since July 2012, this shirtless picture posted by Juan Mónaco to his Facebook page this weekend shows that it looks like the current World #4 at least has not fallen out of shape.

Even though Mónaco is from Argentina not Spain, the two Spanish-speaking tennis players are clearly buddies and the World #10 player is on vacation in Mallorca hanging out with Nadal before he continues his quest to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals, one of the most prestigious (and lucrative) tournaments of the year, in which only the Top 8 players are invited. Since Nadal is almost certainly going to turn down his invitation, the person who places 9th in the Race to London standings (Mónaco is currently 12th) will likely make it into the tournament. Ahead of Mónaco is Janko Tipsarevich, Nicolas Almagro and Richard Gasquet.

Nadal has said that he is aiming to return to competitive tennis at the 2013 Australian Open. We hope that is indeed the case, and look forward to seeing all of the Big 4 in action at the same time.

Hat/tip to Tennis.com

2012 US OPEN: Men's Quarterfinals Preview, Part 2

Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I have correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 1 of 2 of the first two men's quarterfinals. Below are my predictions for the last two men's quarterfinals.

Janko Tipsarevic SRB (8) vs David Ferrer ESP (4). Interestingly, these two are playing for the "Rafael Nadal" semifinal slot, if the great Spaniard had not removed himself from the draw to concentrate on recuperating and rehabilitating his now-fragile knee joints. These two have only met 3 times, with the Spaniard holding a slight 2-1 edge. However, the last time the two played Barack Obama had not even been elected President of the United States yet, so it's pretty safe to ignore their career head-to-head record. Tipsarevic is playing in only his second career quarterfinal at a major, but his first was right here in New York exactly one year ago, where he lost to his countryman Novak Djokovic. Ferrer is playing in his 9th major quarterfinal and has won a  quarterfinal at every grand slam except Wimbledon. He is considered one of the hardest workers on the tour and almost never loses to players he shouldn't, always living up to his ranking. In some sense this should be the most interesting quarterfinal of the four, despite the blockbuster upset in the Federer-Berdych match because the two are so evenly matched and both want it so badly. That being said, it is really hard to bet against the dogged tenacity of David Ferrer. Mad Professah's pick: Ferrer.

Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (7) vs Novak Djokovic SRB (2).  Del Potro has already played the villain at this tournament, dispatching the last American male to win a grand slam into his retirement by beating Andy Roddick 6-7(1) 7-6(4) 6-2 6-4. Despite having a 2-5 career head-to-head deficit against Djokovic, Del Potro has managed to beat him in crucially important matches, such as the London Olympics Bronze medal match this summer and in the 2011 Davis Cup semifinals tie between Argentina and Serbia. However, even though Del Potro won the 2009 US Open over Roger Federer there's no question in my mind that Djokovic right now is the better hard court player (after all, he has won the last three majors played on hard courts). This match-up is exciting enough that it would be reasonable for a major final and I suspect that it may be, sometime in the future. The fact that he is even here is a good measure of Del Potro's progress since his devastating wrist injury following his major breakthrough removed him from the ATP tour for over a year. Even though he probably won't win this match, it is a good indication the tall Argentine will be competing for major titles in the very near future. Djokovic is the defending champion and I full expect him to be playing to defend his title on Sunday (weather permitting). Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

2012 Toronto Masters: Djokovic v Gasquet Final

The final of the 2012 Rogers Cup will be between #1 seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia and surprise finalist Richard Gasquet from France. Gasquet reached this point by defeating a listless John Isner 7-6(3) 6-3 on a very cloudy and rainy Saturday in Toronto. I was in the audience for this match and the talented Frenchman used his versatile backhand to excellent effect. He deployed the slice backhand to return the American's powerful serves and used the topspin backhand to laser winners over the court and out-last the American in cross-court backhand rallies. Isner attempted to be aggressive with his forehand but his footwork appeared to be tired and somewhat clumsy so he was rarely able to open up a point with his groundstroke weapon and instead made costly errors. The first set was pretty straightforward, with Isner able to save breakpoints with aces as high as 229 kmh (142 mph), leading to the inevitable tiebreak where he fell behind 2-5 and failed to recover, losing te set. The second set Gasquet pressed his advantage by serving more authoritatively, exploiting Isner lackluster return game and increasing his aggression on Isner's service games. This initiative was rewarded with two breakpoints in the sixth game. Isner saved one with an unreturnable serve but when he missed the serve and came into net Gasquet rifled a backhand winner down the line to go up 4-2. Serving for the match at 5-3 Gasquet saved a breakpoint but was able to close out the win to reach his biggest final in his career.

I also had tickets for the second semifinal, which was supposed to start at 6:30 local time. However, despite the sky being less cloudy at 6:30 almost immediately as the players were ending the warm-up his the skies opened up and the rain started coming down lightly at first and then in sheets of water. At around 7:15pm I gave up and took Toronto Transit back to where I was staying. I was glad I did, because the all-Serbian final between Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic did not conclude till well after 11:30pm (following another rain delay in the middle of the match after they began at almost 8pm), with Djokovic prevailing 6-4 6-1.

Looking forward to seeing my first Masters final live tonight! I full expect Djokovic to win, but Gasquet is playing well. Djokovic needs to win if he wants to try and wrest the ATP top spot from Federer this week in Cincinnati before the US Open starts in 2 weeks.

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.

2012 Wimbledon Day 1: Berdych(6),Isner(11) Upset

AP

Day 1 of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships was dominated by the not-very-shocking defeat of 5-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round. However, Venus was not seeded, although she was expected to win. The biggest upset of the day was the surprising loss of 2010 Wimbledon finalist and #6 seed Tomas Berdych in 3 tiebreak sets to Ernests Gulbis.

The other big upset was Big John Isner, the #11 seed, going down in 5-sets (6-4 6-7(7) 3-6 7-6(7) 7-5) to Argentinian Colombian Alejandro Falla who two years ago when Isner was playing his seemingly interminable match against Nicolas Mahut served for the match against 6-time defending Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

Other winners on Day 1 were Kim Clijsters playing in her final Wimbledon taking out former World #1 Jelena Jankovic(18), World #1 Maria Sharapova, World #3 Aggie Radwanska, World #5 Samantha Stosur and World #8 Angelique Kerber  all won their first round matches. Seeded losers were Flavia Penneta(16) and Daniela Hantuchova(27).

On the men's side World #1 Novak Djokovic, World #3 Roger Federer, World #8 Janko Tipsarevic (who surprisingly took out 2002 Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian), Gilles Simon(13), Juan Monaco(15), Fernando Verdasco(17), and Richard Gasquet(18) allwon their first round match with Berdych, Isner and Andreas Seppi(23) losing.

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.

Raonic, Murray, Tsonga Win 1st Titles of 2012

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Murray and Milos Raonic won their first titles of 2012 this weekend. Tsonga defeated Gael Monfils 7-5 6-3 to win the Qatar Open, Murray defeated Aleksandr Dologopolov 6-1 6-3 to win the Brisbane International Open and Raonic defeated Janko Tipsarevic 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 7-6(4) to win the Chennai Open.

ATP World Tour Finals: Djokovic Loses 2nd Consecutive Match

AFP PHOTO / GLYN KIRK

World #1 Novak Djokovic amazing 2011 season ended with a whimper on Friday when he lost his second consecutive match at the ATP World Tour finals in London, failing to qualify for the semifinal round. Djokovic lost 3-6 6-3 6-3 to compatriot Janko Tipsarevic a few days after he was demolished in straight sets by David Ferrer 6-3 6-1. Djokovic's only win was a 3rd set tiebreak win where he saved match point against Tomas Berdych. Berdych and Ferrer will be in the semifinalis from Group A, since both the original higher ranked players, Andy Murray and Djokovic failed to make it through the round-robin plays (with Murray withdrawing from the tournament after losing in straight sets to Ferrer).

Earlier, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had qualified for the semifinals by eliminating Rafael Nadal 7-6(2) 4-6 6-3 and Roger Federer became the first player to qualify while remaining undefeated (and now on a 15-match winning streak) by dismissing Mardy Fish.

Djokovic's 2011 season was still remarkable ending with a 70-6 record (losses to Federer, Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Kei Nishikori, Ferrer,  and Tipsarevic) that includes 3 major titles and 5 Masters series titles and a 41-match winning streak.

The year's last tournament will conclude with Federer facing Berdych and Tsonga facing Ferrer in the semifinals