2019 WIMBLEDON: Men's Semifinals Preview (and Predictions) #Fedal40

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) [23]. Roberto Bautista Agut has beaten World #1 Novak Djokovic two times this year but the Serb has an overall head-to-head of 7-3 but the two have never played on grass. Djokovic has only lost one set this Wimbledon (a tiebreak set against Hurkacz) and is playing in his umpteenth major semifinal while his opponent is playing in his first. It's disparities like that which allow the Big 3 to continue dominating the rest of the men's tennis tour, and it frankly doesn't look like that will end any time soon, since Djokovic is the youngest of the trivalry at 32 years old. Djokovic has a 5-3 record in Wimbledon semifinals and 4-1 record in Wimbledon finals.   Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3] vs Roger Federer (SUI) [2]. For the first time in 11 years, there will be a Fedal match at Wimbledon. The two have played 39 matches and Rafael Nadal leads 24-15 and won their last match in the 2019 French Open semifinals in straight sets.Tennis fans are salivating over the possibility of a reprise of the Greatest Match of All Time which occurred when the two met in the 2018 Wimbledon final, which was won by Nadal 9-7 in the fifth set. I seriously doubt the match will meet those impossible standards, but it is incredibly significant. Federer has 20 major titles and Nadal is breathing down his neck with 18. If Nadal wins this match and subsequently wins the title on Sunday, he will be only one behind Federer and most people think that the Spaniard will win at least one more Roland Garros title. Nadal has been relentless at this year's Wimbledon, which many people is playing so slowly it resembles a clay court. If that's the case one has to give him the edge over Federer. However, I still think it's a grass court and Federer, even at age 37 is the best grass court player in the world. Mad Professah's pick: Federer.

2018 US OPEN: Djokovic Wins 14th Major (defeating del Potro)

Surprising some, Novak Djokovic won the 2018 U.S. Open men's singles title by defeating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3 7-6(4) 6-3. With this win Djokovic has jump started hisyear by winning two majors, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and brought his career total to 14 majors, tying Pete Sampras at #3 on the all-time list, behind Rafael Nadal at 17 and Roger Federer at 20. Since he is 31, Nadal is 32 and Federer is 37 the Serb has a reasonable chance of ending his career with more majors than the Spaniard, and may even catch the Swiss's total. His partisans note that, right now, he has a head-to-head advantage of 24-22 over Federer, 27-25 over Nadal and 25-11 over Andy Murray and 19-5 over Stan Wawrinka.

Could these two consecutive major title wins be the first half of a second Nole slam (to be completed in 2019)?

2018 WIMBLEDON: Djokovic Wins 13th Major and 4th Wimbledon Over Anderson

As expected, Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the 2018 Wimbledon final 6-2 6-2 7-6(3) to win his 4th Wimbledon title and 13th career major title.  This year the semifinals outshone the finals on the men's side where all 4 competitors were over 30 years old. 31-year-old Djokovic outlasted and outplayed 32-year old Rafael Nadal to win 10-8 in the fifth set. Kevin Anderson survived an extended 6 1/2 hours on court with John Isner to win 26-24 in the fifth. That might have explained the South African's slow start in the final although he made the 3rd set competitive and had 7(!) opportunities to break serve in that set, all of which were saved by his opponent, including 5 of these which were also set points.

Djokovic's win means that he is now 4th on the all-time major men's singles list, behind Roger Federer (20), Rafael Nadal (17) and  Pete Sampras (14). This is his 4th Wimbledon out of 5 finals: 2016 (l. Murray), 2015 (d. Federer), 2014 (d. Federer) and 2011 (d. Nadal). In fact, for the last 16 years all Wimbledon Men's singles titles have been won by one of the big 4: Federer (8), Djokovic (4), Murray (2) and Nadal (2). He will return to the Top 10 on the men's tour and since he has zero points to defend for the rest of the year he has a very good chance to end the year at #1.

2017 US OPEN: Nadal Wins 16th Major

As I expected, Rafael Nadal defeated Kevin Anderson 6-3 6-4 6-4 to win the 2017 U.S. Open, claiming his 16th major title and 3rd in New York. He improved to 16-7 in major finals and reached the finals of 3 of the four majors in 2017, thus cementing his hold on the World #1 ranking for the year. Only Gilles Muller was able to beat him before the final round of a major this year, and that took an extraordinary 28-game final set. Roger Federer  and Nadal split the majors this year, with Federer winning the Australia Open (d. Nadal) and Wimbledon (d. Marin Cilic), and Nadal winning the French (d. Stan Wawrinka) and the U.S. Open. The other members of the big four, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray failed to reach a major final in 2017 and have basically ceded the rest of the season to their older rivals.

Nadal's win means that just like this point last year, Nadal, 31, and Federer, 36, are again 3 major titles apart, but instead of being at 17 and 14 they have both separated themselves from the previous greats of the sport (Pete Sampras at 14) and now they are at 19 and 16 with the very real possibility they will both reach the once-inconceivable number of 20 singles slams each. Who will be the G.OA.T.?

2017 WIMBLEDON: Federer Wins Record 8th Wimbledon (19th Major!)

As I predicted, Roger Federer defeated Marin Cilic in the Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles championship match. Federer  at age 35 won the match  6-3 6-1 6-4 to claim his 19th grand slam title and record-setting 8th Wimbledon title. Even more incredibly, Federer became the oldest Wimbledon champion in the modern era and the second man (after Bjorn Borg did it  1976) to win the title without dropping a set.

Federer has now won 2 majors in 2017 (2017 Australian Open and 2017 Wimbledon) and has an astonishing record of 31-2 for the year and added 5 ATP tour titles (Melbourne, Indian Wells, Miami, Halle, London)  to bring his career haul to 93 titles.
He is 9-0 against fellow Top 10 players and will rise to #3 in the ATP rankings on Monday. He is #2 in the year-long race to the year-end tour championships in London, a mere 500 points behind Rafael Nadal and has zero points to defend for the rest of the year, which means if he really wants it, he could very likely end the year at World #1. If he does so, he would become the oldest player to reach #1, eclipsing Andre Agassi who was 33 when he was #1, and he would tie Pete Sampras' record of six year-end #1's.

2017 AUS OPEN: Federer Wins 18th Major Over Nadal In 5-Sets #Fedal35

As I predicted, 35-year-old Roger Federer defeated 30-year-old Rafael Nadal in the finals of the 2017 Australian Open to win his 18th major title (5th Aussie Open), extending his lead at the top of the all-time men's grand slam singles leaderboard.

Playing for the 35th time and a record 9th major final, Federer's win over Nadal brought his record to 3-6 (3-2 in non-clay major finals) and changed the overall head-to-head to 23-12. It was the first time Federer had beaten Nadal at the Australian Open in four matches played and the first time he had won a major final since the 2012 Wimbledon, a drought of nearly four-and-a-half years after losing 3 consecutive major finals (2014 Wimbledon, 2015 Wimbledon, 2015 U.S. Open) to Novak Djokovic. It was the first time Federer won a 5th set in a major final since the 2009 Wimbledon win over Andy Roddick and the first time he had won a 5th set in a major final against Nadal since the 2007 Wimbledon final.

Men's Final Review: How The Title Was Won
R. Federer (SUI) [17] d. R. Nadal (ESP) [9] 6-4 3-6 6-1 3-6 6-3 in 3 hours and 38 minutes. 
Federer had more than twice as many winners than Nadal (73 to 35) and nearly twice as many unforced errors as well (57 to 28). However, the match was of a very high quality, with Federer at +16 and Nadal at +7. The match was primarily played on Federer's terrain, he was forcing things by going for more although, somewhat surprisingly, this was not because  of frequent serve-and-volley, although he was effective when he approached the net (29/40). The big difference in the match was Federer's backhand, which he hit flatter and with more pace and almost completely avoided his slice backhand entirely. He had 14 backhand winners for the match (to just 3 for Nadal). Forehand winners were closer, but again Federer had the edge there, 26 to 19. Clearly, Federer had learned some strategy from watching his fellow one-handed backhand players like Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov had handled Nadal recently.

I woke up at 3:15am EST and watched the entire match, was completely riveting. Each of the first four sets began with early service breaks which ended up being determinative, with the third set being extremely notable because Federer was able to end the set with a consolidated second service break (something Nadal was not able to do in the 2nd set, despite being up 4-0 at one point). So when the fifth set began with an early service break for Nadal things did not look good for our hero. Then when despite having multiple breakpoints in Nadal's first two service games Federer failed to break, memories of previous Fedal matches where Federer would go 1/10 or 3/20 on break points came to mind. Eventually, Nadal built up a 3-1 lead in the fifth set. Amazingly, Federer was able to win the last five games in a row to close out the match. How did that happen? In the sixth game Federer was finally able to get the service break back and he held serve easily to go up 3-4 in the deciding set. In the epic 8th game Federer went up 40-0 on Nadal's serve but incredibly Nadal was able to save three consecutive breakpoints and get back to deuce. Amazingly, it took 2 more breakpoints (the 10th and 11th of the set!) before Nadal finally succumbed and Federer went up 5-3 to serve for the championship. That game did not start well with Nadal blistering a service return winner on the backhand side and another forced error, eventually led to a 5-3,15-40 situation for Federer. Down the stretch his serve bailed him out of trouble and two first serves got him back to deuce and on his first championship point Federer sent a forehand long. Happily, he was able to again serve an ace to earn a second championship point and this time he hit a forehand smack on the line which Nadal immediately challenged (even though the linesman called it good) so there was a brief pause until the computer could confirm that the ball was indeed in and the match was over!

Significance
Federer had (finally) won his 18th major title, doing it the hard way as the #17 seed by beating four Top 10 seeds (#10 Tomas Berdych, #5 Kei Nishikori, #3 Stan Wawrinka and #9 Rafael Nadal) and winning 3 five set matches along the way (Nishikori, Wawrinka and Nadal). He finally defeated his arch-nemesis at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in nearly a decade  (the 2007 Wimbledon final). Amazingly, Federer achieved all this while playing in his first tournament since the 2016 Wimbledon, a injury-induced layoff of over 6 months. By increasing his lead in major singles titles over Nadal (and Pete Sampras) to four (18 to 14) Federer cements his status as the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) and makes it more likely this record will outlast the Big Four era since World #1 Andy Murray currently has 3 major titles and World #2 Novak Djokovic has 12.

Happy Federer Wins Day!

2016 FRENCH OPEN: Djokovic Wins 12th Major, Achieves Career Slam & Nole Slam At Same Time

As I predicted, Novak Djokovic won the 2016 Roland Garros men's singles title by defeating Andy Murray 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-4. Djokovic's win was historic: he finally won his first French Open title in his fourth appearance in the Roland Garros final, becoming the eighth man in history to achieve the career slam. In fact, he has now won the last four consecutive majors, becoming the first man in 47 years to simultaneously hold all four major titles, sometimes called the Nole slam.

MEN'S FINAL REVIEW
The final was of relatively high quality, although both players started off nervously, trading breaks at the very beginning. Murray settled down first and was able to nurse his break advantage to take the first set 6-3. Djokovic settled down almost immediately once the second set began and broke Murray immediately and ran away with the first set 6-1. It was clear by the time the third set was half over that Murray's moment had passed and it was only a matter of time before Djokovic would be achieving his longterm goal of the career slam.

Djokovic is now fourth on the all-time list of major singles titles, behind Roger Federer (17), Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras (14). He increased his head-to-head  to 24-10 against Murray and is  now 5-2 in major finals against Murray and 12-8 in major finals overall. Murray falls to 2-8 in major finals.

TENNIS THURSDAY: Halep,Nole Win Madrid; Murray-Mauresmo Split; Williams Sisters Play Doubles In Rome

HALEP AND DJOKOVIC WIN MADRID MUTUA OPEN
Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic won the latest  warm-up tournament for Roland Garros, the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain. World #2 Halep defeated Dominika Cibulkova and World #1 beat World #2 (and defending champion) Andy Murray in three sets 6-2 3-6 6-3. Murray was coming off an impressive win over Rafael Nadal, becoming the first person to beat the King of Clay in the same clay tournament in consecutive years. Djokovic now has 29 ATP Masters Shields and is tied for 6th on the all-time list with Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg with 64 career ATP titles.

ANDY AND AMELIE ANNOUNCE END OF COACHING RELATIONSHIP
Andy Murray and Amelie Mauresmo announced a mutual agreement to end their coaching relationship after 2 years together. They are both relatively new parents (Mauresmo gave birth to a son in August, and Andy's wife gave birth to a daughter in February) and apparently the travel demands became too great for her. It was noted by several observers that Jamie Delgado was in Andy's coaching box in Madrid and this announcement was not too much of a surprise. Murray rose to #2 in the world under Mauresmo and was 7-5 in tour finals but was unable to win another major while being coached by the 2-time major champion. It will be interesting to see who Murray selects next. He was hailed for being the rare elite male athlete who had a female coach, and he should get a lot of kudos for that.

VENUS AND SERENA PLAYING DOUBLES IN ROME, PREPARING FOR RIO?
World #1 Serena Williams finally returned to the WTA tour in Rome, winning her first match over Anna-Lena Friedsam. Venus Williams won her first match in Rome as well, defeating Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets but the when the two sisters played doubles (for the first time in nearly two years!) they lost pretty easily, 1-6 5-7 against the team of Katarin Srebotnik and Andreja Klepac. The two do intend to play doubles at the Rio Olympics, where the tennis program runs from August 6-14. The Williams Sisters are the winningest tennis team in Olympics history, with each winning a singles Gold medal (Serena in London in 2012 and Venus in Sydney in 2000) and together they have three golds (Sydney, Beijing and London).

Novak Djokovic Will Soon Have The Highest Win-Loss Percentage Of All Time In Tennis

Novak Djokovic is poised to reach another milestone, just days after he notched his 700th ATP win. He is currently tied with Bjorn Borg with the highest win-loss percentage of all time (82.74%). Borg finished his career with 609 wins and 127 losses (due to retiring early) but Djokovic is currently at 700W-146L, his coach Boris Becker coyly pointed out on Instagram today. (Becker himself is #10 on the all0-time list with a 713W-127L record which is 76.91%).

Novak is currently tied with Borg in another important metric (11 career major titles won) but since the current World #1 is 12-0 for 2016 he is almost certainly going to exceed Borg in both win-loss percentage and total majors won very soon.

If Djokovic does make significant progress toward's Federer's total of 17 majors then the discussion of Greatest of al time will most definitely have to include the Serbian.

2016 AUS OPEN: Djokovic Beats Murray To Win 11th Major (6th Aussie Open Title)

As I predicted, World #1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated World #2 Andy Murray of Great Britain 6-1 7-5 7-6(3) in the men's singles final of the 2016 Australian Open to win his 11th major title, and a record 6th Aussie Open title. Murray lost a record 5th Australian Open title (four to Djokovic and one to Federer.)

Djokovic's win means he now has 11 major titles, tying Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg's tally at #5 on the list of greatest men's single champions. He is behind Roger Federer (17), Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras (14) and Roy Emerson (12). He is now 6-0 in finals at the Australian Open and ties Emerson for the most titles in Melbourne.

Djokovic is playing some of the best tennis of his career, and is dominating men's tennis in a way that has been seldom seen in the modern era. Since January 2015, he has a 92-5 record, which matches Roger Federer's 2006 season. In the last 12 months he has reached 17 consecutive tournament finals and has failed to win 3 of them (2015 French Open, 2015 Cincinnati Masters, 2015 Canada Masters). He has won 3 of the last 5 and 5 of the last 7 major tournaments. If he wins the 2016 French Open, he will complete the Nole Slam, and become the first male player to hold all major titles simultaneously in decades and if he's playing that well he just might go on to achieve the calendar grand slam as well.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Djokovic Clinches Year End #1 For 4th Time

Novak Djokovic has clinched the World #1 ranking after winning his 3rd major title of the year on Sunday night. Djokovic previously had earned the year-end ranking in 2011, 2012 and 2014. He becomes the sixth man in history to have been able to be ranked #1 at the end of the year at least four times. The others are Ivan Lendl (4 times), John McEnroe (4 times), Roger Federer (5 times), Jimmy Connors (5 times) and Pete Sampras (6 times),

2015 WIMBLEDON: Djokovic Defeats Federer For 9th Major; 3rd Wimbledon

For the second year in a row, I incorrectly predicted the result of the Wimbledon men's final. Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 7-6(1) 6-7(10) 6-4 6-3 to win his 9th major title and 3rd Wimbledon title. He is now 9-8 in major finals and has pulled even 20-20 in his head-to-head with the Swiss Great by winning Federer-Djokovic XL. He now leads the greatest Grass court player of all time 2-1 on grass!

The match was a nailbiter with Federer playing slightly better in the first set but failing to hold on to na early break and Djokovic saving breakpoints with well-placed serves and then playing a near flawless first tiebreak to steal the first set. The second set was even better with excellent tennis from both players. Djokovic had an amazing seven set points (6 in the tiebreak) but Federer served and volleyed on important point (including his second set point) and grabbed the second. By this pointit was clear that Federer was not going to have an equally transcendent day on serve that he had had against Murray, especially when he got broken despite being up 40-15 in the third game of the third set. Djokovic had sniffs at a second break but was denied. Regardless, he was able to nurse his lead to a 6-4 win of the third set. In the fourth set Djokovic was again able to break early and consolidate the break before a rain delay. After the rain delay it was Djokovic, not Federer who seemed to be playing with more energy and the excitement of the match cooled substantially as the likelihood of a repeat of last year's dramatic run by Federer to force a 5th set seemed unlikely. Djokovic confirmed this by starting to return even better and forced breakpoints that were championship points, winning the second one.

Djokovic is now 8th on the all-time majors won list, pulling ahead of Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors (who have 8 each) but yet still behind greats like Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver (who have 11) and Rafael Nadal and Pete  Sampras (14 each), and of course Federer at 17.

2014 FRENCH OPEN: Nadal Wins 14th Major; Record 9th FO Title

To my surprise, Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-4 to win his record 9th French Open title and 14th major overall. Unfortunately, Djokovic could not sustain his best tennis, overwhelmed by the hot conditions and perhaps a stomach ailment (he vomited on the court during the fourth set and looked queasy throughout the match) to succumb to the man universally acclaimed as the King of Clay, now sporting an astonishing 66-1 record at Roland Garros.

The victory means that at age 28, Nadal matches Pete Sampras' 14 majors, and is a mere 3 majors behind Roger Federer's all-time haul of 17 and with his untouchable record at Roland Garros, his supporters can make a difficult-to-rebut claim of the Man from Manacor as the Greatest of all Time.

More immediately, Nadal will retain his World #1 ranking and he has improved to 23-19 in his head-to-head with Djokovic. He has appeared in two major finals this year and won one of them. He has almost no points to defend at Wimbledon thanks to his shocking 1st round exit last year from the SW19 tournament but then the rest of the summer will be interesting as Djokovic tries to chase him down as Nadal defends title points from the North American hard court season in Montreal, Cincinnati, and New York.

Tennis Tuesday: Federer Splits With Coach Paul Annacone

17-major champion Roger Federer announced on his website this weekend that he is ending his "coaching relationship" with Paul Annacone. The statement reads:

After a terrific 3 ½ years working together, Paul and I have decided to move on to the next chapter in our professional lives. When we started together we had a vision of a 3 year plan to win another Grand Slam title and get back to the number #1 ranking. Along with many other goals and great memories, these 2 main goals were achieved. After numerous conversations culminating at the end of our most recent training block, we felt like this was the best time and path for both of us. Paul remains a dear friend, and we both look forward to continuing our friendship. I want to thank Paul for his help and the value he has added to me and my team.

Federer is currently at #7 on the latest ATP Tour rankings, his lowest position in nearly a decade and for the first time since 2002 he failed to reach a single major final and only reached a single major semifinal (in Australia, losing to Andy Murray) in 2013. His arch-rival Rafael Nadal is back at #1 in the rankings.

This is probably a good sign that the 32-year-old Federer is serious about changing things up in his team in order to improve his results in 2014 and hopefully eke out one more slam win before he calls it a career. I'm just curious as to whom he would get to coach him. Darren Cahill seems interested and did a good job with Agassi when he was over 30 years old.

Federer Reaches 300 Weeks At #1

Roger Federer made history (again!) this week by logging his 300th week at the top of the ATP rankings. Pete Sampras previously held the record of 286 weeks at #1 which was broken by Federer this summer when he won his record 17th major singles title at Wimbledon. Andy Muray's coach Ivan Lendl is third on the all-time list with 270 weeks at #1.

The ATP analyzed the statistics and showed that Federer actually plays better tennis when he is ranked #1 than when he is not:

In his tenure, which first began on 2 February 2004, Federer has won 417 of his 469 matches (.889) and lifted 46 of his 76 career titles (.605). Without the World No. 1 ranking, Federer has gone 454-143 (.760) and captured 30 trophies.

Incredibly, he has lost no more than 10 matches as World No. 1 in any single season except 2008, when his record streak of 237 consecutive weeks at World No. 1 came to an end on 18 August, at the hands of his great rival Rafael Nadal.

Since February 2004, only two players have been able to wrestle the World No. 1 ranking away from Federer. By comparison, Nadal compiled a 140-22 mark (.864) and won 11 titles in his 102-week total stint at World No. 1, while Djokovic lifted four trophies and went 63-13 (.829) in his 53 weeks, which started on 4 July 2011.

That being said, with Novak Djokovic's epic comeback win at the Shanghai Masters over Murray he know is well over 2,000 points ahead of Federer for the calendar year and since there only 3 more weeks of competition remaining in the year, Federer will have to repeat his amazing 17-0 end to 2011 when he swept the Swiss Indoors, the Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals in order to have a chance of ending the year at #1.

Regardless, 300 weeks at #1 is an astonishing achievement. Congratulations!

Federer Begins 287th Week at #1, Besting Sampras

Roger Federer is assured of being #1 on the ATP Tour for the 287th week, the most of any player, finally surpassing the previous record of 286 weeks held by his idol Pete Sampras by winning the 2012 Wimbledon championships, his seventh, and 17th major singles title overall on Sunday July 8th. Federer is a mere 75 points ahead of Novak Djokovic but significantly ahead of Rafael Nadal. Both of those players have US Open final points to defend at the end of the summer, which Federer does not. Federer has wanted the record for most weeks at #1 for quite awhile, having lost his #1 ranking in June 2010 to Nadal.

Federer is now 30 years old, more than 5 years older than his main rivals, 11-time major champion Nadal and 5-time major champion Djokovic, who are really in their prime tennis years. He will turn 31 on August 8th, but before then the London Olympics will be held, at the grass courts of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club. The one item missing from Federer's bulging trophy case is an Olympic Gold Medal for Singles.

Will he achieve that goal as well? I wouldn't bet against him. The Olympic tournament will be played as best-of-3 sets until the final which will be best-of-five sets.

2012 Wimbledon: Federer Wins 17th Major; 7th Wimbledon

As I predicted yesterday, Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 to win his 17th major title and tie Pete Sampras record of 7 men's singles titles at Wimbledon. The 30-year-old Swiss great has now won titles at Wimbledon in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012. With his win today, Federer moves three singles titles ahead of Sampras' 14 on the list of most Grand Slams. His previous Grand Slam win came at the 2010 Australian Open (over Murray), more than 29 months ago. Additionally, he will be ranked World #1 on the ATP Tour again on Monday, for the 286th week, becoming tied with Sampras for the most weeks at #1. That record will almost certainly be broken the following week. At 30 years, 335 days Federer will be the second oldest player to be ranked #1 after Andre Agassi did it when he was 33 years, 131 days old. Federer was last ranked number 1 in June 2010, losing the ranking to his nemesis Rafael Nadal on June 7, 2010 following his quarterfinal loss to Robin Soderling at the 2010 Roland Garros tournament.

Federer's win should end the conversation once and for all who is the greatest men's singles player of all time, despite his 10-18 losing career record against Nadal. Nadal has won 7 titles on his best surface, and reached 5 Wimbledon finals, where he defeated Federer in one. Federer has won 7 titles (in 8 finals) on his best surface, and faced Nadal in 4 finals and 1 semifinal in the major on his worst surface and lost all 5 matches. But on hard courts Federer has won 5 major titles (in 6 finals) while Nadal has reached 2 hard court finals and won one (not against Federer). Federer has now won 75 ATP tour singles titles, extended his head-to-head lead over Novak Djokovic to 15-12 and he has evened his career head-to-head score with Murray at 8-all. Speaking of Murray, the first British Wimbledon finalist in 74 years made many more fans worldwide with his post-match speech where, despite unsuccessfully fighting back tears, he praised his opponents play and said "I'm getting closer, aren't I?" Hopefully his coach Ivan Lendl, who also famously lost his first 4 major finals but went on to win 8 major titles, will be able to help his charge recover from today's loss.

Interestingly, both the mens and women's singles title winners this year, Roger Federer and Serena Williams, are both over age 30, the 6th time the two have won majors at the same tournament in their illustrious career. The 5-time Wimbledon ladies singles champion also won the Wimbledon doubles title with her sister, 5-time Wimbledon ladies singles champion Venus Williams, for the 5th time.

It was a great tournament for me, as I correctly predicted 7 of the 7 last matches in the men's draw (quarterfinals on) as well as 7 of the 7 last matches on the women's side. A 100% accuracy rate!

Men's Final Review
Murray started the match much more strongly than Federer, who was clearly uncharacteristically nervous in the very first service game of the match, making two errors on very easy shots to lose his serve. Murray was played aggressively at the start, hitting his forehand and backhand with much power and authority than he is known for. Eventually, Federer was able to get the break back in the 4th game of the match, but suddenly at 4-all Federer was broken and Murray was able to serve out the 1st set. In the second set, things were basically proceeded on serve, with Murray routinely hitting his serve at 130 mph and Federer struggling to achieve his usual unerring accuracy on the serve, which resulted in less aces than his 25-year-old opponent. Federer had to save break points in his 3rd and 5th service games. Murray was serving at 30-0 in the 12th game when suddenly Federer won 4 straight points, primarily with excellent net play to win the 2nd set. Serving at 40-0 in the third game of the 3rd set the rain started coming down and play was suspended. Unfortunately for Murray, the decision was made to close the roof on Centre Court, transforming the match into an indoor 3-set match on a grass court, basically ideal conditions for the 16-time major champion. In the 6th game of the 3rd set Murray was at 40-0 when suddenly things got complicated and there were ten deuces, with Federer having 6 break points and Murray's serve. The game was more than 20 minutes long, with Murray repeatedly getting out of trouble with big serves. Eventually, the young Briton succumbed and Federer was able to hold serve to maintain his lead and claim the 3rd set with a 1-break lead 6-3. In the fourth set, Murray barely missed a forehand down-the-line passing shot on a breakpoint in Federer's first service game but then lost his own serve in his 3nd service game and Federer was able to calmly hold serve without incident to win the 4th set with another 1-break lead 6-4.