2019 WTA YEC: Barty Defeats Svitolina To Win Biggest Paycheck in Tennis

Ash Barty this weekend won the biggest paycheck in women's tennis history when she won US$4.42 million for winning the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen by defeating 2018 WTA Finals champion Elina Svitolina. Barty has had an amazing 2019 tennis season (which technically is over because she is playing in the 2019 Fed Cup final next weekend against France in Perth, Australia). In 2019, after never being ranked higher than #15 in the World or reaching a major semifinal, she won the 2019 Roland Garros title and ascended to World #1, eventually earning the end-of-year #1 ranking for 2019.

At the WTA Finals (which she qualified for the first time this year, becoming one of the very few players to win it in their debut) she was able to come from behind against World #2 Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals to win 4-6 6-2 6-3 (as I predicted). Svitolina  had a  lot more trouble with Belinda Bencic than I expected, with the Swiss player becoming the 4th(!) to withdraw from the tournament, following the heels of Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and  Kiki Bertens. Bencic won the first set 7-5 against Svitolina but then had an injury in the second set, lost that 6-3 and finally withdrew from the match and tournament trailing 1-4 in the third.

I suspect Barty's year will come to a perfect end when she powers Australia past France in the Fed Cup.

2019 WTA YEC: Barty versus Pliskova, Svitolina versus Bencic

The semifinals of the WTA Year-End Championships, now called the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, are set for Saturday. They feature World #1 Ash Barty versus current World #2 Karolina Pliskova and 2018 defending champion Elina Svitolina versus Belina Bencic. Svitolina is now 8-0 in the last two year-end championships; she has never lost in the tournament so far and she is the first player to reach the semifinal stage without dropping a set since Serena Williams achieved that feat in 2014. Svitolina has beaten Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova and (2nd Alternate) Sofia Kenin all in straight sets to reach the knockout stage.

Barty leads Pliskova 3-2 and Bencic leads Svitolina 2-1 in the head-to-head matchups.

MadProfessah's predictions: Svitolina defeats Bencic (in 3) and Barty beats Pliskova (in 2).

TENNIS TUESDAY: Grass Court Season Begins with Berrettini, Garcia, Riske Titles; Woz Gets Hitched; Venus Warms Up

GRASS COURT SEASON BEGINS: BERRETINI, GARCIA, RISKE WIN TITLES
Matteo Berrettini is having a sensational year. The 23-year-old Italian beat Felix Auguer-Aliassime 6-4 7-6(11) in the finals of Stuttgart to win his 3rd title in the last year. This was the 18-year-old Canadian's first grass court tournament and he reached the final. Berrettini i up to #22 in the rankings while the man he beat is at #21 despite never having completed a Grand Slam main draw match. In fact, it is looking like Auger-Aliassime's grand slam debut will  be at Wimbledon, where he will be seeded! Other grass court titlists were Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia who outlasted Donna Vekic in a 3-set thriller  2-6 7-6(4) 7-6(4) to win Nottingham and Allison Riske defeated Kiki Bertens in the Dutchwoman's home turf in even more dramatic fashion, losing a bagel set and saving 5 championship points to win 0-6 7-6(3) 7-5.

FORMER WTA WORLD #1 CAROLINE WOZNIACKI GETS MARRIED
Caroline Wozniacki got married in Tuscany,  Italy over the weekend, to David Lee. WTA players Serena Williams (bridesmaid), Angelique Kerber and both Radwanskas (Ursula and Agnieszka) were in attendance.

VENUS PLAYS RARE WARM-UP GRASS COURT TOURNAMENT
Now 39-year-old Venus Williams is still doing new things! She signed up to play doubles with 22-year-old British player Harriet Dart as a wildcard doubles pair at the Birmingham tournament. The two lost in the first round. Venus will play her first round singles match Wednesday against Alexandra Sasnovitch

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

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

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

TENNIS TUESDAY: Murray Has 2nd Hip Operation, Simona Picks A Coach, Kiki Wins Again, Canada Has Davis Cup Success

ANDY MURRAY HAS SECOND HIP SURGERY TO END CHRONIC PAIN
3-time major champion Andy Murray had a "hip resurfacing" operation last week in a last-ditch attempt to extend his tennis career and to end chronic pain in this joint. This happened a few days after he returned home after losing a 5-set thriller in the first round of the Australian Open against Roberto Bautista Agut.

SIMONA HALEP PICKS NEW FULL-TIME COACH
Former World #1 Simona Halep has finally found a replacement coach for Darren Cahill. She has selected the former coach of David Goffin, Thierry van Cleemput. The two started working together informally last month in Melbourne before she played her epic match against Serena Williams in the 3rd round.

KIKI BERTENS WINS THRILLER AGAINST DONNA VEKIC IN RUSSIA
Kiki Bertens defeated Donna Vekic in the final of the WTA Premiere level tournament in St. Petersburg 7-6(2) 6-4. the current World #8 has won 3 tournaments in the last year, including two on hard courts.

SHAPOVALOV AND AUGER_ALIASSIME POWER CANADA IN DAVIS CUP
Youngsters Denis Shpovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime together were able to power Canada over Slovakia to take their nation into the final of the revised Davis Cup.

2018 WTA YEC: Svitolina Wins Her Biggest Title, Outlasting Stephens 36 62 62

Elina Svitolina won the biggest title of her career by defeating 2017 US Open champion and 2018 French Open finalist Sloane Stephens 3-6 6-2 6-2 to win the 2018 WTA BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore. Svitolina still has not reached a major final despite being in the Top 10 of the WTA tour for well over a year; her win here leaves her at World #4 for the 2018 season. Both Svitolina and Stephens were undefeated in round robin play to reach the semifinals, with Stephens defeating Karolina Pliskova (despite losing the first set 6-0!) and Svitolina outlasted the surprise semifinalist Kiki Bertens in three sets to reach the most important match of the year.

2018 WTA YEC: Draw Is Set (Halep Withdraws); Osaka, Kerber, Stephens in Same Group

The WTA Year End Championships is starting in Singapore this weekend. Participation is restricted to the Top 8 performers on the WTA tour, which usually (but not always) includes the winners of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments through out the year. This is the last year the

Last year's winner was Caroline Wozniacki who used that momentum to win her first major at this year's Australian Open. This year's French Open winner (and year-end #1) is Simona Halep but she had to withdraw, giving a chance to Kiki Bertens to become the first Dutch player in over two decades to make the Elite Eight. 2018 Wimbledon champion Angie Kerber and 2018 US Open champion Naomi Osaka round out this year's honor roll of major champions. However, there are two other major champions in the draw, Sloane Stephens, 2017 US Open champ, and Petra Kvitova, 2-time Wimbledon champion.

The final 8 are placed into 2 groups of 4 each and then play round-robin tournament to identify the top two in each group, who then play elimination semifinals against members from the other group to reach the final.Last year, Wozniacki defeated Venus Williams.

The two groups are:

• Red Group 

• [1] Angelique Kerber 

• [3] Naomi Osaka 

• [5] Sloane Stephens 

• [8] Kiki Bertens 

• White Group 

• [2] Caroline Wozniacki 

• [4] Petra Kvitova 

• [6] Elina Svitolina 

• [7] Karolina Pliskova

The Red Group in my opinion is the tougher group. Interestingly, Steohens has the head-to-head edge here, while Kvitova has the edge in the White Group (these are problematic names, by the way, why not use names of famous former champions, like the men do?).

I predict that Wozniacki and Kvitova will emerge from the White Group and Stephens and Osaka will emerge from Red Group. Singapore is a relatively slow indoor hard court, which I would give a slight edge to Kvitova overall.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Osaka Reaches World #4; Kiki Hits Top 10, Sabalenka at 11; Fed/Nole/Delpo Battle For #2 In Shanghai; Woz Wins Title #30

OSAKA, BERTENS, SABALENKA REACH CAREER HIGHS
2018 US Open champion Naomi Osaka reached World #4 in the rankings, matching the highest ever ranking by a Japanese female player (Kimiko Date). Osaka has played very well since becoming a major champion, reaching a final and semifinal in consecutive tournaments. Kiki Bertens cemented her career-best year by reaching the Top 10 for the first time on the back of winning 3 titles in 2018. She becomes the first Dutch woman to reach this height since Brenda Shultz-McCarthy. Bertens just edged out Aryna Sabalenka, who is at #11 in the rankings and clearly poised to go higher. Sabalenka was the only player to take a set off of Osaka in New York and won the Wuhan Open and followed that up by defeating Garbine Muguruza in Beijing, where she reached the quarterfinals. Sabalenka first reached the Top 100 for the first time almost exactly a year ago.

FEDERER, DJOKOVIC AND DEL POTRO IN RACE FOR WORLD #2.
The 2018 US Open finalists Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro are in the hunt to replace Roger Federer at the World #2 spot. Federer is the defending champion at the Shanghai Masters (which has one of the fastest court speeds on the ATP Tour). All Djokovic reaches the final in Shanghai he will be the new world #2, and has a chance to end the year at World #1 by doing well at the year-end championships in London, which he as won 5 times already. Del Potro has to hope the Serbian loses before the semifinals and that he wins the title to reach world #2. In the unlikely event that happens, a streak of 13 years where the top 2 spots have been held by members of the big 4  (Federer, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray) will come to a close.

HALEP LIKELY TO END 2018 AS YEAR-END #1
Since Angie Kerber lost early in Beijing, Simona Halep should be able to maintain her lead at the top spot through the Year-End Tour Championships in Singapore. Wozniacki is the defending champion so she can't increase her points total to challenge Halep at the top of the WTA rankings, despite winning her 30th career title in Beijing last weekend.

2018 CINCY: Djokovic Beats Federer To Complete Masters Set, Bertens Saves MP To Beat Halep

Novak Djokovic won his first ATP Cincinnati Masters title in his 6th final, beating Roger Federer 6-4 6-4 on Sunday. It means that the 13-time major champion has now won all of the biggest tournaments in tennis (all 4 majors, the World Tour final and all 9 ATP Masters shields) at least once, something Rafael Nadal and Federer have not done. The fact that the 2018 Wimbledon champion won this important US Open series event means that Djokovic is one of the favorites for the 2018 US Open, which starts on Monday August 27. Also, with Djokovic's return to firm and his head-to-head leads (27-25 versus Nadal, 24-22 versus Federer and 25-11 versus Andy Murray) against all his rivals in the Big Four is rekindling the G.O.A.T discussion. Djokovic is back to World #6.

On the women's side Simona Halep was playing for history as well on Sunday, trying to become the first woman to pull off the Canada-Cincinnati double. However, despite having a match point against Kiki Bertens, the World #1 lost 2-6 7-6(6) 6-2. She is still the #1 seed for the upcoming US Open, while Bertens reached her career high ranking of World #13 after the biggest win of her career.

Sadly, I went 0-for-2 in my predictions of the Cincinnati men's and women's finals. Hopefully I have a return to form at the US Open!

2018 CINCY: Finals are Halep-Bertens, Federer-Djokovic XLVI

The finals of the 2018 Western and Southern Financial Open in Cincinnati are set. The ATP Masters  tournament has two players remaining: 2018 Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and 2018 Australian Open champion Roger Federer. This is an epic showdown that is occurring for the 46th time in their careers (with Djokovic leading their head-to-head 23-22) and for the fourth time in the Cincy final. Federer won the three previous meetings which have occurred like clockwork every 3 years since 2009. Djokovic has won all of the other 8 ATP Masters tournaments and would become the first man to win all 9 ATP Masters shields in his career (Miami, Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati, Paris, Shanghai). Both Nadal and Federer have only won 7 of the 9. Nadal is 0-5 in Miami finals and Djokovic is 0-5 at Cincinnati finals. Nadal has the record for the most ATP Masters shields with 33 (Djokovic has 32), and won one last week when he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the finals of Canada's Rogers Cup in Toronto.

On the women's side, Simona Halep is facing Kiki Bertens in the Cincy Open final, one week after she outlasted Sloane Stephens in a thrilling 3-set reprise of the 2018 French Open final. If Halep wins today, then the 2018 French Open champion would become the first woman to win the Canada/Cincinnati double. She is currently on a 9 match winning streak. Bertens is having a remarkable 2018, having already beaten 9 Top 10 players, including Venus Williams at Wimbledon and Petra Kvitova yesterday in Cincinnati and last week in Montreal, Canada. The Dutch player had been known as a "clay court specialist" but has been having remarkable results on grass and hard courts this year.

MADPROFESSAH'S PREDICTIONS

Federer d. Djokovic.
Halep d. Bertens.

2018 WIMBLEDON: Women's Semifinals Preview (and Predictions)

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2018. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals and 2 of 2 women's semifinals. I will also predict this year's men's semifinals.

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) [12] vs. Angelique Kerber (GER) [11]. This should be a great match; the two major champions have never met before on the WTA tour! Kerber played one of the best matches of the tournament in her straight sets win against Daria Kasatkina. Ostapenko has reached her second career semifinal (first at Wimbledon) by not dropping a set and blasting winners into the corners over and over again. Can she continue to do this against one of the great defensive players in the game? We shall see. My default position is usually that great offense wins against great defense, which would indicate Ostapenko has the better chance to reach her first Wimbledon final but I just think that Kerber has shown that she has what it takes to get to major finals, having reached three of them in the same year (2016), winning two, just two years ago. However, she hasn't face Ostapenko before, so maybe all our expectations need to change. PREDICTION: Kerber.

Julia Goerges (GER) [13] vs Serena Williams (USA) [25]. These two played a rather good match at the French Open just a few weeks ago and many of us were actually surprised Serena was able to come away with the win because it demonstrated just how quickly she was returning to a high level of play. Goerges has become one of the top players on tour; she reached the Top 10 this spring has been hovering just out of that circle for the last few months. But appearing in the Wimbledon semifinal is the first real tangible result of her rise in the rankings to show itself at the majors. I think it is very likely the occasion of being there will provide enough of an impediment to her playing er best tennis that it will make what should be a tough matchup for Serena not as complicated as one would expect. PREDICTION:  Serena.

2018 WIMBLEDON: Women's Quarterfinals Preview and Predictions

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2018. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals. I will also predict this year's men's quarterfinals.

Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) vs. Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) [12]. This should be a great match of pint-size powerhouses. Both of these players have reached major finals before. 21-year-old Ostapenko did it in last year's French Open, outlasting Simona Halep, to win her first major. Cibulkova did it way back in the 2014 Australian Open final but also won the 2016 Year-End Championships. These are both elite layers and Cibulkova was miffed when the All-England Club bumped her from the seeded players list by inserting Serena Williams at #25.  And she has a 2-0 head-to-head lead over Ostapenko, although bot meetings came before Alona became a major champion. . PREDICTION: Ostapenko.

Daria Kasatkina (RUS) [14]  vs. Angelique Kerber (GER) [11]. To me, this is a "pick-em" match. The two have split their previous 6 matches, including the two they played this year. In fact, they played in Eastbourne just a few weeks ago and the winner (Kerber) was decided by a 3rd set tiebreak! Unfortunately Wimbledon requires a 2-game advantage in the deciding set so this match may become a marathon. If it does, I give the ultra fit German the edge. However, Kasatkina is the modern-day Martina Hingis with her court sense and shotmaking ability and this may drive her opponent crazy.This is the 20-year-old Russian's first major quarterfinal, and I think experience may be the decider here. PREDICTION: Kerber.

Kiki Bertens (NED) [20] vs. Julia Goerges (GER) [13]. Surprisingly, the lower ranked player, Bertens, holds the 2-0 head-to-head lead here and has been having an amazing run, beating Venus Williams and Karolina Pliskova in consecutive rounds to make her career-first major quarterfinal. Both players are very near their career-high rankings so they are both brimming with confidence. Goerges is at or near the top of the tour in numerous important serve statistics categories, including aces hit (257 for the year). On grass serve is so important that I think that will be the deciding factor here. PREDICTION: Goerges.

Serena Williams (USA) [25] vs. Camila Giorgi (ITA). I'm much more worried about this match then other commentators. I have seen Giorgi play in person and she demolishes the ball, as often as she can, with absolutely no plan B (sorta like a diminutive Madison Keys). Serena is definitely getting closer and closer to her pre-pregnancy form and if she does, no one in the draw has much of a chance to stop her from claiming another title. But she's not there yet, and if she has a serious lapse in any of her remaining matches, she could definitely lose. That being said, she has a 3-0 head-to-head against Giorgi and thus should not be surprised by the Italian player's game even though the two have not played since 2016. (They couldn't have played in 2017 because Serena was basically AWOL all season long after winning the Australian Open.) However, here again experience should help Serena and hurt Giorgi, who is playing in her very first major quarterfinal. PREDICTION: Serena.

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

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

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

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

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

2016 FRENCH OPEN: Women's Final Preview (and Semifinals Review)

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs. Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [4]

This is my prediction post for the women's final at the 2016 French Open. Last year I correctly predicted Serena Williams would defeat Lucie Safarova  to win her 20th major title. This year I have correctly predicted 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals, 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals, 2 of 2 men's semifinals and 2 of 2 women's semifinals.

Below is my review of the women's semifinals and my preview of the women's final.

WOMEN'S SEMIFINALS REVIEW

Serena Williams (USA) [1] d. Kiki Bertens (NED) 7-6(7) 6-4.  It wasn't pretty but Serena Williams was able to end Kiki Bertens match win streak at 12. Despite starting off the match disastrously by serving a double fault on break point in the very first game. Bertens was able to nurse her 1-break lead for most of the first set but Serena finally got serious and was able to break back to level everything at 5-all when not doing so would have resulted in losing the set. They then both held serve to reach the tiebreak. Serena was very tough on breakpoints, saving 6 of 7 breakpoints in the first set, including a set point. After jumping to a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak, Serena appeared to relax a bit and Bertens won five of the next six points to earn a second set point at 6-7. However, Bertens ended up losing the last three points of the tiebreaker to lose the first set. The Dutch player's movement was clearly hampered by a left thigh injury, which Serena exploited by deploying drop shots which Bertens several times refused to even try for. However, Serena was clearly not playing at 100% either, with her movement hampered by a hip adductor injury. The second set was pretty straight forward with Serena breaking in the 7th game to go up 4-3 and then held serve to go up 5-3. Despite having three breakpoints that were match points, Serena was unable to finish the match, but was able to serve it out relatively easily in the 10th game, winning the second set 6-4.

Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [4] d. Samantha Stosur (AUS) [21] 6-2 6-4. As I predicted, despite Stosur having won their one previous meeting (which was on clay),  Muguruza was able to come through in this match. However, even I did not expect her to blast past the 2010 French Open finalist to a 6-2 5-2 lead. It's true that she got nervous when she served for the match the first time but as a 22-year-old this is not surprising. The main point is that she  was able to serve out the match on her second try and reach her 2nd major final out of the last four she competed in. That's a pretty impressive record.

WOMEN'S FINAL PREVIEW

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs.  Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [4]. This is a mouth-watering match up for the French Open final. These are clearly the two best players at this year's clay court major. For the first time, Serena is appearing in the French Open final in two consecutive years, and she has a chance to repeat as champion and win her 22nd major title. With most opponents it is irrelevant what  they do, the match is on Serena's racquet. If she plays her best (or even 75% of her best) it is usually enough to allow her to win most matches. This is not the case against Muguruza. It was just two years ago that the young Spaniard embarrassed Serena by handing her worst loss in a major of her career: a 6-2 6-2 drubbing. Serena addressed that loss in her post-match interview after her win over Bertens, saying that that loss made her a better player, because it pointed out some gaps in her game that needed to be addressed.

It's unfortunate that Serena is not at 100%, but I think that will make her mentally tougher to beat, and since she is so physically gifted, that playing at 80% she should still be able to beat Muguruza. However, unlike the last time they met (in the 2015 Wimbledon final), I don't think Serena can count on her opponent getting nervous and blowing a lead this time. The fact that Muguruza has beaten Serena on this court before means that Serena will give her the proper amount of respect that she deserves. There's no question in my mind if Serena plays her best tennis and Muguruza plays her best tennis, Serena will win. However, it is unlikely that BOTH players will be playing their best tennis at the same time.

I expect Serena to win this match up, primarily because she doesn't want to lose two  consecutive major finals (l. 2016 Australian Open to Angelique Kerber) but I am a fan of Muguruza's and will be happy to see her win a major as well. That being said, I would prefer to see Serena silence all disputes about whether she is the greatest of all time by tying Steffi Graf's record of 22 major singles titles.

MadProfessah's pick: Serena.

2016 FRENCH OPEN: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinal matches at the 2016 French Open. Last year I correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I correctly predicted 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals and 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals. I will also do a preview of the men's semifinals.

Serena Williams [1] vs Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) [8] Kiki Bertens (NED).  Can anyone stop Kiki? The 24-year-old Dutch phenom had never made it into the second week of a slam and is now just one match away from playing for a Grand Slam title! It's shocking to think that Kiki Bertens has been more impressive en route to the semifinal then the World #1, but in some sense that is true. Bertens beat Angelique Kerber in the first round but also has taken several other prominent scalps along the way: #15 Madison Keys, #29 Daria Kasatkina and #8 Timea Bacsinszky. In comparison, Serena has only played two seeded players #26 Kiki Mladenovic and #18 Elina Svitolina. On the other hand, Serena leads their brief head-to-head 1-0, having won a surprisingly close encounter at the 2015 US Open. Presumably Serena will take this match seriously since she sees the good players that Bertens has dismissed. Even so, I will still be astonished if Serena does not reach her 4th French Open final (she is 3-1 in Roland Garros semifinals and 3-0 in Roland Garros finals). I'm sure Serena is quite happy that  she's playing Kiki Bertens instead of her sister Venus (as the draw had initially indicated). Mad Professah's Pick: S. Williams.

Samantha Stosur (AUS) [21] vs Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [4] . These two have only played once before, but it was on clay (in Madrid), and Stosur won that match 6-1 in the third. Muguruza's ascension to the #3 ranking in the World after her dreamlike run to the Wimbledon final was not unexpected, but it was surprising that it happened on grass and not a hard court. But the Venezuelan-born 22-year-old who plays for Spain and has trained on clay in her formative years was always expected to be competing for majors and the #1 ranking at some point and it looks like those days have arrived. The 32-year-old Australian has had excellent success in Paris, having reached the semifinals four times in her career (1-2 record) but there is a reason why Muguruza is seeded #4 compared to Stosur's #21 at this year's tournament. Even though Stosur is a 2-time major finalist, she is not as mentally tough as her opponent, as their different WTA tour final records (Stosur is 8W-15L while Muguruza is 2W-3L) reflect. I believe that will be the difference that leads the young Spaniard to her second major final in as many years. MadProfessah's prediction: Muguruza.