2019 INDIAN WELLS: Venus Upsets Kvitova, Serena Beats Vika, FAA Stuns Tsitsipas

Venus Williams surprised very many naysayers by completing one of the biggest upsets in the early rounds of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells today by coming back from a 6-4, 3-0 (double break) deficit against World #3 Petra Kvitova to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Venus and Kvitova have played 7 times and all of their matches have gone to three sets, with the American now having a 4-3 edge.

Serena Williams played her first competitive match since she departed the Australian Open five weeks ago. This match  was against Victoria Azarenka and it was a reprise of the 2016 BNP Paribas Open final with a different result this time. Serena won in 2 very tight, high-quality sets 6-4 6-3.

Felix Auger-Aliassime pulled off his very first Top 10 win by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas  6-4 6-2 in the youngster's first appearance in the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open. FAA saved all 7 of the breakpoints he faced while converting all 3 that he had, and that was basically the match.

2016 INDIAN WELLS: Vika Shocks Serena In Straight Sets, Nole Humiliates Injured Milos

Vika Azarenka stunned World #1 Serena Williams 6-4 6-4 in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open. It was Azarenka's first title since 2014 and means that  it has been more than 6 months since Serena won her last title (2015 Cincy). This means that Azarenka becomes the first player to beat Serena in four finals, and improves her record to 4-17. She claimed her 2nd career title in Indian Wells and denied Serena the chance to win a record third title here and her first since 2001. She will return to the Top 10 when the ranking come out, landing at #8.

On the men's side Novak Djokovic was merciless against a clearly injured Milos Raonic, winning  6-2 6-0. Djokovic won his 5th title in Indian Wells and his twenty-seventh ATP Masters Series 1000 title, tying Rafael Nadal.

Serena-Azarenka XXI: 2016 Indian Wells Final

Serena Williams is in her first final at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells since 2002, primarily since she refused to attend the tournament for the years 2003-2014, famously coming back in 2015 (and retired before her semifinal match). Serena beat the new #2 player in the world, Aga Radwanska in an entertaining match on Friday night, 6-4 7-6(1) an earlier in the tournament dominated the former World #2 Simona Halep in the quarters. She will face what most people think is her primary rival, Vika Azarenka, in today's final (despite Serena's 17-3 overall head-to-head lead). Serena and Azarenka played some of the best women's tennis matches in 2015 (3 times) but Serena prevailed all three times they played last year. In fact, Vika hasn't beaten Serena since she won a 3rd set tiebreak in the 2013 Cincy Open final.

Vika has gotten her ranking up to #15 and will soon be back in the Top 10 where she definitely belongs. Serena is looking to reinforce her dominance after her surprising loss to Angie Kerber in the 2016 Aussie Open final and make new records, which she would do by becoming the first female player to win this tournament 3 times.

MadProfessah's pick: Serena.

2015 WIMBLEDON: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals, 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals, 2 of 2 men's semifinals and 1 of 2 women's semifinals. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs. Coco Vandeweghe (USA) Maria Sharapova (RUS) [4]. After playing one of the best matches of the year against a 2-time major champion (Victoria Azarenka) in the quarterfinals, Serena's tough draw continues with a meeting with a 5-time major champion (Maria Sharapova) in the semifinals. One measure of just how great Serena is how well she matches up with her putative rivals. She is now 17-3 against Azarenka and is currently 17-2 against Sharapova. Famously, though, Serena lost her only other meeting at Wimbledon with the hard-hitting Russian, which was in the 2004 final. However in the intervening years (2005-2015) Serena has basically refused to lose, and has now won 16 times in a row, including in three major finals (2007 Australian Open, 2013 French Open and 2015 Australian Open finals). At this point the mental baggage is significant for Sharapova but the truth is that their games don't match up well. Serena has a much better serve, moves much better and can both handle and deliver powerful groundstrokes. The two have actually played at the All-England Club since their 2004 meeting in the finals. In 2012, they met in the Gold Medal match of the London Olympics and Serena demolished Sharapova 6-0 6-1. Honestly, I don't expect this match to be that lopsided but I don't think it will be close. After all, Sharapova lost a set against Coco Vandeweghe! PREDICTION: Serena.

Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) [20] vs. Madison Keys (USA) [21]  Agnieska Radwanska (POL) [13].  These two players have met four times and they are tied 2-all, however Muguruza has won the two matches they played in 2015 while Radwanska played their two 2014 matches. This is Radwanska's third Wimbledon semifinal in the last four years she may be able to use that experience to get past another young, hard-hitting talent whom she really should be considered the underdog against. In her quarterfinal, Radwanska was able to absorb and re-direct the power of Madison Keys enough times to eke out the victory in three tight sets. Radwanska has the highest tennis IQ of any player currently on tour and probably the highest we have seen since Chucky Martina Hingis was #1. Tennis smarts are great but when wile meets wham I will put my money on power over placement. This is why I expected Keys to win their quarterfinal. Muguruza is a more nuanced player than Keys a better combination of strength and skill) and already has the earth-shattering result on her resume of a 6-2 6-2 win over Serena at the 2014 French Open. This is Muguruza's first major semifinal after she won her 3rd major quarterfinal so reaching her first major final would be a significant statement, especially for a Spanish player on grass. But in the spirit of Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario I believe that she can do it. Si ella puede! PREDICTION: Muguruza.

2015 WIMBLEDON: Women's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Championships for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] V. Williams (USA) [16] vs. Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [23]. For the second consecutive major tournament Serena's path to the title will intersect with one of the few players who does not fear her, despite the lopsided head-to-head record of 3-16 Victoria Azarenka has against the World #1 player. In Paris a mere four weeks ago the two met in a third round match where Azarenka took it to Serena with renewed belief. The Belarussian was up a set and a break, and even when she lost the second set she was up 2-0 in the deciding set but then Seeena flipped a switch and won the last 6 remaining games of the match. If Azarenka couldn't beat Serena on her worst surface how will she do it on her best? After handily dispatching her sister in the 4th round and outlasting a near-death experience in the third round against Brit Heather Watson, Serena is the odds-on favorite to win her second Serena slam. PREDICTION: Serena.

Maria Sharapova (RUS) [4] vs. Coco Vandeweghe USA Lucie Safarova (CZE) [6]. The American women occupy three of the eight quarterfinal slots at this year's Wimbledon and the biggest surprise is that Coco Vandweghe is among their number. The big-serving 23-year-old is in her very first major quarterfinal having taken out one of the hottest players on tour, 2015 French Open finalist (and 2014 Wimbledon semifinalist) Lucie Safarova in two tight tiebreak sets. In fact, neither player has dropped a set through their first four round in this year's tournament. Obviously that will have to change by the end of this match (for at least one of them). Even though Sharapova has won this tournament before and reached the final again in 2011 she has only passed the quarterfinal stage 4 times. (Then again, she has never lost a Wimbledon quarterfinal). For some reason, I think Coco will pull out the upset in this match taking advantage of the fact that the two have never played before. PREDICTION: Vandeweghe.

Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) [20] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [5] vs. Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) [15].  Caroline Wozniacki  was the highest remaining seed in the lower half of the women's singles draw after Simona Halep's early departure and defending champion Petra Kvitova's 3rd round exit (at the hands of Jelena Jankovic). Despite winning the junior title here a mere 9 years ago at the precocious age of 15, the former World #1 has never had much success here and her woes continued with Muguruza basically doing everything Wozniacki could do, except a litle better. This was exemplified by a 29-stroke rally on the penultimate point of the match which was won with outstanding defense by the Spaniard, who then sealed the deal with an ace on match point. Bacsinskzy is in her second consecutive major quarterfinal, the only two times she has ever reached this far in a major tournament. Although she won her first outing in Paris a month ago, I think that Muguruza's game and guile will be able to get her past the finish line so that she can reach her first major semifinal. PREDICTION: Muguruza.


Madison Keys (USA) [21] vs. Agnieska Radwanska (POL) [13]. The Pole is looking to rescue her horrible 2015 season by duplicating her best result at a major (2013 Wimbledon finalist). Happily, she is playing an opponent whom she has never lost to in three meetings. However, the last time she played and beat Madison Keys Radwanska was playing better tennis and Keys was playing worse. Now, the 20-year-old American knows that she belongs in the business end of major tournaments and has the game to fulfill her awesome potential. Radwanska is a very talented player, and she played very well to dispatch Jankovic coming off her big win over the defending champion. The biggest advantage Radwanska has is her experience and guile but grass favors the better athlete almost always and in this case I am fairly confident that is the woman with the tournament-leading 47 aces. PREDICTION: Keys.

2015 FRENCH OPEN: Serena-Azarenka R32 Match Today; Nole, Raja, Andy, Rafa, Masha, Petra All Into R16

Jack Sock followed up his 1st round upset of Grigor Dimitrov (10)
 by reaching his first Grand Slam 4th round when he beat Borna Coric

The 2015 French Open at Roland Garros is almost half over and on the men's side the top seeds are basically cruising to the business end of the tournament. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych are all in the round of 16, along with at least four French players: Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Jeremy Chardy, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. One of the big surprises on the men' side is the emergence of Jack Sock, who reached the fourth round of a major for the first time after beating #10 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the first round.

The women's draw has not held to form as strongly, with #3 seed (and 2014 Roland Garros finalist) Simona Halep falling to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round and Serena Williams losing a set in her 2nd round match and has an unlucky meeting with Victoria Azarenka in the 3rd round. Azarenka had triple match point against Serena on clay in Madrid just a few weeks ago but managed to lose that encounter. Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova are already in the Round of 16 but other clay-court favorites like Carla Suarez Navarro, Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber are already out of the tournament.

TENNIS TUESDAY: UK Beats US, Serena Loses Sacha To Vika, Mayer Wins Marathon

Mayer The Marathon Man
Leonardo Mayer of Argentina needed 11 match points and 6 hours and 42 minutes to defeat Joao Souza of Brazil in the longest Davis Cup match of all time, breaking the longtime record held by John McEnroe's win over Mats Wilander in 1982. The win leveled the tie between Argentina and Brazil at 2-all and then Federico Delbonis beat Thomas Bellucci to advance Argentina to the quarterfinals of this year's Davis Cup.

Muzza Muzzles Americans With An Assist From Ward
World #3 Andy Murray powered Great Britain to a win over a favored United States team by defeating Donald Young and John Isner while somehow James Ward was able to play well above his ranking of #111 to beat Isner in five sets to and dash the Americans hopes of getting past the Brits for the second consecutive year.

Mauresmo Gets Into The Hall Of Fame
Murray's coach, 2-time major champion Amelie Mauresmo was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame this week.

Kei Wins Battle With Raonic, Loses War As Canada Advances
World #5 Kei Nishikori beat World #6 Milos Raonic in their Davis Cup match 6-4 in the fifth set but Canada was able to eliminate Japan in Davis Cup for the year when the Canucks won the doubles point with Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor and Go Soeda was unable to win either of his singles matches.

Serena Returning To Indian Wells This Week, Loses Sascha To Vika
World #1 Serena Williams is playing her first match at Indian Wells tournament since she beat Kim Clijsters to win the title in 2001. Serena announced her return soon after her Australian Open win in January. I said then it was likely that would make me go to the tournament but it looks like that may not happen this year due to some work commitments. Serena will be playing her first tournament in many years without her hitting partner Sascha Baijin, who announced that he was joining Vika Azarenka's camp. The two sides played nice, however:

That's all for this week's Tennis Tuesday!

2014 AUS OPEN: Serena Wins Brisbane; Ana Beats Venus in Auckland; Li Wins Shenzhen

Serena Williams won her first championship of 2014 by defending her 2013 Brisbane International title with a 6-4 7-5 win over World #2 Victoria Azarenka. Serena now has 58 career WTA titles, #7 on the all-time list, with Billie Jean King (67) and Evonne Goolagang Cawley (68) in her sights.

In Auckland, former World #1 Ana Ivanovic won her first title in over two years by outlasting 7-time major champion Venus Williams 6-2 6-7 6-4. This result was something of a surprise since Venus held a lifetime 8-1 advantage over Ana. It is the Serbian's 11th career WTA title.

In China, Li Na defended her title at the Shenzhen Open over Peng Shuai 6-4 7-5.

The 2014 Australian Open begins Monday January 13, with the Sydney International beginning on January 5th. Last year, Li faced Vika in the final of the Australian Open. Both players have made the final twice, with Li losing twice and Vika winning twice. Serena has won the tournament 5-times and never lost an Australian Open final.

2014 AUS OPEN: Serena-Azarenka, Venus-Ivanovic In Warm-Up Finals

The 2014 Australian Open starts on January 13, 2014 in Melbourne. The Asia-Pacific hard court season is in full-swing and Venus Williams and Serena Williams are playing well. Venus will face Ana Ivanovic in the final of the 2014 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. Serena will face Victoria Azarenka in the final of the 2014 Brisbane International. She beat Maria Sharapova in a surprisingly tight straight set match 6-2 7-6(7) for the 14th consecutive time since 2005.

Serena in the final of the warm-up to the Australian is not surprising because she reached 13 WTA tour finals in her 78-4 season last year and has not lost a WTA tour level match since August 2013 (to Azarenka, in a 3rd set tiebreak in the finals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, which I included at #4 on my Top 10 list of best women's tennis matches of 2013).

However, that Venus is in the final is quite surprising since she last reached a final when she won her 44th career title in October 2012 in Luxembourg. The head-to-head between Ivanovic and Venus is 8-1 in favor of Venus, so I would give her a very good shot to start of 2014 with a title.
Serena leads Vika 13-3 in their career head-to-head but the two split their four meetings last year, with Vika being the only person to beat Serena twice in several years.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Serena Ends 2013 Season 78-4, With 11 Titles, $12.3M

Serena Williams ended her 2013 season with her 78th win, the first time in her illustrious career she has won more than 62 matches in the same year. Compared to only four losses (to Victoria Azarenka in Doha and Cincinnati, Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon and Sloane Stephens in Melbourne), that gives her a winning percentage of .951, 9th on the all-time list.

Serena defeated the new World #3 player in the world, Li Na in a tough 3-set final where she was outplayed for the first 30 minutes but ended it in complete control, winning the last 9 consecutive games, 2-6 6-3 6-0. By winning, Serena won her 11th WTA tour title of the year and amassed over $12.3 million in prize money, the 3rd largest annual haul by any player, shattering by more than $4 million the previous record set by Azarenka. It is also Serena's 57th career title and 632nd career win (10th all-time).

Williams Beats Azarenka. VENUS Williams!

Wow! Unsurprisingly, a Williams sister beat World #2 Victoria Azarenka in Japan yesterday. The surprise is that it was Venus Williams who did it, and the score was 6-2 6-4. Even more surprising comes the remarkable news that Venus has now never lost to Azarenka, and this was their third meeting. Azarenka has been feeling sick for the last three days and was clearly not at her best:

Azarenka talked about her physical condition afterwards in her post-match press conference.

"I haven't been feeling well the last few days and haven't been able to practice," Azarenka said. "It has been very frustrating. But I got out there for the people. Everyone was waiting a long time for this match, so there was no way I wasn't going to go out there. I appreciate people coming out and paying for the tickets - they should see the players play. And I tried my best. I did whatever I could do today.

"But you have to be at your best to play against a top player like her. So all the credit to her."

Williams scored her first win over a Top 2 player since beating Dinara Safina at Wimbledon in 2009.

"I don't think Victoria was feeling her best - hopefully she'll be feeling better and ready for Beijing - Lord knows I know what it's like not to feel great," Williams said. "But other than that, obviously it's great to win today, but the tournament's not over, it just started, so I have to continue playing well now."

Williams and Azarenka's other two meetings came at the Olympics in 2008 (Williams won, 63 62) and Dubai in 2010 (Williams won, 63 75). Williams improves to 3-0 in her head-to-head against Azarenka.

World #1 Serena Williams is not playing in the Pan Pacific Open (and probably will skip the entire Asian swing) but will most likely return to the WTA Tour just to play the WTA Year End Championships in Istanbul next month, where she is the defending champion.

Serena turns 32 years old on Thursday. Two weekends ago she beat Azarenka to win her 17th major title at the 2013 US Open.

Hat/tip to the Daily Bagel

2013 US OPEN: Tournament Review

Now that the 2013 US Open has been concluded and some time has passed I would like to take some time to review the tournament as a whole. The winners were Rafael Nadal (men's single title) and Serena Williams (women's singles title). The two have a lot in common, since they both also won the French Open this year (in a strange quirk, they each defeated the reigning Australian Open champion in their respective championship matches) and they are leading their tours in matches won and titles claimed. They each won several warm-up tournaments going into the US Open, and thus earned an extra $1 million bonus check for leading the US Open Series. Williams, 32, now has 17 major titles (21 finals) and she is being acknowledged as the greatest of all-time (G.O.A.T.), while Nadal, 27, with 13 major titles (18 finals) is being mentioned more frequently in that context as the current G.O.A.T. Roger Federer's abilities appear to be slowly diminishing with age.

However, here are my Top 5 Memorable Moments from the 2013 US Open:

5. Carla Suarez Navarro Outlasts Angelique Kerber In A Tough 4th Round 3-Set Match. On the middle Sunday of the tournament I attended the US Open in person and was treated to a surprisingly thrilling women's match between World #8 Angelique Kerber and Carla Suarez Navarro on Louis Armstrong Stadium. Although it was scheduled at the same time as the most hyped match of the tournament (the rematch between the two top Americans Sloane Stephens and Serena Williams) was going on it ended up being the more compelling contest. The Suarez Navarro-Kerber match was a slug fest with ricocheting momentum shifts over nearly three hours, culminating in a final set tiebreak that was eventually won by the more fearless, aggressive player, which (and this was the main surprise) was the lower ranked Spaniard, not the higher ranked German.
4. Richard Gasquet beats Milos Raonic and David Ferrer to reach his second major semifinal.Frenchman Richard Gasquet is not known for his steely competitive spirit despite his excessive talent. He has long been heralded as the future of tennis (on the cover of tennis magazine well before puberty!) and his lack of major success at the major events is a major disappointment for French tennis. But more recently Gasquet has been showing a lot more resolve of late, and his ascendance into the Top 10 of men's tennis is the result. But even with that background, no one would have expected Gasquet to win back-to-back 5-set matches against two players he had 1 win against out of 10 matches (huge-serving Milos Raonic of Canada and fatigue-inducing David Ferrer). But Gasquet showed that he is fit enough to stay out on court long enough with anybody and has the firepower on both wings (including the too hastily dismissed one-handed backhand) to trouble most residents of the Top 10.
3. Stanislas Wawrinka takes out Andy Murray and throws a scare into Novak Djokovic.The player who had the most impact on the men's side of the draw, besides the eventual champion Rafael Nadal was the Swiss #2 Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka ended the run of World #5 Tomas Berdych in the 4th round despite the fact that the Czech champ was playing excellent tennis. He followed up that improbable result by handily dismissing the defending champion and World #3 Andy Murray in straight sets in the very next round. Then, most improbably, he took on World #1 Novak Djokovic and showed that he truly believed he could win that match, and was up 2 sets to 1 at one point before he succumbed in the end. We know now that there was basically no one who could have defeated Nadal the way he was playing, but in some respects I would have liked to have seen Wawrinka give it a try!
2. Tommy Robredo confirms the diminution of Roger Federer by handing him a straight sets 4th round loss.This was the most heartbreaking moment of the tournament for me. It was the best of times, because I was able to finally see Roger Federer compete on a big stage, close up. It was the worst of times, because Federer proceeded to lose in straight sets to an opponent he had beaten ten consecutive times before. This was the match that confirmed for most people that the end of the "Federer era" had indeed been reached, and that the Swiss Great's best tennis was clearly in his past and not his future. This was not only a moment that impacted this major, but its significance will reverberate through every major played for the next few years in which Federer appears.
1. Serena Williams wins her 2nd major final of the year despite blowing huge lead in 2nd set.In some respects the women's side of the draw was uninteresting because from the very beginning of the tournament everyone expected the top 2 seeds to be playing in the final and that is precisely what happened. And then, despite horrific playing conditions, we ended up getting one of the most dramatic women's finals ever, even more dramatic than last year's final, but with a similar result: Serena Williams settling down and reeling off a consecutive string of games to win the set and the championship match. Last year Serena was down 3-5 when she was able to win 4 games in a row and win 7-5 in the 3rd while this year she won the last 5 games of the match, running away with it after 1-all in the 3rd set. This happened despite the fact that she was up a set and 4-1 (double break!) and had somehow managed to blow a huge lead and actually lose the second set by having her serve broken twice in succession. When Serena lost the 2nd set tiebreaker I was convinced that she would not be able to win the match if Azarenka was able to keep the match close like she had in the first two sets. However, it turned out that Azarenka was unable to maintain her high level of play and this helped Serena be disrupted out of her low level of play, which ultimately resulted in her winning her 17th major title.

Now that the major tennis tournaments of the year are completed the only important question is who will be the year-end #1 players on the tour and in both cases it is clear that that will be Nadal and Serena as well. However, the rest of the year is also an opportunity for other players to make their moves up the rankings to set themselves up for increased success in 2014 and beyond.

2013 US OPEN: Serena Defeats Vika To Win 17th Major Title

As I predicted earlier today, World #1 Serena Williams outlasted World #2 Victoria Azarenka to win her 17th major title and 5th U.S. Open women's singles championship. The final score was 7-5 6-7(6) 6-1 and at 2 hours and 45 minutes is the longest women's final since 1980, when duration records started being kept.

The win puts her major title total at seventeen, just one behind fellow all-time great American players Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, and resulted in one-day payday of $3.6 million, $2.6 million for winning the US Open women's singles championship itself and an extra $1 million bonus for winning the US Open Series. That is the single largest payday in women's tennis history and is larger than the career earnings of every single active American male player.

In addition, Serena now has 67 wins and 4 losses (2 to her final opponent  Azarenka) on the year, including 9 WTA tour titles to add to her career haul of 55. The win also cements her World #1 ranking and assures she will end the year as #1, having won two majors in a calendar year for the 6th time and defending a major title for only the 4th time.

2013 US OPEN: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at the 2013 US Open. This year I correctly predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals. Last year I correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs. Na Li (CHN) [5]. This should be the better of the two semifinal matches since the Chinese champion possesses enough power to not be blown off the court against the defending champion who has been doing exactly that through her first 5 rounds including a frankly embarrassing 6-0 6-0 win in the quarterfinals against Carla Suarez Navarro, who is a good player. Williams has dropped an astonishing 13 games over 5 rounds to reach this major semifinal and on only 3 occasions has she lost in this round, winning on 20 other occasions. Serena very rarely loses semifinals in majors. However, in 2009 she did lose in the U.S. Open semifinal to Kim Clijsters when she was defaulted in a bizarre incident sparked by a questionable (and unfortunately unappealable) foot fault call. The two have met 9 times before and Serena has only lost once, including two close straight sets wins this year on hard courts in Cincinnati and Miami. Li Na is currently being coached by Carlos Rodriguez, who was the longtime coach of Serena's nemesis Justine Henin. However, although has the physical prowess to do better than she has in the past, she has yet to demonstrate that she has the mental fortitude to do so. In fact, this match could either be  a blowout (by Serena) or a taut, see-saw affair. Regardless, I would be very surprised if Serena did not figure out a way to win this match. Mad Professah's Pick: Serena.

Flavia Pennetta (ITA)  vs. Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [2].  This is Pennetta's first major semifinal of her rather long career while Azarenka is playing in her seventh. Interestingly, the two have a very close 1-1 head-to-head record, with Pennetta having won their last meeting, which was on hard courts, in 2011. However, Azarenka after having won the last two Australian Open titles is not the same player that she was. She has not actually been playing her best tennis in New York, but has managed to not panic despite losing the first set against Alize Cornet and Ana Ivanovic, confident that her game is steady enough to pull out the win in the end. There is basically nothing that the Italian does on the court that is better than what the Belarussian does on the court. The result will be that we will get a blockbuster final on Sunday, a reprise of last year's match up between the Top 2 players in the world. Mad Professah's pick: Azarenka.

2013 US OPEN: (Women's Draw Analyzed) Azarenka-Serena Final Likely

Serena Williams is the World #1, the #1 seed and the defending champion as the 2013 US Open approaches. The last time Serena defended a major title was in 2010, when she did it at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. Neither time was she the #1 player in the world. The last (first, and only) time she defended a title while being World #1 was in 2003 when she defended her 2002 Wimbledon title (beating sister Venus in both final matches).

So, although she is the prohibitive favorite to win in New York on Sunday September 8th, there is a fairly good chance that she won't. In terms of hard court records this year, 2013 Australian Open champion and #2 seed Victoria Azarenka has the better win-loss percentage, with 25-1, while Serena is at 29-3 (with two of those losses coming to Vika, in tough 3-setters in the finals of Doha and Cincinnati and the third loss coming to Sloane Stephens in the Australian Open quarterfinals). The only player to beat the Belarussian on  a hard court this year is 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur, who did it in Carlsbad.

Vika and Serena and a reprise of last year's final is the generally expected result. However, if form holds, the draw indicates that the quarterfinal match-ups would be: Williams versus Angelique Kerber, Agnieska Radwanska versus Li Na, Caroline Wozniacki versus Sara Errani and Petra Kvitova versus Azarenka. However, Williams starts off her title defense playing a fellow grand slam champion in Francesca Schiavone and could also face Magdalena Rybarikova in the 3rd round and Stephens in the 4th. If she gets through those contests I think she will most definitely make it to the final for the 3rd consecutive year.

Azarenka, on the other hand, has a much easier draw and really only has to worry about either Kvitova or Stosur in her quarter and  in the unlikely event that Wozniacki or Errani make it that far, her semifinal should be relatively easy. The only other potential big hitter that could have caused her trouble is Maria Sharapova, who withdrew with a shoulder injury. That section of the draw will almost certainly have a surprise semifinalist, who should end up being dismissed by Azarenka.

First round matches to watch: Heather Watson versus red-hot Simona Halep, Madison Keys versus Jelena Jankovic, Monica Puig versus Alisa Kleybanova, Sabine Lisicki versus Vera Dushevina, and Kirsten Flipkens versus 7-time major champion Venus Williams.

2013 CINCY: Azarenka Wins Title As Serena Falters At End

To the surprise of many, including yours truly, Victoria Azarenka was able to outlast Serena Williams in the deciding portions of the the third set and win the 2013 Western & Southern Open 2-6 6-2 7-6(6). For only the third time in fifteen meetings, Vika was able to defeat Serena, ending a 14-match winning streak. Serena dropped to 50-4 for the season with 8 titles, while Azarenka won her 3rd. However, she has now beaten Serena in 2 title matches in 2013 and is 3-all in career finals against her.

The match was  a seesaw affair with Serena running away with the first set in 26 minutes and then making over 2 dozen errors in the second set to lose it by an identical score. In the third set Azarenka broke first and held to go up 4-2 and led 30-0 on her own serve when Serena turned things around and won 3 consecutive games to serve for the match at 5-4. Almost everyone expected the 16-time major champion to close out the match at that point but she got broken relatively easily (failing to make crucial first serves) and the deciding tiebreak was the result. In the tiebreak Azarenka was ahead 2-0 and 4-2 but then Serena was up to 5-4 on her own serve. In a significant exchange Azarenka hit a running forehand down the line and was pulled way off court so that all Serena had to do was bunt the ball on the backhand side into the court to go up 6-4 and she hit it four feet long. She double faulted at 5-all to give Azarenka championship point and then hit a service return winner to save championship point but after a good first serve Azarenka had a second championship point, which she won when an errant Serena backhand hit the top of the tape.

It will be interesting to see if they both get to the finals of the US Open final in 3 weeks what will happen. It is clear that Azarenka is not intimidated by Serena and her recent results indicate that she shouldn't be!

2013 CINCY: Serena Williams- Victoria Azarenka Final

At the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Serena Williams will face Victoria Azarenka in Sunday's final. Serena defeated defending champion Li Na 7-5 7-5 in a very tight semifinal match which featured 12 breaks of serve. But that was just the warm-up for the clash between Jelena Jankovic and Azarenka which turned into a 3-set serving disaster that included an astonishing 23 breaks of serve and a combined 20 double faults. Vika eventually prevailed 4-6 6-2 6-3.

Today's final will be a reprise of last year's US Open final which was won in dramatic fashion by Serena despite Azarenka leading 5-3 in the 3rd set and this year's Doha final which was won by Vika 7-6(6) 2-6 6-3.

Serena won last week in Toronto and is playing well this summer, having only lost three times this year and won her 2nd French Open title. That being said, she did not look that good against Li Na and clearly had some kind of abdominal injury which hampered her ability to hit her serve as fast as she wanted. She has clinched the US Open Series title one week early and is eligible for up to $1 million in bonus prize money if she defends her title in New York.

Azarenka defended her major title in Australia earlier this year and knows that she has the game to defeat Serena, even though she has only ever done it twice in fourteen meetings. Her only other win was in the final of the 2009 Miami title when Serena was injured.

I believe Serena will win the match, but it will not be easy. If she really is injured enough so that she can't get free points on her serve that will make it a long day at the office. She has a much better return of serve and a better serve (when not injured) than Jankovic so that will make this a much tougher match-up for Vika. That being said, the fact Serena has never won this title before and that she is playing one of the few people who ha beaten her all year should make it an interesting match. That being said, there's a reason why Serena sports a 12-2 head-to-head versus Azarenka (7-2 on hard courts and only 3-2 in finals). MadProfessah's pick: Serena.