TENNIS THURSDAY: Medvedev Wins Shanghai; Coco Wins 1st WTA Title At Age 15; Federer Reveals 2020 Tokyo Plans; Rafa Gets Married 10/19

MEDVEDEV CONTINUES HOT STREAK WITH SHANGHAI TITLE
Daniel Medvedev continued his streak of extremely-hot tennis which began over the summer by winning his second Masters series event of the year, defeating Alexander Zverev in the final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters Open 6-4 6-1. It is Medvedev's sixth consecutive final appearance and third title of the year. Earlier in the tournament, Zverev had beaten Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Novak Djokovic to open up the draw for the 23-year-old Russian.

GAUFF MAKES HISTORY WITH FIRST TITLE AT AGE 15

CoCo Gauff again made good use of one of her limited opportunities to compete in a WTA professional tournament due to her age (15 years old) and became the youngest player since 2004 (the year she was born!) to win a tour title. Gauff defeated 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 1-6 6-2 to the Linz, Austria tournament. With her win CoCo will rise to #71 in the WTA rankings and will be guaranteed direct entry into the 2020 Australian Open.

FEDERER CONFIRMS HE WILL PLAY OLYMPICS AND ROLAND GARROS
Although not a huge surprise, Roger Federer finally confirmed that between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open next year he will participate in the 2020 Olympics, hoping to finally win a singles Gold medal. He has Gold medal in Doubles (from Beijing 2008) and a silver medal in singles (from London 2012) and did not play the Rio 2016 Olympics due to injury.

RAFA WILL MARRY LONGTIME GIRLFRIEND ON OCTOBER 19 IN MALLORCA
Finally! After 12 years of dating, Rafael Nadal will marry his girlfriend Xisca Perrello on October 19. The World #2 is the last of the Big 4 (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Nadal) to get married. The others have 8 children between them and Murray is expecting his 3rd child any day now.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Europe (Barely) Wins Laver Cup; Osaka Wins Osaka; Halep-Cahill Reunion

EUROPE WINS LAVER CUP FOR 3RD CONSECUTIVE YEAR
The Lave Cup is a new team competition (begun in 2017) dreamed up by Roger Federer and his agent Tony Godsick a few years ago modeled on the very successful Ryder Cup in golf. Two teams (World and Europe) compete in singles and doubles over a weekend in host cities that move around the world. This year the competition was in Geneva, Switzerland (next year it will be in Boston, Massachusetts and last year it was in Chicago, Illinois). One of the key delights of the Laver Cup is the ability to see legends like Rafael Nadal and Federer interacting together and combining to coach younger players who they are usually rivals with (like Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem). Federer is still undefeated in three years in singles. This year World came the closest to winning the Laver Cup when Jack Sock stunned himself (and everyone else) by beating Fabio Fognini. The American then teamed up with John Isner and defeated the Federer/Tsitsipas to give World its first-ever lead in Laver Cup. However, Federer beat Isner in singles and Zverev (for the second consecutive year) won the deciding match, this time in a Super Breaker 10-7 over Milos Raonic.

NAOMI OSAKA FROM OSAKA WINS OSAKA WTA TOURNAMENT
Naomi Osaka, World #4 and reigning Australian Open champion, won her second title of the year in her birthplace of Osaka, Japan. Osaka ended her title drought by defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.

HALEP ANNOUNCES COACHING REUNION WITH DARREN CAHILL FOR 2020
After winning her second major title at Wimbledon 2019 without his (official) assistance, Simona Halep has announced that she will be reuniting with her coach  Darren Cahill for the 2020 season. Presumably her focus will be to win one of the two hard court majors (and perhaps an Olympic medal?) in 2020.

2016 RIO OYLYMPICS: Murray Outlasts Del Potro For 2nd Gold; Nishikori Beats Nadal For Bronze

The tennis is complete at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Great Britain Andy Murray became the first player to defend his singles Gold medal (from the 2012 London Olympics) by outlasting a spirited challenge from 2012 Bronze medalist Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in a four-hour 7-5 4-6 6-2 7-5 victory. Del Potro had beaten 2008 Gold medalist Rafael Nadal and World #1 Novak Djokovic in two very high quality matches (featuring three tiebreaks all won by the Argentine) to reach this point. Nadal captured the Rio Olympics Gold medal in men's doubles with his longtime friend Marc Lopez. But Nadal was unable to win a medal in singles when Kei Nishikori of Japan defeated him in 3 sets in the Bronze medal match 6-2 6-7(1) 6-3.

Venus Williams became the first tennis player to win 5 Olympic medals when she earned a silver medal in the Mixed Doubles with partner Rajeev Ram as they lost to another American duo: Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock. Sock won a Bronze medal in men;s doubles by partnering with Stevie Johnson, defeating his usual doubles partnerVasek Pospisil of Canada (partnering with Daniel Nestor) along the way. Both Venus and Serena have four Gold medals (3 doubles together and 1 singles each).