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.

2018 WIMBLEDON: Federer Suffers Shock QF Upset Against Anderson

Atfer going up 2-0 in sets (after basically stealing the second set in a tiebreak) after going down 0-3 in games, Roger Federer had a break point that was a match point in the third set (on Kevin Anderson's serve) but failed to convert and then lost his own serve in the following game. He had multiple opportunities to break back to get to a 3rd set tiebreak but eventually Anderson held serve and won the third set 5-7. That was not any reason to panic but when Federer lost the fourth set 4-6 on one break of serve horrible memories of his similar 2011 loss from 2 sets up to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga started to creep into my mind and must have crept into his as well.

Eventually Federer lost 13-11 in the final set, despite serving first, he never got to a breakpoint/matchpoint in the final set, and finally in the 23rd game was broken himself and then lost the match in the very next game.

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

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

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

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

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

TENNIS TUESDAY: Murray Gunning For ATP #1; Kerber Ends Year As WTA #1; Domi Dazzles

DOMI CIBULKOVA RELISHES HER WTA TOUR FINALS WIN
Dominka Cibulkova won the biggest title of her career by blowing out World #1 Angie Kerber in straight sets in the finals of the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore. The result brought her to a career-high ranking of World #5, which was a significant increase from her start at the beginning of the year at #38. The 6-3 6-4 win brought her more prize money in one match than she had won for the rest of the  year. And she looked fabulous afterwards!

ANDY MURRAY KEEPS RACE FOR #1 ALIVE WITH VIENNA TITLE WIN
Andy Murray now has a plausible way of finally reaching the World #1 ranking before the end of the year. Because current World #1 Novak Djokovic has not had his typically excellent fall tennis season while Murray is currently on a 14-match winning streak, and has reached 10 finals in the last 11 matches. If Murray wnis the Paris Masters this week and Djokovic fails to get to the final then Murray will have more ranking points as the ATP World Tour finals begin on November 13.

ANGIE KERBER ENDS 2016 AS SINGLES #1; MIRZA ENDS YEAR AS DOUBLES #1
After Serena Williams decided not to compete in the WTA Tour Finals, Angelique Kerber was essentially ceded the year-end #1 ranking. The #1 doubles ranking for 2016 ended up going to Sania Mirza who earned it despite not defending her 2015 WTA Finals doubles title with Martina Hingis. If American Bethanie Mattek-Sands could have reached #1 if she and Lucie Safarova  had not lost the final agaist the Elenas (Makarova and Vesnina) who added to the 2016 Olympic Gold Medal with the 2016 WTA Tour final title.

RAFA NADAL CUT CORD ON 2016 SEASON AND OPENS UP HIS TENNIS ACADEMY
Rafael Nadal announced on October 20th that he would not play again this year. The 30-year-old, 14-time major champion had a 39-14 record in 2016 and won two titles. Rafa opened his official tennis academy in his hometown of Manacor, Mallorca the day before. Roger Federer, his great rival, who cut the cord on his 2016 season in July, was also present at the grand opening of the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar.

2016 US OPEN: Men's Quarterfinal's Preview

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the US Open for 2016. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I have also predicted the women's quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [9].  These two have played some very important matches against each other (2008 Australian Open Final, 2010 Australian Open Quarterfinal, 2011 Wimbledon Semifinal, 2012 Roland Garros Quarterfinal) with Djokovic almost always prevailing, and he leads their overall head to head 15-6 and  5-1 in majors (the only loss was the 2010 Australian Open quarterfinal). Since Djokovic reached his peak in 2011 and 2015 the matches with Tsonga more often than not have not even been that competitive. There are some lingering doubts about the World #1's form, but those are basically based on the fact that he's been extremely lucky in having opponents retire or withdraw and so has really only played two-and-a-half matches to reach the quarterfinal of  a major. But, to me, that makes him more of a threat to win his 13th major title, not less of one. Then again, He has only won the title here in New York twice (in those two outstanding years) so I would not say he is the favorite right now even though he is the #1 seed. Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Lucas Pouille (FRA) [24] vs Gael Monfils (FRA) [10].  This all-French quarterfinal is a result of an amazing effort by the 22-year-old Frenchman, who made a splash at Wimbledon this year by reaching his first major quarterfinal there but has really heralded his arrival as a Top 10 contender by defeating Rafael Nadal in a 5th set tiebreak which everyone is describing as the best match of the tournament. That being said, he has played a LOT of tennis in New York City this week and he will be playing Gael Monfils, a countryman who is well-rested, having not dropped a set in the entire tournament. Matches between players from the same country can often be nervy, low-quality affairs (c.f. Clijsters-Henin, Jankovic-Ivanovic, Nadal-Ferrer, Isner-Sock) and I suspect that will be the case here. However, you can also get 5-set thrillers, like the one John Isner and Donald Young played in the first round here this year. Monfils and Pouille have only met one on the ATP tour: in the first round f this year's Australian Open, and the match was won by Monfils in 5 sets. It's amazing that there could be another French men's finalist at the U.S. Open for the first time since Cedric Pioline did it in 1993. The only problem is that for that to happen, a French player needs to beat Novak Djokovic, and the Serbian has only lost one match to a Frenchman in the last 3 years. Mad Professah's pick: Monfils.

Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [3] vs Dominic Thiem (GBR) [3] Juan Martin del Potro (ARG). Now this is a compelling match-up, and should be the standout match of the 4 quarterfinals. It's the only meeting between two major champions, and Del Potro is slowly coming back to his own and figuring out how to be effective with his restructure game built around his refurbished wrists. The reason why the 6-foor-6 Argentine won his first  major  at the tender age of 20 (by beating Roger Federer and Nadal along the way) was because he has it all: huge serves, amazing movement for a big guy and blistering groundstrokes, especially the forehand side. However, his backhand is now almost exclusively slice, and I think that Wawrinka will be able to take advantage of that on Arthur Ashe in a way that he could not at his 1st round loss to Del Potro at Wimbledon earlier this summer. However, it really is quite significant that del Potro leads their head to head 4-2 and has won their last  four meetings, including two since Wawrinka became a major champion and Del Potro returned from his injury timeout. I was courtside for Wawrinka's 4th set win against a very stubborn Ilya Marchenko and witnessed the Swiss' fragility. Del Potro is a big step up in class and I'm not sure Wawrinka is ready for that. So,  on paper I would give the slight edge to Wawrinka, but  based on his heart and hunger I give the overall edge to Del Potro. Mad Professah's pick: Del Potro.

Andy Murray (SUI) [2] vs Kei Nishikori (JPN) [6].  From their rankings one would think this would be the most competitive of the quarterfinals, but  I have already awarded that title to the Del Potro-Wawrinka match, primarily because of the lopsided head-to-head between Nishikori and Murray. The Scot leads 7-1 with the one loss coming in the 2014 World Tour Finals which Murray shouldn't even have entered because he was not fully recovered from back surgery. However, I saw Nishikori's vocal fan support first hand when he played Ivo Karlovic in his 4th round match so it's possible that he could make this match competitive. He did reach the final here two years ago beating players like Milos Raonic, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic along the way. There's no sign that Kei is on another hot streak like in 2014, while it is very clear that Murray is playing at or near the every peak of his powers, having reached three major finals this year and with a very good chance to reach his 4th. Mad Professah's pick: Murray.

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.

2016 WIMBLEDON: Men's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2016. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals and correctly predicted 2 of 2 women's semifinals. This year I have correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals. I also predicted this year's women's semifinals.

Roger Federer (SUI) [3] vs. Milos Raonic (CAN) [6]. The 17-time major champion is very lucky to be still in the hunt for his record 8th Wimbledon title. He went down by 2 sets to none against 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic. After falling into a perilous situation (2-3, 0-40) in the third set, Federer was able to miraculously hold serve and was finally able to break Cilic's serve and run away with the third set. However, in the fourth set things were extremely tense with respective service holds until the tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Cilic had two match points and Federer had multiple set points and eventually won the fourth set tiebreak 11-9. Raonic had a much easier time in his quarterfinal, dispatching the giantkiller Sam Querrey in four sets. The Canadian has made his intentions of trying to win Wimbledon crystal clear with his hiring of John McEnroe for the grass court season. Interestingly, this semifinal is a repeat of the 2014 Wimbledon semifinal, which was won (relatively) easily by Federer in three tight sets (6-4 6-4 6-4). Overall, Federer has a 9-2 career head-to-head over his opponent, but Raonic won their last meeting, in the Bribane final earlier this year. I still think Federer has not shown his best tennis at Wimbledon this year yet, but I believe he will rise to the occasion, and will need to do so, in order to reach his record 11th Wimbledon final on Sunday.  PREDICTION: Federer.

Andy Murray (GBR) [2] vs. Tomas Berdych (CZE) [10] Jiri Vesely (CZE). For the first time, Andy Murray is the favorite at a major tournament, as the highest remaining seed. This is a very different situation, since this is occurring at Wimbledon, a tournament he has won before, and which is his home slam. Murray had a tougher than expected tussle with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in their quarterfinal, after winning the first two sets, the Frenchman came back and won the next two sets and raised the possibility of upsetting Murray. However, Murray dug deep and won the fifth and final set very easily, 6-1. In the semifinal, he will face Tomas Berdych who has excellent grass court bona fides (as a 2010 Wimbledon finalist). However, despite having a relatively close overall head to head of 8-6 between the two players in the favor of Murray, no one expects him to have much difficulty winning this match. In their recent meetings, Murray has won  pretty easily and even though the two have never met on grass, there is every expectation that the Briton will reach his 2nd Wimbledon final, and 11th career major final. PREDICTION: Murray.

2016 WIMBLEDON: Men's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2016. Last year I correctly predicted 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals. I will also predict this year's women's quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] Sam Querrey (USA) [28] vs. Milos Raonic (CAN) [6]. After accomplishing the biggest upset of the year by defeating 2-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in the previous round, Sam Querrey followed this up by defeating Nicolas Mahut, a grass-court specialist, to reach his first major quarterfinal. The Canadian Missile also had to traverse uncharted territory to reach this position, after dropping the first two sets to Belgian David Goffin, Raonic did not panic, but just concentrated on using his 130+ MPH serving ability to help him hold his serve and hunkered down to try and win the last three sets of the match. This was the first time in ten attempts that Raonic had been down 0-2 in sets and this was the first time that he was able to come back (in all the other matches he had lost in straight sets). Surprisingly, Querrey has a 3-1 head-to-head advantage over Raonic including a 4-set win at the 2012 Wimbledon, but the two have not met in the last three years, and certainly not since Raonic became a top 10 player. By adding John McEnroe to his coaching team, Raonic has signaled his intent to claim this title, and with Djokovic removed from the equation, this is a near golden opportunity for him, one everyone around him will recognize and want to take advantage of.  PREDICTION: Raonic.

Roger Federer (SUI) [3] vs. Marin Cilic (CRO) [9] Kei Nishikori (JPN) [5]. Sadly, the mouthwatering reprise of the 2014 US Open final ended up being a bust when a clearly injured Nishikori was only able to put up token resistance and  gave up before completing two sets. So, this gives us a reprise of the 2014 US Open semifinal, which is the last time these two met in competition, and the result was Cilic basically blasting Federer off the court. Can he do so again? Possibly. But Center Court Wimbledon is very different from Arthur Ashe stadium. Federer has always handled big servers well, but Cilic also moves exceedingly well for a 6-foot-6 man. However, I have to believe that Federer has planned all year for just this moment, and will be properly prepared to optimize his chances of winning this match (and the next two). That being said, I seriously doubt this will be a straight sets win (in either direction), and I do worry about the impact of a long, physical affair on Federer's chances. However, there's a reason he has reached 14 quarterfinals and 10 finals (and semifinals) at this tournament in his career. I think he will reach #11 this year. PREDICTION: Federer.

Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [4] Lucas Pouille (FRA) [32] vs. Tomas Berdych (CZE) [10] Jiri Vesely (CZE). The "Next Generation" players that have been getting the most buzz all year are players like Sascha Zverev (19), Dominc Thiem (22) Taylor Fritz (18) and Borna Coric (19) but here on the grass courts of Wimbledon the two youngsters that have made the loudest impression on the draw are two 22-year-olds: Lucas Pouille from France and the Jiri Vesely from Czech Republic. Pouille is playing in only his second main draw in Wimbledon and he has reached his first major quarterfinal by eliminating Juan Martin del Potro (after the Argentine took out Stan Wawrinka) and Bernard Tomic. Vesely impressed earlier in the year, handing World #1 Novak Djokovic a defeat on clay in Monte Carlo but he also impressed here in Wimbledon by forcing a 5th set in his fourth round match with countryman Tomas Berdych after losing the first two sets, saving 5 match points in the process. I don't expect that to change on Wednesday. These two have never played before, but despite Berdych's emotionally draining previous round, he has the experience of being here before, and the confidence of knowing he has reached the final here before (in 2010). Pouille is talented, but is he that talented to win his first major quarterfinal? Perhaps, After all, Thiem did it in Paris a few weeks ago. But I'm doubtful that feat will be repeated here. PREDICTION: Berdych.

Andy Murray (GBR) [2] vs. Richard Gasquet (FRA) [7] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [12]. Tsonga is very lucky to be in this position. He was down 2 sets to none against John Isner in the 3rd round late on Saturday when he won a 3rd set tiebreak and eventually was able to even up the match by winning the fourth. He was serving second in the fifth set so eventually every breakpoint became a match point and yet he was able to save them and eventually broke Isner's serve and successfully served it out to win the fifth set by the ridiculous score of 19-17. Then his countryman Richard Gasquet gave him a gift by retiring after playing a mere six games to allow him to reach another quarterfinal here at the All-England Club.  Unfortunately, he is playing someone whom he has a 2-12 head-to-head record against, and has really only been able to beat when playing his very best tennis (i.e. 2008 Australian Open and 2014 Rogers Cup in Montreal) and it is very unlikely that will not be the case on Wednesday. In fact, I would be very surprised if Murray lost a set, but I suspect atleast two of the sets will be very tight, single service-break or tiebreak affairs. PREDICTION: Murray.

2016 MONTE CARLO: Nadal Outlasts Monfils To Win Record 9th Title Here

Rafael Nadal's drought maybe over. Taking advantage of the shocking departure of World #1 (and defending champion) Novak Djokovic earlier in the week, the King of Clay was able to win his 28th Masters series event and 9th Monte Carlo crown by outlasting a surprisingly solid Gael Monfils 7-5 5-7 6-0. Nadal had last won here in 2012.

The final came about when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dispatched Roger Federer 6-4 in the 3rd set but then lost in straight sets to his countryman Monfils in the semifinals. Nadal, on the other hand, took out the reigning French Open champion Stan Wawrinka and World #2 Andy Murray (both in straight sets), in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. It's been well over a year (maybe 2) since Nadal has put together a series of such strong performances in a row against Top 5 competition. Monfils was even more impressive, as he was the only player to not lose a set all week during his path to the final.

Monfils was playing in his 25th ATP tour final (Nadal's 100th) and trying to win his first ATP Masters Shield (and 6th career title). Instead, Nadal won his 68th career title and became the first player to win two different tournaments an incredible NINE different times (he has also won the clay-court grand slam Roland Garros 9 times). Both players are twenty-nine years old.

The two tour veterans put on one of the most entertaining finals of the year to date, sharing 34 breakpoints between them, in a contest which lasted 2 hours, 46 minutes. In the end, though, Monfils simply ran out of gas and Nadal was able to punish his erstwhile rival's lack of energy in the deciding set without conceding a game.

2015 SHANGHAI: Djokovic Routs Tsonga To Win 9th Title of 2015

As I expected, Novak Djokovic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win the 2015 Shanghai Masters. The 6-2 6-4 victory brought the World #1 his 9th title of 2015 and the 25th ATP Master shield and 57th tour title of his career.

The Serbian is on a 17-match winning streak (13 consecutive finals) and is now 73-5 for the year with the final two tournaments he is scheduled to play are the Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour Finals in London, neither of which he has lost at since 2012! It is very likely he could end the year undefeated and finish the year with more than 80 match wins and almost $18 million in prize money. (He currently has won $16 million in 2015, having won 3 majors.)

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.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Davis Cup Final of GBR vs BEL Set For Clay; Jo Wins 3rd Metz; Aga Wins 2nd Pan-Pacific

DAVIS CUP FINAL BETWEEN BELGIUM AND GREAT BRITAIN SET FOR INDOOR CLAY NOVEMBER 27-29 IN GHENT
As expected when it became clear that the final two teams this year would be Great Britain led by 2-time major champion Andy Murray and Belgium led by Top 20 stalwart David Goffin, it was announced on September 23rd that the tie would be held on indoor clay, Murray's worst surface (and Goffin's best). Murray had initially said that he might skip the most lucrative and prestigious event of the year, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals held at the O2 Arena in London, in order to prepare for winning the Davis Cup for Great Britain, but is now reconsidering that idea.

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA WINS ALL-FRENCH BATTLE WITH GILLES SIMON TO CLAIM THIRD MOSELLE OPEN TITLE IN FIVE YEARS
The Moselle Open in Metz, France has been very good to French players. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has made the final there four out of the last five years. Last year David Goffin of Belgium beat Joao Sousa of Portugal. This year Tsonga faced Gilles Simon and he prevailed in three sets, 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-2 to win his 3rd title in Metz and his twelfth career title overall. This was his first title since his bravura performance last year in Montreal to win his 2nd ATP Masters title by defeating four Top 10 players (including Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray).

AGGIE RADWANSKA BEAT BELINDA BENCIC TO WIN THE PAN-PACIFIC OPEN AND RETURN TO THE WTA TOP 10
Aggie Radwanska of Poland defeated Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the finals of the Pan-Pacific Open 6-2 6-2 to win her first title of 2015. Radwanska got revenge for a loss earlier in the season in the finals of Eastbourne against the teen phenom, who would have reached the Top 10 for the first time if she had won. Instead, with this win Radwanska returns to the Top 10 instead.

FLAVIA PENNETTA REACHES WORLD #6  DESPITE NOT PLAYING SINCE WINNING US OPEN
Things just keep on getting better and better for Flavia Pennetta. After fulfilling her dreams by winning a major title in New York City Pennetta returned to the Top 10, landing at #7. This week she rises one spot to #6 thanks to Caroline Wozniacki falling one spot. If she gets to the Top 5 she will join just two other Italian players, Sara Errani (who reached #5) and Francesca Schiavone (who reached world #4), who have ever been ranked that highly.

2015 US OPEN: Order of Play For Today's In-Person Viewing!

The order of play for Sunday September 6th at the U.S. Open shows that there are some interesting and exciting matches on tap for me to see while I'm there. Unfortunately, most of them are in the behemoth that is Arthur Ashe Stadium. I just have a grounds pass today, but I couldn't afford a seat i Ashe that would let me view the play from the vantage point that would seem reasonable. But I'll still have fun watching those matches on the big screen On Grandstand there's the intriguing mixed doubles duo of Taylor Townsend and Donald Young at 130pm that I will check out before  the Venus match (I have never even heard of Anna Kontaveit, have you??) and the Serena-Madison match and then that's basically it for singles matches. I'm hoping for no upsets!

I'll try and post some updates about how the day is going either here or on Twitter later!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Murray Is British Again; Serena Sabbatical; Federer in Africa, Venus Loses

Andy Murray Wins Three Matches In Davis Cup Tie With France
Andy Murray continues his excellent 2015 season by almost single-handedly lifting Great Britain to the semifinals of the annual Davis Cup team tennis competition by defeating two former Top 10 players from France: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon in singles and then teaming up with brother Jamie to win the doubles match in order to advance past France for the right to face Australia the weekend of September 20th (with home court advantage).

Serena Pulls Out of Bastad and World Team Tennis To Rest Before US Open
Despite going to Sweden immediately after winning her 6th Wimbledon title, World #1 Serena Williams withdrew after winning her first match and then promptly pulled out of World Team Tennis as well. She is still scheduled to play Stanford, Cincinnati and Toronto but if I was the tournament director at any of those tournaments I would start to sweat: I doubt she'll play all three.

Roger Federer Goes To Africa (To Open A School)
The President of the Roger Federer Foundation, i.e. the World #2 player, went to Malawi to open a school.

Venus Should Have Stayed Home; Loses 1st Round In Istanbul
Meanwhile Venus Williams maybe should have taken a page out of her sister's book and taken a sabbatical after Wimbledon. Instead she went to Istanbul as the top seed and lost in the first round to Kateryna Bondarenko!

2015 FRENCH OPEN: Djokovic-Murray XXVII Suspended In 4th Set Due To Weather

Oh My Goodness! Andy Murray was at the brink of defeat in the semifinal match against Novak Djokovic at the French Open at Roland Garros but managed to win the last three games of the 3rd set in order to extend the match to a fourth set. Then he went up an early break and lost it. The match was suspended at 3-games all in the fourth. Djokovic leads 6-3 6-3 5-7 3-3. I predicted that Djokovic will in and I still think that he will.

I also predicted that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would beat Stan Wawrinka but the Swiss continued his mentally tough play to outlast the Frenchman 6-3 6-7(1) 7-6(3) 6-4 in a match that lasted nearly 4 hours. I don't think I have ever gone 0-2 in men's semifinals in a major but there's a first time for everything!

The Djokovic-Murray match will be resumed at 12:30pm Paris time (3:30am PDT). The women's final between Serena Williams and Lucie Safariva will be held at 3pm local time (6am PDT).

2015 FRENCH OPEN: Men's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the 2015 men's quarterfinals at the French Open. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals and 2 of 2 women's semifinals. This year I correctly predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. I  have also written a post to predict the women's semifinals in a separate post.

Novak Djokovic [1] vs Andy Murray [3]. Of course the reason why this match is occurring is because Djokovic spoiled 9-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal's 29th birthday  by defeating him in straight sets in the most anticipated quarterfinal of the century.

As I predicted beforehand, Djokovic was able to do something that no one else had been able to accomplish in 95 five-set matches on clay against the Spanish King of Clay: winning not just one set, not two sets but three sets in a row. Nadal had previously beaten Djokovic 6 consecutive times at Roland Garros. Murray also did well to earn his first clay-court win against another Spaniard clay expert, 2013 French Open finalist Davd Ferrer in four sets to reach his 3rd Roland Garros semifinal. Excitingly, both players are playing some of the best tennis of their careers right now. Djokovic is currently on a 27-match winning streak while Murray is undefeated in all 16 matches he has played in since he got married in mid-April. Head-to-head, Djokovic has dominated their rivalry, currently leading it 18-8. These two were famously born just a week apart (Murray is older) and have faced each other in five major finals, with the two alternating victories in a way that gives Djokovic a 3-2 lead, including the 2015 Australian Open. Bizarrely, only two of their 26 meetings to date have been on clay and both have been won by Djokovic but they were also way back in 2008 and 2011, well before Murray had become a major champion. I think this match will be closer than the Djokovic-Nadal match, but in the end I don't think the Serb's date with destiny on Sunday can be denied. Mad Professah's pick: Murray.

Roger Federer [2] Stan Wawrinka [8] vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [14]. Before I talk about the semifinal I must say something about the quarterfinal results which got us to this point. I did not expect Wawrinka to beat Federer considering their historic head-to-head which has been dominated by Federer. However, Wawrinka completely flipped the script and simply overpowered his celebrated countryman in a straight sets shellacking.

There really was not much that Federer could have done; Wawrinkka won nearly half of his points on direct winners. It was the first time since 2002 that Roger Federer had failed to break serve in a Grand Slam match! If he continues to play that kind of tennis I completely believe that Wawrinka could win this tournament regardless of who is on the other side of the net. However, it's doubtful that he can maintain such a high level for two more rounds. Then again, all he needs to do is take it one match at a time.  Wawrinka and Tsonga have only played six times in their careers (5 times on clay) including twice at Roland Garros. They are tied 3-all overall and have split their French Open matches 1-all with Wawrinka holding a slight 3-2 in their clay court matches. Wawrinka is playing in his first semifinal at Roland Garros and his fourth overall of his career while Tsonga is playing in his 2nd semifinal at Roland Garros and fifth career semifinal overall. Mad Professah's pick: Tsonga.

2015 FRENCH OPEN: Men's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the 2015 men's quarterfinals at the French Open. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals. I will try to predict the women's quarterfinals in a separate post.

Novak Djokovic [1] vs Rafael Nadal [6]. This paragraph was eaten by blogger somehow after I published it. Basically, what I said was that Djokovic is having one of his best seasons on clay and Nadal is having one of his worst Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Andy Murray [3] vs David Ferrer [7]. Andy Murray has been considered a relatively strong clay-court player but until this year he had never won a title on that surface. Then he got married April 19 and since then he has won two tournaments (Hamburg and Madrid Masters) and is on a 14-match winning streak. He faces the 2013 French Open finalist David Ferrer whom he has never beaten on clay (in 4 tries) although he has a 9-6 overall career head-to-head lead against the indefatigable Spaniard. Then again Murray had never beaten Nadal until two weeks ago either. It's clear that the married Murray is not the same player as the single Murray and I believe that will be reflected in the result here to allow the Brit to reach his 3rd career semifinal at Roland Garros. Despite the fact that Ferrer is considered the more successful clay court player overall, the argument can be made that he hasn't faced this Murray. Mad Professah's pick: Murray.

Kei Nishikori [5] vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [14] Tomas Berdych [3] . For some reason these two players have managed to play five times on tour without ever meeting on clay. Nishikori has won four of those meetings, with the most recent coming in 2012, well before the Japanese wunderkind became the Top 5 staple he is today. But then again Tsonga is a former Top 5 player himself and is coming off one of his biggest wins of his career with his defeat of #4 seed Tomas Berdych the round before. Nishikori is probably the better clay-court player but Tsonga has the home court advantage here as well as the fact that he is the underdog. I believe the 30-year-old Frenchman will try to use both of these to pull out a victory and reach his second semifinal at Roland Garros. But I would not be surprised if Nishikori wins this match either. Clay is supposed to reward the better athlete and this case I think that is Tsonga, despite Nishikori's superior foot speed. Mad Professah's pick: Tsonga.

Roger Federer [2] vs Stan Wawrinka [8].  This will be a tougher match then it looks on paper. Despite Federer having a 16-2 head-to-head advantage over his countryman and frenemy, Stan Wawrinka's two wins have come on clay and the 2014 Australian Open champion has generally been competing better against his compatriot since he ascended to the upper echelons of men's tennis. However, he had a setback in the Rome semifinals just a few weeks ago where he succumbed meekly. I definitely do not expect that to happen here. That being said I still expect (and want) Federer to get through his 45th quarterfinal and reach his 37th major semifinal. Mad Professah's pick: Federer.