2015 ROME: Men's Semifinals Set Federer-Wawrinka, Djokovic-Ferrer

The semifinals of the 2015 ATP Madrid Masters are set, and surprisingly, they do not include 7-time champion Rafael Nadal. Due to today's surprising 7-6(7) 6-2 loss to Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals Nadal is now in uncharted territory during a clay court season. For the first time in his illustrious career, Nadal will be defending his Roland Garros title without having won a single European clay court warm-up tournament, and in fact he has lost on clay 5 times in 2015 (to Fabio Fognini in Brazil and Barcelona, to Novak Djokovic in Monte Carlo, to Andy Murray in Madrid and now to Wawrinka in Rome). And most of these losses were in straight sets. Hi

However, the tour goes on. The semifinals are set and instead of the expected Federer-Nadal XXXIV match-up there will be an all-Swiss match between Roger Federer and Wawrinka where Federer leads their head-to-head 15-2. Then again, Wawrinka had a 1-12 record against Nadal (with the one win coming in the finals of the Australian Open last year). That being said, I expect Federer to come through that match to reach his 4th Italian Open final--a tournament he has never won.

He will almost certainly face World #1 Novak Djokovic, who will play a semifinal against David Ferrer (whom he has a 14-5 advantage against).

MadProfessah's pick: Federer-Djokovic final.

2014 ROME: Serena Wins 60th WTA Title Over Errani

As I predicted, Serena Williams was able to win her 3rd title in Rome, her 60th career title overall by overwhelming Sara Errani of Italy 6-3 6-0. Serena was able to accomplish a rare feat for her, defending a clay court title, since she won this title last year over Vika Azarenka. Many people are remarking that the two times Serena has won the Rome title (2002 and 2013) are also the two times that she won the title in Paris. Will 2014 be the third time this happens?

2014 ROME: Semifinals Set: Rafa-Dimitrov, Nole-Raonic; Serena-Ivanovic, Errani-Jankovic

The semifinals of the last big clay court warm-up tournament (in Rome) before the clay court major in Paris starts on May 25th are set.

On the men's side Rafael Nadal outlasted Andy Murray despite losing the first 5 games of the match, by winning the last three games of the match 1-6 6-3 7-5 to reach the semifinals. Nadal will face Grigor Dimitrov. On the other half of the draw Milos Raonic will try to prevent the seemingly inevitable Nadal-Novak Djokovic final. Djokovic took 3-sets to dismiss David Ferrer 7-5 4-6 6-3.
Nadal has not looked fresh and has been coming through some tough 3-set matches, including a 3-hour-18-minute slugfest against Gilles Simon a few rounds ago and another 3-setter against Mikhail Youzhny.  How will the World #1 do against a ready and rested youngster like Dimitrov, who just turned 23 this week? MadProfessah's prediction: Djokovic-Nadal final.

On the women's side, Serena Williams is showing that she is playing her way into form on her way to try to defend her 2013 French Open title. She will face Ana Ivanovic, who handed Serena her most stinging defeat of the year at the 2014 Australian Open for a much anticipated rematch. Ivanovic has already beaten the second best clay-court player on tour in Maria Sharapova in this tournament, snapping a 7-year losing streak to Masha. 2-time Rome champion Jelena Jankovic will face Sara Errani, the hometown favorite who eliminated World #2 Li Na, using the crowd support to earn a rare win over a Top 10 opponent and her very first over someone from the Top 3 (in 21 tries!) There's a chance of an all-Serbian final, but instead I suspect it will be a Jankovic-Serena final on Sunday. Madprofessah prediction: Serena-Jankovic.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Kei Leapfrogs Rival To Reach World #9

SPECIAL K

Kei Nishikori makes history this week by becoming the first male player from Japan to reach the Top 10. of the ATP World Rankings. Fresh off his impressive performance in the finals of his first Masters 1000 event in Madrid, Nishijori jumps over Milos Raonic, John Isner  and Richard Gasquet (respectively) to land at World #9.

NO SWISS PATERNITY LEAVE?
Roger Federer is back on the Tour less than a week after his twin sons Lenny and Leo were born on Tuesday May 6th. He arrived in Rome on Monday (with wife Mirka's blessings) and will play his first round match against Jeremy Chardy. Last year he lost in the final of Rome to Rafael Nadal.

NOLE OF YOUR BUSINESS
Novak Djokovic refuses to disclose the precise due date of his first child's birth will be, probably since he is not married to the mother (yet)! Nole said "It will happen at the end of the year," presumably after he marries his fiancee Jelena Ristic.

WILL SHE OR WON'T SHE?
Serena Williams withdrew from her defense of her Madrid title rather than face Petra Kvitova in the semifinals with a bum leg, ceding the title to Maria Sharapova, who obliged. Serena still has the bum leg but she is also in Rome hoping to defend her title there as well. Or will she pull out to give her body some more rest instead of a tough first match against Andrea Petkovic before her Roland Garros title defense begins in less than two weeks?

VENUS BACK IN ACTION
Venus Williams won her first two matches in Rome against Annika Beck 6-3 6-1 and Mona Barthel 6-2 6-2 but should face a tougher test in Carla Suarez Navarro in the 3rd round. If she gets past that she has the winner of the Madison Keys-Simona Halep match.

2014 CHARLESTON: Serena Upset By World #78 Cepelova

Just a few days after winning her 7th title in her "hometown tournament" at the Sony Open, Serena Williams suffered a shock loss to World #78 Jana Cepelova in the 2nd round (her first match) at the 2014 Family Circle Cup. Despite being the 2-time defending champion, Serena lost 4-6 4-6 (and initially trailed 0-5 in the first set before rallying) and never looked herself against an opponent she had never played before. It was her first loss on clay in 28 matches, as she is also the defending Roland Garros champion.

Sports Illustrated reports

Williams, the two-time defending champion, chalked up her poor form to the cumulative effect of two incredible years of nearly nonstop play. Since the start of 2012, Williams has played 149 matches and won 20 titles, including 12 in the last 12 months. That’s an unprecedented amount of play for the 32-year-old Williams, who was known for keeping a fairly limited schedule in her younger years, but increased her workload after she started working with coach Patrick Mouratoglou following the French Open loss two years ago. 

“I’m really just dead,” Williams said. “I need some weeks off where I don’t think about tennis and kind of regroup. I’ve had a long couple of years, and I’m really a little fatigued.”

Let's hope Serena takes some time off and come back refreshed for the Madrid-Rome swing lead-up to Paris!

ROME 2013: Serena Slams Vika 61 63 For 51st Title

Serena Williams extended her winning streak to 24 matches in a row by defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 to win her 51st WTA title, the 2013 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Serena has won all 16 matches on clay played this year, claiming titles in Charleston (d. Jelena Jankovic), Madrid (d. Maria Sharapova) and Rome, with Roland Garros starting next Monday May 27th in Paris. She is now clearly the #1 player in the world and the clear favorite to win her second French Open title.

Serena hit 41 winners to 19 unforced errors and only at 6-1 3-4 on serve with Azarenka serving at 40-15 did the match seem potentially in question, but Serena broke back and served out the next game and match with two aces. She improved her dominance over World #3 Azarenka to 12-2, getting revenge for her 3-set loss to Vika in the 2013 Doha final. Ominously for the rest of the field, that was Serena's last loss, and at age 31 it is looking like she may not lose another match until she turns 32!

STUTTGART 2013: Sharapova Defends Title Over Li

Maria Sharapova continued her winning streak on clay by defeating Li Na 6-4 6-3 in the finals of the 2013 Porsche Open in Stuttgart, Germany. The Russian has now won 2 consecutive titles in  Stuttgart and 16 consecutive matches on clay (2012 French Open and 2012 Italian Open). She has now won 29 career titles.

Sharapova improved to a 9-5 career head-to-head over the 2011 French Open champion. Li Na had an excellent win over 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova earlier in the week and has improved her consistency in general but lost some of that today while attempting to go for more power against the hard-hitting Sharapova. Stuttgart is an indoor tournament and this alleviates any weakness the Russian would have with her serving. Li Na is serving bigger than usual, but the match ended on a double fault by the Chinese player. Li Na is now 20-4 in 2013, with Sharapova at 22-3.

Sharapova is proving herself to be the player to beat on clay. Sharapova had to beat three tough players in three set matches (Lucie Safarova, Ana Ivanovic and Angelique Kerber) to win the title. It will be interesting to see how the World #1 Serena Williams responds to the challenge.

Godless Wednesday: Atheist's View of the Conclave

There are more than a billion Catholics around the world. Right now there are waiting for a 100-plus men to elect one of their own the leader of this group, somehow transforming from a Cardinal to "God's Representative on Earth" i.e. The Supreme Pontiff or Pope.

As an atheist, the extremely close attention paid to this ridiculous process is absolutely baffling. What do you think?

FILM REVIEW: To Rome With Love

As you know, the Other Half and I had our first visit to Rome, Italy this past May. The fact that we had seen the city firsthand was one of the main reasons I decided to go see To Rome With Love, the latest film written and directed by Woody Allen which is also set in the Eternal City. As with most of Allen's movies, it has a stellar and interesting cast: Alex Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page. Unlike his more recent films like Midnight in Paris, Woody himself also appears in this film.

However unlike To Rome With Love which has a disappointing 44% rating on rottentomatoes.com  Midnight in Paris got near-universal positive reviews (93% on rottentomatoes.com) and earned Allen another Academy Award, his 3rd Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in his career.

If you have been to Rome you do have an extra appreciation for the film, similar to people who live in Los Angeles have a different perspective on films which are set in the city (like Speed, Die Hard, Independence Day, The Italian Job and Collateral, just to name a few). Another interesting feature of the film is the presence of several Italian actors unknown to Americans. I suspect that they must be famous in Italy, so perhaps the film would have a special resonance for Italian viewers.

The film's structure is of four stories who don't really intersect with each other, and are of varying interest and quality. The four stories are: a provincial Italian newlywed couple who are visiting the big city of Roma who get intertwined in some bizarre trysts due to some unfortunate circumstances; an American architect meddles in the life of a younger American architect student who is caught in a love triangle involving his longtime girlfriend and her actress best friend who comes to visit her after a bad break-up; the father of an American girl who finds a nice Italian boy she wants to marry tries to promote his daughter's future father in law as an opera star who can only perform when singing in the shower; and an ordinary Italian bureaucrat who suddenly finds himself the most famous man in the country with the attendant breathless celebrity media coverage.

None of the stories are very compelling, and some of them are downright silly. Allen uses unlikely coincidence and even magical events to forward the plot in several of the stories. This is definitely a comedy, unlike his previous Midnight in Paris there are some laugh-out loud moments. The problem is that because of the film's structure, and frankly, the bizarre nature of the situations which leads to some diffident acting, the audience has difficulty connecting with the characters and finding the emotional core of the film.

But for someone who has been to Rome, , or who intends to travel there soon, the film is a delightful travelogue and can be recommended just for that aspect alone.

Title: To Rome With Love.
Director: Woody Allen.
Running Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some sexual references.
Release Date: June 22, 2012.
Viewing Date: July 15, 2012.

Writing: B.
Acting: B.
Visuals: B-.
Impact: B+.

Overall Grade: B (3.0/4.0).

Rome 2012: Nadal Restores Order With Win

Defying my prediction, Rafael Nadal restored order to the top of men's tennis today with a 7-5 6-3 win over World #1 (and defending champion) Novak Djokovic to win his 6th Italian Open title and reclaim the World #2 position from his arch-nemesis Roger Federer a mere 6 days before the start of the 2nd major of the year in Paris.

It was the 32nd meeting between Djokovic and Nadal and with his win Nadal improved his career head-to-head record to 18-14 and vaulted to the top of the record books with 21 ATP Masters series titles (1 ahead of Federer's 20). The BNL Internazionale d'Italia title was Nadal's 49th ATP tour title (35th on clay).

Djokovic-Nadal XXXII: Rome 2012 Final on Monday

Due to the rain which postponed and dramatically impacted the gripping women's final between Maria Sharapova and Li Na at the BNL Internazionale d'Italia, the men's final between World #1 Novak Djokovic and World #3 Rafael Nadal will be held at noon local time (3am PDT / 6am EDT). I'm not sure I'll watch the final live, since my time in the Eternal City is coming to a close, and today is my birthday!

This is the 32nd career match between the two players who have won the last 8 Grand Slam titles between them (5 for Djokovic and 3 for Nadal with the Spaniard losing to the Serbian in 3 of those finals and beating him in one).

The two are playing in their 8th consecutive final since March 2011, with Djokovic winning 6 of those matches in a row but Nadal won their last meeting, on clay, in the Monte Carlo final earlier a month ago. This will be their 4th clay court final, Nadal's best surface and Djokovic's worst.

In the semifinals, Djokovic played an excellent match against Roger Federer, winning 6-2 7-6(4) to beat the person who had stopped his astonishing winning streak from last year in the semifinals of the French Open. It was only Federer's 4th match loss since the 2011 US Open semifinal loss to Djokovic. Nadal outlasted his countryman World #5 David Ferrer in his semifinal 7-6(6) 6-0 despite being down a break 1-3 in the first set. Both players are playing well and should be rested after not playing at all on Sunday. I didn't see any of them play during my visit to the tournament on Friday for the quarterfinals.

The 2012 French Open starts in under a week (Sunday May 27th) and is looming large over this 32nd meeting between the two leading contenders for the title. For Djokovic, if he wins it he will become the first male player in several decades to win 4 consecutive major titles (the Nole slam). If Nadal wins it, it will be his record 7th French Open title and 11th major title overall.

The Rome final should be an excellent proxy fight. I believe Nadal really wants it, but I think, over 3 sets Djokovic can impose his will and blunt Nadal's mastery of the surface over a finitely defined time (3 tie-break sets).

PREDICTION: Djokovic.

ROME 2012: Sharapova Guts Out Title Win Over Li

Julian Finney/Getty 

Julian Finney/Getty 

AP

Maria Sharapova continued her string of surprisingly successful clay court performances by retaining her Italian Open title with a gut-wrenching,  rain-drenched 4-6 6-4 7-6(5) win over reigning French Open champion Li Na in Rome. The match took nearly 3 hours in playing time (2 hours, 52 minutes) but more than twice that in actual duration due to the inclement weather. It drizzled most of the day starting around 3pm and eventually the rain lead to a 2 hour break, astonishingly right before the decisive 3rd set tie-breaker.

The drama was not only in the sky but also on the court. When I started watching the match (after a long day walking around the centuries-old Foro Romano) the score was 6-4 4-0 for Li Na, who was then a mere two games away from claiming the BNL Internazionale d'Italia title after winning six games in a row. At that point, the Chinese player inexplicably started spraying the ball around the court with unforced errors and an inability to hit first serves and ended up losing the next eight games in a row; this resulted in her losing the second set 4-6 and being down a break before she was able to win another game, on serve. Sharapova was able to break serve again and eventually served at 4-1 in the 3rd set when the momentum suddenly shifted again when Li Na managed to break the Russian's serve and rattled off 4 consecutive games to grab the lead 4-5, on serve. The next 3 games were played in pouring rain, but all went with serve (although Sharapova also had to save a championship point in the 12th game after mangling an easy put away on the deuce point to give her opponent a chance to break and win the match). Finally at 6-all the umpire stopped play due to rain and the two combatants had to wait for nearly 2 hours to play a tension-filled tiebreak which Sharapova won when a Li backhand down the line missed the sideline by millimeters.

Sharapova ended up with twice as many double faults (10 to 5), more unforced errors (59 to 56) and less total points (101 to 102) but with a win.

The Russian has to be considered  a front-runner for the Roland Garros title which starts next week, since Serena Williams withdrew with a back injury on Saturday instead of playing her semifinal with Li Na and World #1 Victoria Azarenka withdrew after playing a pro forma match so that she would not be fined by the WTA for skipping the mandatory Rome tournament.

Madrid and Rome: A (Tennis) Tale of Two Cities

Rome, Italy	Madrid, Spain

Thanks to some clever scheduling and an accommodating spouse, I was able to arrange my family's annual vacation to coincide with two of the most important clay court tournaments of the year: the Mutua Madrid Open in Madrid, Spain and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Italy. That the tennis tournaments happen to be in two of the European cities that we have not visited yet but were relatively high on our joint bucket list was an extra bonus.

Before arriving, we were told that Rome is a much more exciting city than Madrid so we budgeted twice as much time for the Eternal City. However, Madrid is the larger city (3.3 million residents to 2.8 million residents) while Italy is the more populous country (60.6 million to 46 million). Tennis-wise, both the Madrid and Rome tournaments share the feature of the four Grand Slams (Australia, French, Wimbledon and U.S.) that women and men compete at the same event, which is excellent for someone like me who is a fan of both the ATP (men's tennis) and the WTA (women's tennis). Both tournaments are very important stops on the two tennis tours, labeled a Masters 1000 event for the Men and a Premiere event for the Women (i.e. the largest tournaments just below the Majors). The Madrid tournament is technically larger (it has a draw of 64 and a purse of $5 million for the women and € 3 million for the men) compared to the Italian tournament (which has a slightly smaller draw of 56 but a significantly smaller purse of $2 million for the women and € 2.4 million for the men). The Madrid final is played in a state-of-the-art stadium called La Caja Magica (The Magic Box) while the Rome final is played in a Centre Court at the Italico Foro (Italian Forum) on the site of the 1960 Olympics.

Here are my impressions of the two tournaments, having attended the exact same session on the same day 1 week apart in the same year (the day session of Day 5: Quarterfinals Day).

In Madrid, the matches we were able to see with a ticket to the largest arena were: World #1 Victoria Azarenka v Li Na, Serena Williams v. World #2 Maria Sharapova and Tomas Berdych v. Fernando Verdasco (who had eliminated World #2 Rafael Nadal the round before). We also potentially had access to every other match being played during the day, which included Juan Martin del Potro v Aleksandr Dologpolov, World #4 Agnieska Radwanska v. a Qualifier and World #5 Samantha Stosur v. a Qualifier. The latter matches were played on Court #3, since for some reason Court #2 was not used on this day but I believe was in service during the earlier part of the tournament. The Night session featured World #1 Novak Djokovic v Janko Tipsarevic and World #3 Roger Federer v World #5 David Ferrer.

In Rome, the quarterfinal matches were split between the Centre Court and the Super Tennis Arena. Thanks to the fact that all tickets to the Italian Open can only be purchased online through TicketOne.it (which appears to be the Italian version of Ticketmaster) I was unable to get what I considered an acceptable Centre Court ticket online and opted for tickets in the 4th row of the 2nd largest court instead. My decision was made easier when it also became clear that buying a ticket to the largest court did not provide optional access to the 2nd largest and all other courts on the grounds, which is typically the practice in every tournament I have been to, including all four slams. In the day session at Centre Court was Serena Willliams v Flavia Pennetta, World #1 Novak Djokovic v. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and World #3 Rafael Nadal v. Tomas Berdych. In the Super Tennis Day session was World #5 David Ferrer v Richard Gasquet (who had eliminated World #4 Andy Murray), Li Na v Dominika Cibulkova, and Venus Williams v World #2 Maria Sharapova. The night session featured World #3 Petra Kvitova v Angelique Kerber and World #2 Roger Federer v Andreas Seppi.

Overall, I'd say the Madrid tournament is the tournament that I would more be likely to attend again.
This decision is made on the following reasons:

Accessibility (Madrid): The site of the Madrid Open is very accessible by public transport from the center of the city by Metro, followed by a short (10 minute walk) from the nearest subway stop (San Fermin-Ocasur on the Yellow Line). The Italian Open is a 40-minute bone-jarring bus ride from the Central Train Station and then a short 5-minute walk to the Olympic complex which contains the tennis stadiums.

Fan Friendliness (Tie): The Madrid Open allows absolutely no food or drink to be brought in from outside (these rules are not posted on the tournament website). I had brought two packs of Trader Joe's cranberries, a banana and some locally purchased tangerines and security would not let me enter with even a single piece of fruit after a thorough search of every bag. At the Italian Open you could probably walk in with a pizza (or a gun!) the security was almost negligible with no searching of bags whatsoever.
However, the Madrid site has numerous other aspects which make it more oriented toward the casual tennis fan (give-aways of posters with players names, lots of booths with tennis gear and tournament schwag and a gigantic television screen outside of the main court showing all the scores and the action on the main court).

Tournament Site (Madrid): Madrid's Caja Magica is one of the best tennis venues I have ever been in bar none (and that includes Centre Court at Wimbledon!). It is clearly better (in the sense of being more modern and comfortable to be in with better sight lines) than all of the stadiums at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows (except perhaps Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York). I haven't been to every court at Flinders Park in Melbourne or Wimbledon but of the British courts since only Centre Court has a roof that is the only court I would say approaches the Caja Magica. I've heard that Hi-Sense Arena and Margaret Court Arena (both of which will have roofs by next year) are excellent stadiums buut I've only been to Rod Laver Arena, which I think is slightly too big. The Magic Box contains three courts in one carpeted arena, which for all intents and purposes are indoor courts because they have retractable roofs. Of course, the blue clay is controversial but the seats are well-marked and the traffic flow of getting fans to their ticketed seat is professionally maintained. Rome's Super Tennis Arena has no marked areas to distinguish the different seating areas and then uses the same numbers to describe two different seats in two different areas! There are no ushers once when gets into the stadium so basically even if you have an assigned seat, it is very unlikely that is where you will be sitting.

Ticketing and Pricing (Madrid): The Italian Open website is a disorganized disaster (though bizarrely, the one thing they do better than Madrid is live-streaming of the matches online) with the ticketing problems already mentioned. Their seating charts of the two main stadium are very misleading (this is a common problem with the seating charts of every tennis stadium I have ever been to!) What is needed is the actual measurements of the stadium and always the location of the umpire's chair to be indicated. If this information was provided I see no reason why any tennis fan would ever buy a ticket to Arthur Ashe Stadium again--it is the absolutely worst tennis stadium in the world to watch a tennis match for the average fan. The Italian Open tickets were slightly cheaper but the availability was significantly reduced. As a fan coming from another country, a site that allows printing of one's ticket from the website is necessary, and ticketone.it only has that option for certain tickets and the Italian Open re-sellers rarely had that option at all. The Madrid Open website allows one to print out tickets directly from it's own website.

City and Country of Event Location (Tie): Both the Italians and the Spaniards have the shocking habit of answering their cellphones (and engaging in a full conversation!) when they ring during a match. As a city and country, Madrid and Spain seem more technologically advanced than Rome and Italy. The Spanish metro is one of the best in the world, with modern, clean trains coming every 2-4 minutes. It's not cheap, but it's fast and efficient. Rome's metro system is like a throwback to New York's subways from the 70s or 80s. They are covered in graffiti and there are only two(!) lines. The bus and tram (light rail) lines are the more efficient way to get around the city, but the city transport service (called ATAC) does not make it easy to find the location of the routes. However, a weekly pass (which allows travel on all bus, tram or subway) is half the price it is in Madrid (or Barcelona) and is an excellent bargain. Yes, there's probably more to see (and eat) in Rome than Madrid as a tourist but the Spanish city is a more livable city (i.e. more grocery stores, easier to get around, cheaper accommodations) and when the tennis is over one has to enjoy the rest of one's stay. The Spaniards really do start eating dinner at 9, 10, 11pm at night but they also have a nap (businesses close) in the middle of the day. It's all very civilized. It's true that while in Italy there are many, many more cities you could visit (Milan, Florence, Venice, etc) while in Spain there are fewer alternate destinations (Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao).

Interestingly, the next tournaments I want to attend are in North America: Sony Ericsson Open in Miami and the Roger Cup in Toronto (or Montreal).

ROME 2012: Men's and Women's Quarterfinals Set

I'm in Rome this week along with all the top players in the ATP and WTA. I'm on vacation, while the players are competing in the Italian Open, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

The quarterfnals are now set:

Men's Draw
Djokovic v. Tsonga
Nadal v. Berdych
Federer v.  Seppi
Ferrer v. Gasquet

Women's Draw
D. Cibulkova v. Li. N
F. Pennetta v. S. Williams
A. Kerber v. P. Kvitova
M. Sharapova v. V. Williams


I'll be attending the day session today and will see Ferrer v. Gasquet, Cibulkova v. Li and M. Sharapova v. V. Williams.

MadProfessah On Vacation in Spain and Italy

more...

From May 8, 2012 to May 23, 2012 MadProfessah and Sentient Meat will be on vacation in Europe (Madrid, Barcelona and Rome). It's not a coincidence that two important tennis tournaments (the Madrid Masters and Rome Masters) will be happening the weeks I am in each of those cities. I plan on attending both events!

I intend to have wireless access and  do some slightly lighter blogging than usual during the next two weeks.
Some posts, like the always-popular Eye Candy (Mondays) and Godless Wednesday (Wednesdays) and Celebrity Friday (Fridays) will be posted automatically while I'm on vacation.

Check back here often for updates and pictures...

Rome: Federer Loses To Gasquet; Nadal, Murray Reach Semis

Roger Federer lost a tight 4-6 7-6(2) 7-6(4) clay court match to Richard Gasquet at the Rome Masters despite being up a set and a break. Gasquet followed up his best win in over two years with by defeating 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych 4-6 6-2 6-4 to reach the semifinals.

Joining him in the semifinals of the Rome Masters 1000 tournament is World #1 Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, who will face each other on one side of the draw. Murray will likely face red-hot Novak Djokovic (who has now won 34 consecutive matches in 2011) in the other semifinal, if Djokovic gets past Robin Soderling in the last quarterfinal. Gasquet will face Nadal.

Nadal will retain his #1 ranking going into Roland Garros, where he will be the favorite to win a 6th French Open title. If Nadal had not reached the semifinal and Djokovic won the tournament, the Serb would have reached the #1 ranking. The Spaniard is defending a huge number of ranking points for the next several months, since he won the last three major tournaments of the year.

UPDATE 05/12/2011 16:10PM PDT
Djokovic dismissed Soderling 6-3 6-3 to win his 35th match of the year and will face Murray, not Gasquet. I expect a fourth consecutive Djokovic-Nadal Masters 1000 final. This time, one would have to give the edge to Djokovic to go all the way and claim the title, since he showed last week he doesn't need to fear Nadal on clay.

Safina Routs Sveta 6-3 6-2 To Win Italian Open

World #1 Dinara Safina won the Italian Open on Sunday by defeating fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-2. It was Safina's first title since becoming #1.