2017 WIMBLEDON: Women's Final Preview (and Semifinals Review)

Here are my predictions for the women's final at the Wimbledon Championships for 2017. Last year I correctly predicted Serena Williams would beat Angie Kerber in the women's final and Andy Murray would beat Milos Raonic. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals, 2 of 2 women's semifinals, 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Women's Semifinals Review

Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) [14] d. Magadalena Rybarikova (RUS) 6-1 6-1. This match ended up being more of a mismatch, as Muguruza was ruthlessly aggressive, repeatedly approaching the net to control the outcome of the point. The result of the match was also negatively impacted by the fact that Rybarikova was a bit overwhelmed by the occasion of playing in her first major semifinal and thus was unable to take advantage of her excellent return game. It was over in under an hour.

Venus Williams (USA) [10] d. Johanna Konta (GBR) [6] 6-4 6-2. This was expected to be a hard-fought, high-quality match with an uncertain outcome. For the first set it lived up to that billing, with Venus sneaking out the set after boldly saving two breakpoints (one with a 106 mph second unreturnable serve!) and an untimely Konta wobble.  Although Venus had one one ace (compared to Konta's 9) she won far more points by using well-timed body serves that Konta could not seem to handle at all. Some people said it was Venus's most impressive match of the tournament (I would argue that her straight sets dismissal of the reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinal was even more significant.) Venus is still hitting winners from every part of the court, but her error count was strikingly low, which demonstrates how well she is playing.

Women's Final Preview

The Williams sisters have won the Wimbledon title 12 of the last 17 years with only Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova, Amelie Mauresmo and Marion Bartoli breaking up their dominance. However, Venus has not been here since 2009, while Muguruza last played in the Wimbledon final in 2015. Head-to-head, Venus leads 3-1 but lost the last time they played, on clay in Rome. This was the first match that they played after Muguruza had become a major champion in her own right. 

Most people think that this is a very hard match to predict and I agree that I believe it will be close but I still think the person who is playing in their 16th career major final  (7W-8L) has an edge over the person playing in their 3rd career major final (1W-1L record). It is true that the last time there was such a sentimental favorite playing in a surprise Wimbledon final was 1994. That was Martina Navratilova against Conchita Martinez. In a shock, the Spanish clay courter beat the 9-time Wimbledon champion, denying Martina her 19th major title. Interestingly, Martinez is now coaching Garbine as she tries to deny a 5-time Wimbledon champion her 8th major title.

Looking at the x's and o's Venus is simply playing better tennis than Garbine. She is hitting more winners and aces than her opponent in the first six rounds and her forehand, which used to be a liability is now her weapon. Look out!

MadProfessah's prediction: Venus.

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

Angelique Kerber (GER) [2] vs Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [10]

Here are my predictions for the women's final at the US Open for 2016. Last year I correctly predicted Flavia Pennetta would beat Roberta Vinci. So far this year, I have correctly predicted 1 of 2 men's semifinals, 1 of 2 women's semifinals, 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals and 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals.

Women's Semifinals Review

Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [10] d. Serena Williams (USA) [1] 6-2 7-6(5). For the second year in a row, Serena has had her hopes dashed in the US Open semifinal. However, this time, the result was less about her losing the match than her opponent winning it. Last year, Serena let the mental and emotional pressure of closing out the last two matches to achieve the calendar grand slam to affect her play so that she lost to a wily but feeble opponent. In this year's match Serena faced in Karolina Pliskova a 6-foot-1 powerhouse who out-aced and out-played Serena for significant stretches of the relatively short encounter. The first set was a blur, with Pliskova winning 86% of her first serve points and not facing a break point. Serena on the otherhand looked sluggish--slow to move to the ball and was broken twice despite the fact that Pliskova is not a great mover on the court. In the second set, Pliskova continued with her excellent play and was soon up a break again. However, Serena was able to break back (after earning her sole breakpoint of the match) and even nose ahead (on serve) to 4-3. But at this point it became very clear that Serena was injured, as she repeatedly was grabbing her leg and was making errors where she was off the mark by feet (not inches) or hitting balls into the bottom of the net (not the top of the tape). Although she did well to reach a tiebreak. I was fairly confident that even if she found a way to win the tiebreak, there is no way she would have won a third set. However, Serena obviated that concern by donating multiple points with unforced errors and double faults, including on match point (which she didn't even challenge). 

Angelique Kerber (GER) [2] d. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 6-4 6-3.  As I suspected, everything Wozniacki can do, Kerber can do better. The Dane is known for her amazing ability to retrieve balls from anywhere and to be a human backboard. But Kerber also has incredible movement, and what has fueled her ascent to the World #1 ranking is the German's addition of offense and attacking tennis to her game. It's a deadly combination when you possess the power to track down balls all day and can turn defense into offense with the flick of a wrist. This was almost certainly Wozniacki's best (and last?) chance to win her first major title but again she came up short, despite playing in the venue where she has previously had the most success. I do think that she is legitimately a top 10 contender, but that means there are a lot of things that have to go right in an improbable sequence for her to win a major. She should learn from Kerber's example and use her impressive timing to be more aggressive on court.

Women's Final Preview

The mental stakes for this match are very different for the two players. Pliskova is playing in her very first major final, while Kerber is playing in her third of the year (2016 Australian Open and 2016 Wimbledon). Having already achieved the World #1 ranking, for Kerber this title is basically icing on the cake, but she may have greater ambitions, like snagging the year-end #1 ranking. This is a possibility (if Serena sits out the rest of 2016, like she did last year) but not really under her control. By becoming the first woman to reach multiple majors in the same year (other than Serena) since Henin did it in 2008, Kerber would start writing her name in the record books. Pliskova already has her place in history assured as she becomes the first active player (4th all time) to beat both Venus and Serena) in a major tournament. Pliskova has been known as a dangerous player for years but she has never had any success at a major until the 2016 US Open. Mentally, she is very tough but she is not as athletically gifted as Kerber.

Head-to-head Kerber has a slight edge 4-3 and the two have played their last three meetings in finals, with Kerber coming out ahead 2-1. However, with the World #1 ranking on the line 3 weeks ago, Kerber blinked and Pliskova beat her relatively easily in the finals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati 6-3 6-1. It is very unlikely that this match will not be that one sided. Pliskova is on an 11-match winning streak (she also beat Garbine Muguruza and Svetlana Kuznetsova in Cincy) and has admitted that beating Serena was even more important to her than reaching her first major final.

The key to the match will be if Pliskova can continue serving as effectively as she has been. Because Serena was physically impaired (and unfamiliar with Pliskova) she was very ineffective at returning the Czech player's serve, who can hit all four corners of the service box with the same toss. Kerber will almost certainly do a better job of dealing with Pliskova's biggest weapon than Serena did. Once the two start a rally, Kerber is a prohibitive favorite to win the point. Can Pliskova maintain her composure and continue to hit unreturnable serves after Kerber gets some lucky balls back into play? I think she can. I suspect this match will resemble a men's match (i.e. like an Isner-Nishikori), with few breaks of serve. If that happens, it will be a key advantage to Pliskova. If there are multiple exchanges of breaks that will mean that Kerber is being effective at returning serves into play and getting into Pliskova's head. It is rare that great serving outplays a great player (c.f. Roddick-Federer) and I don't think that will happen here.

MadProfessah's prediction: Kerber.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Cilic Wins Cincy; Serena Will Tie Graf's #1 Record; Stevie Is A Top; #Santina Splits

MARIN CILIC WINS FIRST MASTERS SHIELD BY BEATING ANDY MURRAY IN CINCINNATI
2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic became only the fifth player since 2010 other than the Big Four (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal) to win an ATP Masters shield event by beating Murray 7-5 6-4. The other four are Robin Soderling (Paris 2010),  David Ferrer (Paris 2012), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Toronto 2014), Stan Wawrinka (Monte-Carlo 2014). Murray was hoping to continue his 22-match winning streak after triumphing at the 2016 Wimbledon championships and 2016  Rio Olympics this summer. Not only was this Cilic's first Masters 1000 win, it was the first time he had even reached the semifinal of a masters in 8 previous tries.

SERENA WILLIAMS WILL TIE STEFFI GRAF'S RECORD OF 186 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS AT #1 BUT FOUR PLAYERS WILL VIE FOR #1 IN NEW YORK
By Angelique Kerber losing in straight sets to Karolina Pliskova in the Cincinnati Final, World #1 Serena Williams will remain at #1 for three more weeks and tie Steffi Graf's record of 186 consecutive weeks at #1. However, to break the record Serena will probably need to win the 2016 US Open (which would also simultaneously surpass Graf's major singles title haul of 22) because she is defending semifinal points from the 2015 US Open and none of her rivals: Garbine Muguruza, Agnieska Radwanska or Kerber have very many points to defend. Theoretically any of these four could conceivably be #1 on Monday September 12th. The most exciting scenario would have Serena and Kerber facing off for the #1 ranking in the final.

STEVIE JOHNSON IS THE NEW #1 AMERICAN MALE PLAYER
Fresh off of winning the Men's Doubles Bronze medal with partner Jack Sock (who also won the Mixed Doubles Gold with Bethanie Mattek-Sands) Stevie Johnson is now the highest ranked male American player by reaching the #21 spot on the ATP rankings while John Isner (who had been the top-ranked American since July 2013) fell to #22 with Sock at #28 and Giant-Killer Sam Querrey at #31.  This also means that there i no American male in the Top 20 of the ATP World rankings while on the women's side there are three American women in the Top 10: Serena (#1), Venus Williams (#6), Madison Keys (#9).

MARTINA HINGIS AND SANIA MIRZA SPLIT UP, FACED EACH OTHER IN CINCY
During the Rio Olympics it was confirmed that despite winning 3 grand slam titles, the 2015 Year-end championships and a 41-match winning streak in the last 18 month, the doubles team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza have decided to split up. (They have agreed to play the 2016 year-end championships together, having already qualified!) Awkwardly, the two former partners faced each other in the very first tournament after the Olympics in the Cincinnati finals, and the team of Mirza and Coco Vandeweghe defeated Hingis with Barbora Strycova.

US OPEN SEEDS REVEALED: WILLIAMS, DJOKOVIC SEEDED #1 
The seeds for the U.S. OPEN have been revealed, and the only notable absences are 2015 Champion Flavia Pennetta who retired soon afterwards, Victoria Azarenka who is pregnant. On the men's side Roger Federer (is missing the rest of 2016 with injury) and Tomas Berdych has appendicitis.

TENNIS TUESDAY: WTA Awards Announced, Fedberg Ends, Swiss Sweep Doubles In Rio?

WTA AWARDS ANNOUNCED AND WILLIAMS SISTERS WIN BIG
The WTA Awards were announced today and for the seventh time in her career Serena Williams was named the WTA Player of the Year. Other big awards announced were Doubles Team of the Year (Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza), Most Improved Player of the Year (Timea Bacsinszky), Newcomer of the Year (Daria Gavrilova) and Comeback Player of the Year (Venus Williams).

ROGER FEDERER ENDS COACHING RELATIONSHIP WITH STEFAN EDBERG
Roger Federer announced that Stefan Edberg will not be part of his coaching staff in 2016. Former ATP pro (and Federer friend) Ivan Ljubicic will join the team, with Severin Luthi remaining as head coach of Team Federer. Ljubicic had been coaching Milos Raonic for the last two years,

DOUBLES PAIRINGS FOR 2016 RIO OLYMPICS COMING INTO FOCUS
Federer has agreed to play Mixed Doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics with Martina Hingis, who is part of the current Best Doubles Team of the Year. Federer famously won the Men's Doubles With Stan Wawrinka at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, so one would think that they would have a good chance in 2016 now that the team has 19 major singles titles between them. Additionally, the Women's Doubles team of Belinda Bencic (or Bacsinsky) with Hingis would be hard to beat. Could Switzerland sweep the doubles medals next year?

WTA TOUR FINALS 2015: Kvitova and Radwanska Reach Improbable Final

Much to my surprise, the two winners of the semifinals of the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore were not the two players in 3 round-robin matches, Maria Sharapova and Garbiñe Muguruza  but their 1-2 opponents, Petra Kvitova and Aggie Radwanska! These were quite surprising results, because Radwanska outlasted her opponent in a 2.5 hour marathon, getting her first win in 6 matches she played against Muguruza this year. In the other match, P3tra did not live up to her name, coming back from 1-5 down in the second set (after winning the first one) to force a tiebreaker, which she won, overcoming a 3-6 head-to-head deficit with the 4-time major champion. Muguruza apparently just ran out of gas against Radwanska, but, then amazingly was able to get to the Doubles final with her partner Carla Suarez Navarro. It's incredible that the 20-year-old was able to qualify in both singles and doubles (so did Lucie Safarova) but that she made the semifinals in both is quite a feat.
That being said, the Spaniards have almost no chance in winning the title against the best doubles team in the world, Martina Hingis  and Sania Mirza.

Kvitova won this title along with her first major in 2011 while Radwanska has never won one of the five biggest titles in tennis. Kvitova has a significant 6-2 head-to-head advantage over Radwanska, but those two losses have both come at this tournament, the last one coming last year on the very same court!

I like both players so I will be happy with whatever the result is. I do think that the "better" player is Kvitova, and that she deserves the title more, but my game and my heart are leaning towards Radwanska, because I would like to see her perhaps repeat Amelie Mauresmo's history and become the second player to win the WTA year-ending championship without having won a slam and then go on to win a slam the very next year.

It's not that often that I miss calling the results of both semifinals in a big tournament (although the 2015 U.S. Open is a painful recent reminder that it can and does happen!) but that doesnt stop me from making a prediction in the final.

MadProfessah's pick: Kvitova.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Wimbledon Review, WTA Top 10 Reshuffled, Serena Has Huge Lead At #1

WIMBLEDON CHAMPS: SERENA, NOLE AND MARTINA (HINGIS)!
For the first time since 2006, the World #1 and #1 seeds won both the Men's and Women's single championships at Wimbledon, with Novak Djokovic defending his 2014 title and Serena Williams winning her 6th Wimbledon (and 21st major) title. 34-year-old Martina Hingis won two doubles titles: the women's doubles with Sania Mirza and the mixed doubles with Leander Paes.

WIMBLEDON STAND-OUTS: DUSTIN BROWN, VASEK POSPISIL, MADISON KEYS
There were several players who had stand-out performances at 2015 Wimbledon, starting with Dustin Brown who took out 2-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal in the second round. Other surprising results were Canadian Vasek Pospisil's run to the quarterfinals and Madison Keys' deep run while not playing her best tennis (but still having the average fastest groundstrokes in the women's draw). Honorable Mention of Jelena Jankovic's upset of defending champion Petra Kvitova.

NEW WTA TOP TEN MEMBERS: GARBINE MUGURUZA, AGGIE RADWANSKA
Fresh off their Wimbledon successes (Finalist and Semifinalist, respectively) Garbine Muguruza and Agnieska Radwanska are now in the WTA Top 10, at #9 and #7 respectively. Maria Sharapova returns to World #2. Madison Keys is now up to #18 and Venus Williams is up to #15.

AS SERENA APPROACHES CALENDAR GRAND SLAM, SHE IS LAPPING THE FIELD
Serena Williams now is the defending champion of all four major championships and is the #1 player in the world. But this is just one measure of her domination of women's tennis. Amazingly, she now has more than twice as many ranking points as any other player on the list, the largest gap that has ever existed in the history of the rankings. Another measure of her dominance is that with her 21 majors, she equals the number of major titles the rest of the active field possesses: Venus Williams (7), Maria Sharapova (5), Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2) and Francesca Schiavone, Samantha Stosur, and Ana Ivanovic (1).

TENNIS TUESDAY: Resurgent Federer Reclaims World #2 Ranking; Post-Williams Era Beginning?

Federer Returns To World #2 And Aims Higher
After winning his fourth title of 2014 at the Shanghai Masters, Roger Federer is making an improbable run for the ATP Tour World #1 ranking by returning to #2 and is now only 990 points behind Novak Djokovic for year-to-date points, with the World #1 having to defend a whole bunch more points than Federer does in the final stretch of the year. With Rafael Nadal contending with appendicitis for the rest of the season, it should make life that much easier for the 17-time major champion to reach the World #1 ranking again, which he has already held for a record 302 weeks.

Has The Post-Williams Era Of American Tennis Begun?
Since Melanie Oudin won a title in 2012 the only American players who had won titles on the WTA Tour have been named Williams until this year when Madison Keys won her first title in Eastbourne (on grass). American Ali Riske won her first title at the Tianjin Open this weekend and earlier this summer Coco Vandeweghe also won her first title. Is this what the post-Williams era will look like?

Serena Reaches 210 Weeks At #1, Surpasses Hingis, Now #4 Behind Graf, Navratilova, Evert
Not so fast to dismiss the William sisters! The current World #1 has now been in that spot for 87 consecutive weeks, racking up 210 career weeks at #1, and this means that she has surpassed Martin Hingis. She is now (only!) 50 weeks behind Chris Evert's 260 weeks.

Could Sharapova Be The Next World #1?
Interestingly, Serena's arch-nemesis Maria Sharapova who has not been able beat her for over a decade (and 15 tries) may actually end the year at #1 if (as expected) Serena does not play the WTA Year-End Championships in Singapore starting next weekend. Serena is the defending champion but because she is only 566 points ahead of Sharapova for the year-to-date if she loses all those points all Sharapova would have to do is reach the semifinals and she would clinch the year-end #1. It's interesting that both Federer and Sharapova are in similar positions at #2 challenging for the World #1 at the end of the year. I'm sure that for Serena staying healthy enough to win Slam #19 is more important than the Year-End #1.

There's Always Someone Younger and Hotter
Looks like Grigor Dimitrov's days as the hottest player on tour (figuratively and literally) may be numbered. Check out this picture of 17-year-old Borna Coric on the cover of Croatia's Men's Health.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Serena,Sveta,Raonic Win Titles; Ivanovic Returns To Top 10

Serena Williams came back from 1-5 down in the first set of the final of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University against Angelique Kerber, saved two set points and won the match 7-6(1) 6-3 to win her 4th title of 2014. It was both competitors fourth final appearance of the year but Serena has not lost a final and Kerber is yet to win one. Serena, playing in her first tournament back after her disastrous French Open and Wimbledon results, confirmed her #1 ranking, which she has now held for an astonishing 200 weeks in her career. Only Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Chris Evert (260) and Martina Hingis (209) have held the top spot longer. Serena now has 61 career titles, having won earlier this year in Rome (d. Errani), Miami (d. Na) and Brisbane (d. Azarenka).

Also wining titles this weekend were Sveta Kuznetova, who won her first title in four years by outlasting tough competitor Karumi Nara 6-3 4-6 6-4 in the final of the Citi Open in Washington, DC. It was vindication for the 2-time major champion, who led 3-0 in the second set. It was just Kuznetsova's 14th career title. Last year, I attended the men's final of the D.C. tournament, seeing John Isner lose to Juan Martin del Potro in three sets. This year it was an all-Canadian affair, with Milos Raonic defeating Vasek Pospisil 6-1 6-4.

Raonic is now at #6 in the world, just two slots above fellow "Young Gun" Grigor Dimitrov who moves up to World #8. The Top 5 was unchanged with injured del Potro making his way out of the Top10.

For the women, Ana Ivanovic returns to the Top 10 after a 4-year absence, while Serena celebrates her  200th week at #1. Next week, 2014 French Open finalist Simona Halep will rise to #2 because Li Na has withdrawn from the entire summer hard court season (Canada, Cincinnati and New York) with an injury.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Sharapova Defeats Halep To Win 5th Major, 2nd FO Title

As I predicted, Maria Sharapova won her 2nd French Open title today by defeating Simona Halep of Romania in 3 sets, 6-4 6-7(5) 6-4 in a little over 3 hours. The win was Sharapova's 20th consecutive 3-set win on clay and her 50th win at Roland Garros, far behind Steffi Graf's record of 84 wins at the clay court major. It was the Russian's 5th major title and 32 WTA tour title of her career, and third of the year (Stuttgart, Madrid, and Paris), all on clay. She is now considered the most successful clay-court player of the last few years, with a 20-1 record at Roland Garros and and a 57-4 record  on the surface over the last three years (all three losses to Serena Williams who shockingly loss in the 2nd round).

It was Sharapova's 9th major final (5-4 overall record) and the match was one of the best finals played in recent history on any surface, with wild swings of momentum and epic comebacks. Halep was down 6-4 and 2-0 when she was able to come back and even the score then served for the second set at 5-4 and 6-5 but was unable to close out the second set. Sharapova led 4-2 in the tiebreak but Halep fought back to even the score at 5-all by getting her first serve in and taking pace off the ball. Two points later she had won the second set and the match as dead even. Sharapova left the court for a curiously long 6 minutes to change her outfit and unravel her less experienced opponent. It seemed to work when Sharapova began the 3rd set with an easy break, but Halep brok back and held t finally go ahead on the scoreboard 2-1 in the 3rd set. Halep had two breakpoint opportunities for 3-1 but failed to convert and once Sharapova got back to 2-all she broke and held to go up and had what seemed like an insurmountable lead at 4-2. Halep again rallied to hold her own serve and broke Sharapova to even the match again at 4-all but that momentous effort was all she had and from that point on she failed to win a single point, losing her serve at 0 and looking on helplessly as Sharapova nailed the lines and her ball sprayed the court as the Russian served out the championship game at love.

Sharapova's 5 titles matches Martina Hingis and Althea Gibson and puts her only two behind Venus Williams and Justine Henin's 7.

2012 Wimbledon: Women's Semifinals Preview

AP

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2012. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals and correctly predicted 2 of 2 women's semifinals. This year I correctly predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Agnieszka Radwanska POL (3) vs. Angelique Kerber GER (8). These two players are the most consistent winners on the WTA this year, with 45 wins for the German and 43 for the Pole but none of these matches in 2012 have been against each other. Kerber faced her countrywoman Sabine Lisicki in her quarterfinal and despite blowing multiple match points and a 3-0 lead in the second set, the mature lefty was able to come back from 3-5 down in the third set and win the match after Boom Boom started to misfire. Radwanska had her ticket to her very first major semifinal on her racket in the second set and tightened up and lost the middle set to Maria Kirilenko on an emotionally challenging day with multiple rain delays. Eventually the match was moved from an outside court yo under the roof on Centre Court and the nearly 3 hour long affair ended with a Radwanska victory. Their career head-to-head is tied at 2-all with Kerber defeating the higher ranked Radwanka during her dream run to the 2011 US Open semifinals and the Pole getting revenge a few weeks later in Japan. The fact that these two players are competing for a historic place in a Wimbledon final will most likely lead to a low-quality, nervy match won by the player who can control her emotions in order to keep control of her game. I suspect that person will be the one who has the reputation of being a 2.0 version of Martina Hingis. PREDICTION: Radwanska.

Serena Williams USA (6) vs.  Victoria Azarenka BLR (2). This showdown between the 2012 Australian Open champion and the 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010 Australian Open champion should be the last great women's match of this year's championships. Serena Williams has only lost to Victoria Azarenka once in 8 meetings (2009 Sony Ericsson Open final in Miami), and was clearly hampered in her movement in that match. As she amply demonstrated in her straight sets dismissal of the defending Wimbledon champion, her serve is still the biggest weapon in women's tennis and her movement is at or very near the level which has brought her to 6 finals here, winning 4 titles. Azarenka played well to get past the hottest player on grass this year, Tamira Paszek, in two tights sets. However, Serena is no Tamira Paszek. The only thing which could stop Serena reaching her 7th final (and winning her 5th Wimbledon championship) this year would be if she at age 30 she is suddenly afflicted with nerves which prevents her from playing her best tennis. Serena's puzzling loss to Samantha Stosur in the 2011 US Open final still has never really been explained to my satisfaction. Another factor could Azarenka realizing that she has never matched up well against Serena and thus playing fearless tennis, akin to what she did after dropping the first 3 games in the Australian Open final against Maria Sharapova this year. One needs to remember that this is only Azarenka's 3rd major semifinal, and she is also going to be nervous. It's very possible that the match could be very close, but it is hard to imagine a scenario where Serena is not raising the Venus Rosewater dish above her head on Saturday. PREDICTION: Williams.

INDIAN WELLS '12: Vika Wins 4th Title; Now 23-0!

AFP Photo/ ROBYN BECK

Victoria Azarenka continued her amazing, undefeated 2012 season by winning her 23rd consecutive match, defeating Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-3 and claim her 4th consecutive WTA tournament title of the year, the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, CA.

It was the first time since 2008 that the two players at the top of the WTA Tour met in a tour final, but Azarenka again showed her mastery of Sharapova's game, using controlled aggression and superior movement to highlight the Russian's weaknesses. The Belarussian has now beaten the Russian in the three WTA tour finals they have played, and leads their career head-to-head 5-3.

Azarenka looked very comfortable throughout the match, with Pam Shriver astute commentators noting that she was dressed like she was at practice (in capri pants, shorts and her contractual Nike gear.

It will be interesting to see how far Azarenka can go to match Novak Djokovic's 42-match winning streak of 2011. On the women's side, Martina Hingis and Martina Navratilova have the next longest streak of 37 match wins to start the year.

Serena Williams Now #1 for 100 Weeks

Serena Williams has become the 7th player to spend 100 weeks at #1, following in the footsteps of other players such as Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Chris Evert (260), Martina Hingis (209), Monica Seles (178) and Justine Henin (117).

There have been 19 players to ever hold the World #1 ranking since 1975. Serena's sister, currently ranked at #4 has spent 11 weeks at #1.

Hingis Retires From Tennis (Again!)

Marina Hingis announced that she was immediately retiring from tennis (again) due to the gact that she had tested positive for a cocaine metabolite at Wimbledon and did not want to spend years fighting the doping officials to clear her name, although she continued to deny any drug use at any time during her 12-year career.

WTA ACURA CLASSIC: Quarterfinals Preview

The WTA Acura Classic is a hop skip and a jump from Mad Professah's stomping grounds in Southern California so I will be driving down with a bunch of other tennis fans this weekend to see Friday's last quarterfinal as well as both semi-finals on Saturday.

Patty SCHNYDER (SUI) vs Nadia PETROVA (RUS). The crafty lefty finally beat her more famous Swiss compatriot Martina Hingis for the first time in nearly nine years despite losing the second set in a tie-break to reach this quarterfinal against one of five Russians in the Final Eight at this important Tier 1 warm-up to the U.S. Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Petrova is the "most mentally challenged" of the top Russian players (well, except for Dinara Safina!) and Schnyder is one of the most skillful players onthe tour at getting into someone's head. Despite the fact Schnyder leads their head-to-head 5-4 they haven't played each other in more than a year and the Russian's power game should be enough to blow Schnyder off the court. Prediction: Petrova in 2 sets.

Elena DEMENTIEVA (RUS) vs Maria KIRILENKO (RUS). After she serves, Elena Dementieva has some of the prettiest strokes in the women's game, but they often are not enough to make up for her laughably atrocious serve. Kirilenko has just had the biggest win of her young but not so distinguished career, defeating the indefatigable Jelena Jankovic, currently the #3 player in the world, in three tough sets the round before. Matches between Russians are ugly at the best of times, and this one will be even uglier than usual as these two blonde beauties slug it out. Prediction: Toss-up!

Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS) vs Sania MIRZA (IND). It looks like the Muslim Miracle a.k.a. the Invincible Indian has finally started to live up to her hype and started to win matches. She made the final of Stanford last weekend and easily dispatched former Top 10 player Dinara Safina pretty easily to get to this quarterfinal match-up with the reigning U.S. Open champion. Mirza is a big match player, but the jury is still out on whether she has the weapons to match her will. Sharapova has been looking sharp this week, and her serve seems to be returning to it's former strength and consistency. Prediction: Sharapova in 2 sets.

Anna CHAKVETADZE (RUS) vs Venus WILLIAMS (USA). Chakvetadze is the hottest player on the tour right now, having won the last two tournaments she played in, at Cincinatti and Stanford. However, she hasn't really played anyone of the caliber of the reigning Wimbledon champion in her recent victories. Venus is clearly swinging freely and dispatched hard-hitting Daniela Hantuchova in the previous round in straight sets (including a bagel!), limiting the Slovak to a mere 3 games. (Venus has never lost to Hantuchova in 9 matches.) Happily, the organizers decided to schedule this quarterfinal as the evening match so MadProfessah will be able to watch it live in the stands. I suspect Anna will not go down as quietly as Daniela did, but Venus would love to set up another grudge match with Sharapova in the semis Saturday night. Whoever wins that match should easily defeat the winner of the early semifinal on the other half of the draw. Prediction: Williams in 3 sets.