2019 MIAMI: Barty and Federer Win Titles (over Pliskova and Isner)!

As I predicted, Roger Federer and Ash Barty won their respective finals at the 2019 Miami Open. Barty outplayed Karolina Pliskova, continuing 2019's odd streak of every tournament being won by a new player, and breaking into the WTA Top 10 in the process. Federer denied John Isner a chance to repeat as Miami Open champion, becoming the first player on tour to win two titles in 2019, his 100th and 101st of his career. Jimmy Connors record of 109 career titles is starting look more and more doable!

Federer won 6-1 6-4, the first two sets in the tournament where Isner had been unable to win at least 6 games (Isner won 9 of his 10 sets in tiebreaks!). Federer broke Isner in the very first game of the match and although Isner was able to hold his next service game he ended up losing the first set in 24 minutes, with three breaks. At the end of the second set Isner had intense foot pain and could merely move as he gingerly served in the 10th game, refusing to retire. This was Federer's 50th Masters final and he is now 28-22, just behind Novak Djokovic (33) and Rafael Nadal (32) on the all-time leaderboard.

Barty beat Pliskova 7-6(1) 6-3 despite going down 1-3 in the opening set. The diminutive Aussie has an all-court game and deploys slice and topspin backhands. Surprisingly, Barty out-aced the WTA's top server, but this was mostly because Pliskova appeared to stop mounting an offense in the second set and was concentrating on holding her own serve instead of breaking Barty's.

2018 MIAMI OPEN: Ostapenko-Stephens and Zverev-Isner Finals Predictions

The second big (non-major) event of the year is coming to and end: the Miami open. Last year Roger Federer and Johanna Konta won the tournaments. This year we will have new champions as both of these players lost relatively early, Federer to a resurgent Thanasi Kokkinakis and Konta fell to Venus Williams.

WOMEN'S FINAL

This year the women's final is between two reigning major champions : 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and 2017 US Open champ Sloane Stephens, in their first ever meeting on tour. Stephens s playing her best tennis since winning her first major title and will reach the Top 10 for the first time after beating 3-time Miami Open champion Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals. Ostapenko has backed up her shock win of her first major at the age of 20 with play that has kept her in the Top 10 even if she doesn't defend her title in Paris. Stephens has shown that her defense can outlast big hitters and she's not afraid of going for the lines herself when it matters.

MadProfessah's prediction: Stephens.

MEN'S FINAL

On the men's side, Juan Martin del Potro has been by far the hottest player on the ATP tour. He beat defending champion Roger Federer in the Indian Wells final (in a 3rd set tiebreak after saving 3 match points!) and there was talk that he might achieve a rare "Sunshine Double" by winning Miami. But, amazingly, his 15-match winning streak was stopped by none other than John Isner. Isner basically beat del Potro by serving incredibly (which is typical) but he also was aggressive from the back of the court. Isner beat 2018 Australian Open finalist Marin Cilic a few rounds before as well as 2018 Australian Open semifinalist Hyeong Chung on his way to the final. Sascha Zverev finally got past his Next Gen peers Borna Coric in the quarterfinals, Nick Kyrgios in R16 and Daniil Medvedev in the 2nd round. But what probably sparked this good run was his ability to surve a grinding tussle with David Ferrer in the 3rd round. Zverev has already won 2(!) ATP Master and is not yet 21 (in contrast Del Potro won his first ATP Masters shield in Indian Wells this year). Isner has actually done quite well in the Masters, having reached 4 finals at 4 different events. I think this is a very close match (last year the two played in Miami and Zverev won 2 of 3 tie-break sets) and generally in a pick 'em situation I go with the better athlete/mover, which in this case is the 6-foot-6 20-year-old ad not the 6-foot-9 30-year-old.

MadProfessah's prediction: Zverev.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Federer Has 1st 2018 Loss; Delpo Wins 1st Masters; Osaka Wins 1st Title, Will Face Serena 1R in Miami

OSAKA WINS NEXT GEN BATTLE WITH KASATKINA FOR INDIAN WELLS CROWN
Defying my prediction to the contrary, Naomi Osaka of Japan defeated Daria Kasatkina 6-3 6-2 to win her first WTA tour title on the big stage of the BNP Paribas Open. Both players had impressive runs to reach with final, with Osaka taking out World #1 Simona Halep, former World #1 Karolina Pliskova and 5-time major champion Maria Sharapova (in round 1!). Kasatkina took out 4 major champions in a row Venus Williams, Angelique Kerber, 2018 Aussie Open champ Caroline Wozniacki and 2017 US Open champ Sloane Stephens!

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO WINS 1st ATP MASTER TITLE OVER FEDERER
In one of the best matches of the year, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina demonstrated his fearlessness against Roger Federer by outlasting him 6-4 6-7(8) 7-6(2). This was the 25th match the two have played and is Delpo's 7th win, which have often come in the finals of tournaments (Delpo leads 4-2). Delpo saved an amazing 3 match points (and Federer saved 2 himself) to beat the World #1 and win his first Masters series title after playing in 4 finals (interesting he lost these finals to the other members of the big 4: Nadal, Murray and Djokovic). At 7, Delpo has more wins against World #1 players than any other player who has not become World #1 themself.

OSAKA WILL FACE SERENA WILLIAMS IN FIRST ROUND OF MIAMI OPEN
Osaka's prize for winning Indian Wells? In addition to doubling her career prize money with a $1.3 million check she was drawn to face 8-time Miami Open champion Serena Williams in the first round. Serena lost to sister Venus last week, will she now lose to Osaka this week? I think she might, but my prediction mojo has been weak recently. If she does lose, I do think it will provide excellent motivation for Serena to double her efforts to reach top shape sooner rather than later.

FEDERER LOSES 1ST MATCH OF 2018 (DESPITE HAVING MATCH POINTS)
After eking out a win against Borna Coric to reach his 17th win of 2018, Federer was not able to do so against Juan Martin del Potro despite actually playing better and having more chances to win in the final. He lost a 3rd set tiebreaker and is now a dismal 1-7 in championship-deciding tiebreaks for his career. His 5th set record is not great either. The reason for this (many believe) is that even though Federer is the greatest player of all time, he so rarely is put in positions where he has to REALLY fight in high stakes situations that he has less experience and is less suited to performing his best when it happens. Still, a 17-1 record to start 2018 must be something Federer is happy with; at age 36 he is tied with most wins on tour this year. Interestingly, Juan Martin del Potro is 17-3 for 2018 and Dominc Thiem is 17-4.

ATP RANKINGS MOVERS: DEL POTRO, ANDERSON, POUILLEFederer remains #1 despite not defending his title at Indian Wells and will need to defend his title in Miami if he is to keep the #1 ranking for the entire clay court season. Del Potro is now at World #6, Kevin Anderson is pu to World #8 and Frenchman Lucas Pouille enters the Top 10 for the first time at #10.

WTA RANKINGS MOVERS: OSTAPENKO, KASATKINA, OSAKA, VICKERY
2017 French Open champion Jelena "Alona" Ostapenko is at #5 while Kasatkina is just outside the Top 10 at #11 (career high) and Osaka cut her ranking in half to a career high of World #22. 22-year-old  African-American Sachia Vickery ousted Garbine Mugruza before losing to Osaka and is now up to World #89.

GRAPHIC: The racial/ethnic demographics of U.S. Top 10 metro areas

Information on race in America, especially in metropolitan areas in the United States. This is from a recent deep dive into race, politics and demographics by the Boston Globe's award-winning Spotlight team as the paper tried to examine why Boston is perceived as "more racist" than other big cities.

2015 MIAMI: Serena Wins 66th Title, 8th In Miami, Now On 21-Match Win Streak

As I predicted, World #1 Serena Williams defeated Carla Suarez Navarro to win her record 8th Miami Open title, the 66th of her storied career. The score was 6-2 6-0, but really there was only something like 15-20 minutes of tension because after 5 consecutive holds of serve, Serena broke to go up 4-2 and never looked back, winning the next 8 consecutive games to close out the match and remains officially undefeated in 2015 (18-0) and was won the last 21 she played.  It should be noted that she defaulted her Indian wells semifinals against Simona Halep two weeks ago. Her last official loss on the WTA Tour was 22 matches ago in the round-robin of the Year End Championships in Singapore, when she lost 6-0 6-2 to Halep.

This is the first tournament Serena now won eight times, including the last three years (2015, 2014, 2013, 2008, 2007, 2004, 2003, 2002). Her win also insures that she will extend her reign at #1 to go past 113 weeks and jump past Chris Evert to the #3 position for most consecutive weeks at #1 (Martina Navratilova is at 156 and Steffi Graf is at 186). She is at #4 on the WTA Tour titles list (Martina at 167, Evert at 157, Graf at 110).

2015 MIAMI: Finals Are Serena vs Suarez Navarro and Djokovic-Murray XXVI

The tournament in Miami (it's really in Key Biscayne) has been a staple on the men's and women's yours for decades. This year it's called the Miami Open and despite the absence of Roger Federer and the early exit of Maria Sharapova there is still a lot of interest (and ranking points) at stake in who takes the title, which is down to just four people. The defending champions are Serena Williams (d. Li Na) and Novak Djokovic (d. Rafael Nadal).

This year Serena is in the final again, going for her record 8th title here, which she considers her hometown tournament. She has already reached a career landmark of 700 tour wins and would join the very short list of women who have won a WTA title 8 times (Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf). Facing her in the final is the talented Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, who is 0-4 head-to-head against Serena and has only won one (clay court) title. She beat Serena's sister in the quarterfinals and although she is entering the Top 10 on Monday, if she won she would become the first player not previously ranked World #1 to beat both Williams sisters and then win the tournament. Serena is also on a 20-match winning streak and showed her fitness in a tough 3-set win against World #3 (and 2015 Indian Wells champion) Simona Halep on Thursday (the same person whom she did not take the court against two weeks ago in the semifinals of Indiana Wells). Suarez Navarro would have to pull off one of the most stunning upsets of the year to beat Serena today. MadProfessah prediction: Serena (in 2 sets).

On the men's side,  Djokovic is going for the difficult Indian Wells-Miami double, which he has done before (in 2011 and 2014). If he wins again he would become the first player in history to accomplish this feat three times. Djokovic is playing Andy Murray, in their 26th career meeting which has been dominated by the Serbian 17-8, including their last six meetings. Murray can beat Djokovic, and has done so in the biggest matches of his life (2013 Wimbledon final and 2012 U.S. Open final). Murray considers the court his homeecourt because he spends a lot of his time training here in Crandon Park so he should be confident that this is  where he can turn around his current setbacks against Djokovic. That being said, Murray is getting married to his longtime fiancee next week and his mental focus may not at its peak. MadProfessah's prediction: Djokovic (in 3 sets).

2014 KEY BISCAYNE: Nole Wins Djokovic-Nadal XL, 43rd ATP Title

As I predicted on Friday, World #2 Novak Djokovic denied World #1 Rafael Nadal his chance to finally win the Miami Masters, by besting him 6-3 6-3 in a match that was never close after Djokovic survived his first (and only) breakpoint in the first game. This was the record 40th meeting between the 6-time major champion and 13-time major champion, with Nadal now leading the head-to-head 22-18 but with Djokovic having won their last three meetings and he is ahead 11-9 in finals and 14-7 on hard courts. The Djokovic-Nadal rivalry is starting to outclass (and outlast) the more celebrated Federer-Nadal rivalry since Nadal is dominating that one 23-10.


Djokovic won Indian Wells two weeks ago (by coming back from behind to nip Roger Federer in a  3rd set tiebreak) and becomes the second man to win the Indian Wells-Key Biscayne double twice in his career, following in the footsteps of  Federer who accomplished the task in 2005 and 2006. Djokovic has now done it in 2011 and 2014. In fact,  Djokovic is on  20-match winning streak at ATP Masters events, having won his last four Masters events: Shanghai 2013, Paris 2013, Indian Wells 2014 and Key Biscayne 2014. (He also won the Year-Ending World Tour Finals in 2013 and 2012 as well.) He has now won 43 ATP tour titles (out of 64 finals) and is now in 3rd place on the all-time list with 18 Masters shields, behind Federer (21) and Nadal (26). He has won Miami 4 times while Nadal has lost in the final 4 times.

The 4000-point lead Nadal had over World #2 Djokovic is going to be less than 1200 points starting on Monday and Nadal will have more points than Djokovic to defend for the rest of the year. The previous times someone one the Indian Wells-Miami double, that player ended the year at World #1.

Incredibly, either Nadal or Djokovic is now the reigning champion in all 9 of the top tier ATP Masters shield events, with Djokovic holding 5 crowns (Indian Wells, Miami, Shanghai, Paris and Monte Carlo) and Nadal 4 crowns (Madrid, Rome, Cincinnati and Canada).

Now the action switches to clay court tennis. I strongly believe this will be the year that Djokovic will finally complete the career slam by winning Roland Garros, whether he has to play Nadal or not!

2014 KEY BISCAYNE: Serena Wins 7th Miami Title, 59th Overall

As expected, World #1 Serena Williams was able to find a way to win her record 7th title in Miami by defeating World #2 Li Na 7-5 6-1 on Saturday. Despite the straight sets score line, Serena was down a double break at 2-5 when she suddenly rattled off 6 consecutive games to win the first set. Serena continued her dominance over Li Na, now having won 10 consecutive matches against the Chinese 2-time major champ.

Serena has now appeared in the Miami final 9 times, winning 7 titles and played in her home tournament 16 times.

2014 KEY BISCAYNE: Finals Are Serena-Li Na and Djokovic-Nadal XL

The finals of the 2014 Sony Open are set. On the men's side World #1 Rafael Nadal will face World #2 Novak Djokovic. Last week, Djokovic won the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Bizarrely, the men's final is taking place with neither player having played a semifinal. Nadal was scheduled to play Tomas Berdych, but the Czech player withdrew with a stomach virus. And after dispatching Roger Federer and David Ferrer in subsequent rounds, Kei Nishikori withdrew from his semifinal with Djokovic with a left groin injury. Nadal and Djokovic will meet for a record 40th time on Sunday, with the Spaniard leading their head-to-head 22-17.

On the women's side, World #1 Serena Williams will face World #2 Li Na after beating Maria Sharapova for the fifteenth(!) consecutive time. Li Na escaped a 1-3 deficit in the final set against Dominika Cibulkova to reach her first final in this mandatory WTA event by escaping 7-5 2-6 6-3. Williams has won this tournament 6 times (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2013) and reached the final 2 other times (1999, 2009). Andre Agassi is the only player to have won the tournament 6 times.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena and Djokovic.

2014 KEY BISCAYNE: Djokovic beats Murray, Nishikori beats Federer

Kei Nishikori outlasted his idol Roger Federer i the quarterfinals of the Sony Open Tennis tournament, an ATP Masters 1000 event in Key Biscayne which was won last year by Andy Murray over David Ferrer on his way to the World #2 ranking. Murray lost to Novak Djokovic in their quarterfinal after he lost his cool and the first set when Djokovic was allowed to win a point despite breaking the rule of hitting a ball on the wrong side of the net. Murray ended up losing 7-5 6-3.

The Federer-Nishikori was a more exciting affair, with Federer up a set and a break multiple times in the second set but could not consolidate the break and eventually lost 3-6 7-5 6-4 to the Japanese 24-year-old. Nishikori had survived 4 match points against World #4 Ferrer in the round before and the Federer win was his second consecutive Top 5 win. He now has a 2-1 head-to-head lead against the 17-time major champion and will face Djokovic who he has a 1-1 split against.

In today's quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal will face Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych will face Aleksandr Dolgopolov.

2014 KEY BISCAYNE: Serena-Sharapova, Cibulkova-Li semifinals

The semifinals of the Sony Open Tennis tournament in Key Biscayne are set and they are too corkers. A reprise of last year's final between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova is the first semifinal, to be followed by a reprise of this year's first major final of the year between Li Na and Dominika Cibulkova.

Although the match-ups sound interesting on paper the previous results in these rivalries have really been quite one-sided. For example, Li Na has never lost to Cibulkova despite playing the high-energy, diminutive Slovak six times, and beat her again last week in Indian Wells, although this time it was a tough 3-setter. Sharapov and Serena have meet nearly 3 times more often, but Serena leads her Russian rival 15-2 head-to-head and has not lost to the 4-time major champion since 2004(!), nearly a decade of unparalleled dominance of a fellow champion. Last year's match up at this tournament showed a Sharapova who was moving better and seemed determined to make the eventual breakthrough, but after going up a set and a break, Serena roared back and won the last 10 games to win the match and earn her 6th title in what she considers her hometown tournament. I still think at some point Sharapova will find Serena on a bad day and earn another win, but I don't think that day is today.

MadProfessah's pick: Serena-Li final.

GRAPHIC: 50% Of All Economic Activity Is In Urban Centers

Via Kevin Drum is this interesting picture demonstrating the outsized impact of urban centers on America's economic activity.

Eye Candy: Julian Gabriel (reprise)

Julian Gabriel is a smoking hot male fitness model from Miami who has appeared here as Eye Candy before (March 18, 2013). According to a published interview, he is 25 years old, 5'10 and 170 pounds and in law school. He is also a very popular underwear model (for reasons that are easy to see from the above pictures!) who has worked with the Papi® brand, among others.

Dressed in underwear or a suit, I think we can agree that Julian is easy on the eyes!

MIAMI 2013: Murray Snatches Win From Ferrer

As I predicted earlier, World #3 Andy Murray found a way to beat World #5 David Ferrer 2-6 6-4 7-6(1) to win the Miami Masters title at the Sony Open Tennis tournament and claim the World #2 ranking when the ATP World Tour rankings are released on Monday. The match was one of the ugliest on record, with far more errors than winners from both players. In fact, midway through the third set, the two players had combined for 80 errors and fewer than 25 winners The third set began with 6 consecutive breaks of serve. Half of the games of the second set were won by the service receiver. By the end of the nearly 3-hour match, the apparently indefatigable Ferrer appeared to cramp and be physically spent during the tie-breaker, physically and mentally defeated after failing to convert a break point and match point a few games before.

Ferrer falls to 5-7 career head-to-head against Murray and is now 0-13 in finals against Top 5 opponents. He will rise to World #4 in the rankings. Murray won his 9th ATP Masters title (9-3 in Masters series finals) and his 26th career title (26-14 in ATP tour finals). It was the first time that Murray had saved a match point in a Tour final and claimed the title.

This win bodes well for Murray as he enters the clay court season with far fewer points to defend than his rivals in the Top 4. World #1 Novak Djokovic reached the finals in Rome and Paris, while Federer won Madrid. Nadal, of course, has the most points to defend, having won titles in Rome, Monte Carlo and Paris.

Let the clay court season begin!

MIAMI 2013: Serena Smashes Sharapova For 6th Title

As I predicted previously, Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova for the eleventh consecutive time since 2004 to win her record 6th title in Miami, at the Sony Open Tennis tournament, by the score of 4-6 6-3 6-0.

I watched the match with a friend at the (in)famous gay sports bar Nellie's in Washington, D.C. It was clear from the very beginning that Serena was not playing her best tennis. Although she won her first service game easily, she also allowed Sharapova to hold her first service game much more easily than usual, missing 3 service returns in that first game. But the problems showed up quickly in the next game. Serena started missing serves by many feet, not inches. The game ended up going to 8 or 9 deuces, with Serena eventually saving two break ponts and holding serve. However, it was a pyrrhic victory because Serena was then broken in her next service game and although she was able to break back she again lost her serve and eventually the set. Astonishingly, that was the first set of tennis that Sharapova had won versus Serena in nearly 5 years (the middle set of their quarterfinal at the Charleston clay tournament).

For the first hour of the match Sharapova was moving better than Serena, the best she has ever looked on a court. She was getting to balls that Serena thought were winners and getting them back deep into the corners of the court, catching her opponent flat-footed. With that level of play Sharapova was up a set and a break, 6-4, 3-2 when suddenly Serena started smacking the ball, breaking back at love to even the second set. She started serving better and Sharapova served worse and suddenly Serena rattled off 3 more games to win the middle set. When she got a break early in the third set, and then another you knew the match was over, but in the end it turned out to be an incredible string of 10 consecutive games to win the match 4-6 6-3 6-0. She ended the match with 34 winners compared to 29 errors, but over the last two sets she had 20 winners and 11 errors (14 winners and 18 errors in the first set that she lost).

It was Serena's record 6th title in Miami, her 48th career title. She is now 12-2 versus Sharapova and has won 11 consecutive matches against the current World #2 player. Despite the loss (her 5th in a Miami final) she showed how much she has improved and that she has an elevated level she can bring against Serena. It was also her second consecutive final, having won the Indian Wells tournament two weeks ago.

Now the clay court season begins, where Sharapova is the reigning Roland Garros champion and was clearly the best clay court competitor in 2012. Serena lost in the first round and is only trying to not repeat that horrifying performance this year.

Bring it on!

MIAMI 2013: Murray Faces Ferrer For Title, #2 Spot

Andy Murray is 1 match win away
from the World #2 ranking

World #3 Andy Murray of Great Britain reached the final of the Miami Masters tournament for the third time by outlasting (and outplaying) a resurgent Richard Gasquet 6-7(3) 6-1 6-2. Murray will face David Ferrer who came from behind to dispatch a red-hot Tommy Haas, still basking in his stunning win over World #1 Novak Djokovic, 4-6 6-2 6-3. The two traded breaks repeatedly throughout the deciding set, with the indomitable Spaniard prevailing. Djokovic was the 2-time defending champion at the tournament, now called Sony Open Tennis, so his exit means a new champion will be crowned for the first time since 2010.

In addition to a coveted Masters shield, Murray is also playing for an even bigger prize: the #2 ranking on the ATP World Tour. If he wins the title he will return to the #2 spot (which he last held for 3 weeks in August 2009), but more importantly he will be ranked ahead of Roger Federer for the first time in his career. Murray deserves the #2 ranking, he is the only player to have been in the last 3 consecutive major finals (2012 Wimbledon final l. Federer, 2012 US Open final w. Djokovic, 2013 Australian Open final l. Djokovic). Although, if you look at the last 4 majors, both Murray and Djokovic have been in 3 of the last 4 majors. If Murray wants to be #1 in the world by the end of the year (which is a possibility) he will need to dramatically improve his clay court results, especially in the Masters Shields events in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome. Unfortunately for Murray's plans to reach #1, the King of Clay Rafael Nadal is back, and appears to be playing well.

To even have a chance at #1 he has to reach #2, and to get there Murray has to beat Ferrer in the final. The Briton has a surprisingly slight 6-5 career head-to-had advantage over. This record sounds closer than it is because 4 of the 5 losses have been on clay, where Murray has under-performed in the last few years. On hard courts Murray leads 5-1, with the one loss coming at the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals which Murray withdrew from after that match. On a (relatively fast) hard court, Murray is showing that he is at least the second best player in the world, and has been for probably more than a year. Soon his ranking will reflect that fact, since that is the surface most of the important tournaments on the tour are played on.

MadProfessah prediction: Murray.

MIAMI 2013: Serena v. Sharapova in Final!

Getty/Clive Brunskill

World #2 Maria Sharapova has been in the final of the Miami tournament four times but never claimed the title, losing to Kim Clijsters (2005), Svetlana Kuznetsova (2006), Victoria Azarenka (2011) and Agnieska Radwanska (2012). This year she will face arguably her biggest test in the final, World #1 Serena Williams. Williams easily dispatched defending champion Radwanska, the World #4 player, 6-0 6-3 in a sparking display that included 40 winners and 21 errors in just 15 games played. Williams improved to 5-0 against the Polish Wimbledon finalist.

The Miami tournament, now called Sony Open Tennis, is considered by Serena to be her hometown tournament, since she owns a house with her sister Venus in nearby Palm Beach Gardens, although nowadays she spends more of her downtime in Paris. With her win yesterday Serena broke the record of Steffi Graf for the most wins ever at this tournament, and now sports a 60-7 record here.

Sharapova is also playing well, and she beat one of her least favorite people on the tour, Jelena Jankovic, 6-1 6-3, one day after outlasting pint-size dynamo Sara Errani 7-5 7-5 in a reprise of the 2012 French Open final.

However, Serena often seems to bring her best tennis to matches against Sharapova, whom she has a career head-to-head record of 9-2, with the two losses coming within 6 months of each other in 2004. She has not lost to the 4-time champion since. In fact, she has delivered memorable beat downs to Sharapova, like a 6-0 6-1 drubbing in the 2012 London Olympics gold medal match and a 6-1 6-2 win in the 2007 Australian Open final, the latter I think is the best Serena has ever played.

I seriously doubt she wil do so on Saturday.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena (in straight sets).

MIAMI 2013: Haas Hands Djokovic Shock Defeat

Tommy Haas played one of the best matches of his life by defeating Novak Djokovic 6-2 6-4 in the 4th round of the Sony Open in Miami. It was the World #1's second defeat in as many tournaments, having lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the BNP Paribas Open semifinals at Indian Wells.

Haas served impeccably and was out-hitting Djokovic from the back of the court, on both wings. The 34-year-old German has one of the nicest one-handed backhands in the game and he was hitting it beautifully and powerfully tonight. The first set was over in a flash, and Haas jumped out to a quick lead in the second of 3-1 when the Serb started to come back and evened the set at 3-all and 4-all. Then Haas was able to breakthrough again and efficiently served out the match game to claim his first scalp of a World #1 player in fourteen years.

Eye Candy: Julian Gabriel

Julian Gabriel is a model who has appeared in DNA magazine and other places. He sometimes goes by the name Julian Gabriel Hernandez also. According to his Model Mayhem webpage he is 25 years old, 5'10" and 170 pounds.

He is also apparently in law school and is a professional model. For more info about Julian, check out this interview.

Enjoy!

INDIAN WELL 2013: Sharapova Wins 2nd Title

As I predicted, Maria Sharapova demolished Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-2 at the 2013 BNP Paribas Open final to win her first hard-court title in more than a year at Indian Wells. Sharapova will rise to #2 in the WTA Tour rankings on Monday, surpassing Victoria Azarenka on Monday, still behind World #1 Serena Williams, who famously (and, I would argue,  deservedly) boycotts the WTA Premiere Mandatory Event every year.