TENNIS TUESDAY: Federer, Lopez, Kvitova, Win On Grass; Djokovic-Agassi Duo Set For Wimby; McEnroe Puts Foot In Mouth (Again)

GRASS COURT SEASON CONTINUES WITH FEDERER, KVITOVA, LOPEZ WINNING TITLES
The 2017 grass court season (all 3 weeks of it!) continued into its 2nd week and ended with some people with strong grass court credentials doing quite well. 7-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer reached his 11th final at Halle and won his 9th title, defeating Sacha Zverev in two humiliating sets 6-1 6-3. A 2-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, playing in only her second tournament after suffering a violent home invasion which led to her left hand being stabbed with a knife and a 6-month hiatus from tennis. Kvitova defeated Ash Barty in the finals of Birmingham 4-6 6-3, 6-2. However, the performance of the week was provided by 35-year-old Spanish hunk Feliciano Lopez, who saved match points in not one but two different contests on the way to  winning the Queen's Club tournament. The best was saved for last, with Lopez beating 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(8) in dramatic fashion. 3 year ago, Lopez had lost the final to Grigor Dimitrov after holding a match point.

AGASSI TO RETURN TO COACH DJOKOVIC AGAIN, THIS TIME AT WIMBLEDON
And they said it wouldn't last. 8-time major champion Andre Agassi will return to the coaching box for the second consecutive major tournament to provide advice and support to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, it was announced this week. And this time Agassi will be able to be in attendance for all 7 matches, if the 3-time Wimbledon champion gets that far. (Djokovic lost in the 3rd round against Sam Querrey last year, signalling a sharp change of fortune for someone who at the time was the reigning champion of all 4 major tournaments.)

MCENROE ATTEMPTS TO SELL BOOKS BY DENIGRATING SERENA WILLIAMS
John Mcenroe has a new edition of his memoir coming out and is doing a media tour. Unfortunately, he was asked about Serena Williams by NPR and while he acknowledged that she is "no question" the "best female player ever" he also raised hackles by saying this: "Well because if she was in, if she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world." Lots of Serena fans thought this was disrespectful, although Serena herself has said that men's tennis and women's tennis are completely different sports, she hit back at McEnrroe by saying "Dear John, I adore and respect you but please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based." I think htat's the equivalent of saying "Bless your heart" in the South!

2017 AUS OPEN: Men's Semifinals Preview

The men's semifinals are now set at the 2017 Australian Open. Last year, I predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals correctly and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals correctly. This year I was unable to predict the quarterfinals due to my vacation travel but I am excited to continue my practice of predicting the results of the latter stages of Grand Slams. I have already written a blog post predicting the women's semifinals.

Roger Federer (SUI) [17] vs Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [4]. After not playing a match for more than six months due to a freak injury very few people expected Roger Federer to be able to defend his semifinal ranking points from the 2016 Australian Open. The 17-time major champion is playing in his 41st major semifinal and he is facing his countryman Stan Wawrinka, who is now a 3-time major champion himself and the reigning U.S. Open champion. Although Federer's now the lower ranked of the two Swiss players, he does have an overwhelming 18-3 head-to-head (only 5-2 since Wawrinka won his first major at the 2014 Australian Open) and has never lost to Stan on a hard court. Federer fans like myself are starting to get excited again now that the Greatest of all time is (again) a mere 6 sets from finally winning his 18th major singles title. However, since his arch nemesis Rafael Nadal is still in the tournament there is no guarantee that even seizing this opportunity will be enough to make it happen. I am not one of the millions of tennis fans hoping for another #Fedal final, but I do want to see the GOAT play his record 28th (17-10 record).  Mad Professah's pick: Federer in 4 sets.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [9] Milos Raonic (CAN) [3] vs. Novak Djokovic (SRB) [2] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) [15].  When the draw came out this was expected to be a blockbuster semifinal between the new World #3 and the defending champion. However, quite surprisingly neither of htem made it this far, with Djokovic losing to Denis Istomin in the 2nd round and Raonic losing to former champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. Dimitrov is having something of a career resurgence, and is currently on a 10-match wining streak in 2017, having won the Brisbane warm-up tournament by slicing through the highly ranked field like a deadly scythe (he defeated three Top 10 players on the way ti winning that title: Dominic Thiem, Raonic and Kei Nishikori). Nadal has surprised many of his naysayers by reaching this far in the tournament, especially a hard court major. This is probably the best match-up hat the Spaniard could have hoped for, since he has a commanding 7-1 career head-to-head lead over Dimitrov, including a tough quarterfinal win at the 2014 Australian Open on his way to reaching the final in Melbourne that year. Will history repeat itself so that Nadal beats Dimitrov on the way to reaching the final (where he suffered a shock loss to Wawrinka). I'm not so sure, I was very impressed with the way that Dimitrov dismissed David Goffin in straight sets to reach his second major semifinal. Then again, Nadal is playing in his twenty-fourth. What will win out, age and experience or youth and desire? Mad Professah's pick: Dimitrov in 5 sets.

2017 AUS OPEN: World #1 Murray and Kerber Lose On Same Day

Wow! I am back from vacation and just as I was going to bed I heard the news that World #1 Andy Murray, who was now the presumptive favorite at the 2017 Australian Open due to 6-time champion Novak Djokovic's shock exit in the 2nd round, had lost to Mischa Zverev, the older brother of #NextGen Sascha Zverev. 19-year-old Sascha had thrilled the crowd the day before by taking Rafael Nadal to 5-sets, eventually running out of gas despite winning the first and third sets.

Murray lost in 4-sets to the 29-year-old Zverev 7-5 5-7 6-2 6-4, continuing his disappointments in Melbourne where he has lost in the final (a record) 5 times.

World #1 and defending champion Angelique Kerber lost to a red-hot Coco Vandewghe who basically bludgeoned the counterpunching German off the court 6-2 6-3. Kerber had looked a little shaky in her first two rounds (dropping a set both times) but she had a 2-0 head-to-head against the American so this result was a surprise, but I agree with others who would not call it a huge upset.