2014 US OPEN: Kvitova(3) Shocked By Qualifier Krunic; Sharapova(5) Ousted By Resurgent Wozniacki

It's been an exciting weekend at the 2014 US Open so far with the disappearance of two major champions from the women's side of the draw. On Saturday, Serbian qualifier Miranda Krunic followed up her earlier upset of hard-hitting American teenager Madison Keys with an even more improbable straight sets 6-4 6-4dismissal of the reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova to reach the 4th round of a major tournament.

Later on that day Serena Williams held off a stiff challenge from Varvara Lepchenko, doing well to win in straight sets 6-3 603 in very difficult, windy conditions.

Then on Sunday, the reigning French Open champion Maria Sharapova was ousted in three very entertaining sets 6-4 2-6 6-2 by a very determined Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki will next play Sara Errani and the former World #1 has a very good chance to reach her 3rd U.S. Open final in five years thanks to the upsets which have plagued the bottom half of the draw.

The first big upset occurred on the Men's Side on Sunday with #4 seed David Ferrer losing to Gilles Simon. This could potentially be bad news for Roger Federer, who has never lost to Ferrer but has often struggled against the Frenchman Simon, if both players reach the semifinals by winning their next two matches.

Venus-Serena XXIV: 2013 Charleston Semifinals

For the first time since their showdown at the finals of the 2009 Year-End Championships in Doha, Qatar, Venus Williams and Serena Williams will face each other on the court in the semifinals of the 2013 Family Circle Cup in Charleston, SC. It is their 24th overall meeting, with younger sister Serena enjoying a 13-10 edge, having won their last four matches.

This is their first meeting on green clay, with the sisters splitting the two matches the two have played on red clay (2002 Roland Garros final w. Serena and 1998 Rome quarterfinal w. Venus).
Serena is the defending champion here and won last week's Key Biscayne title for a record 6th title, coming back from a set and break down to demolish her arch-nemesis Maria Sharapova for the 11th consecutive time.

Both sisters had to play two matches yesterday, with Venus beating fellow Americans Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 4-6 6-2 in the 3rd round and Madison Keys 6-4 6-4 in the quarterfinals a few hours later. Serena beat American qualifier Mallory Burdette (who?) 6-4 6-2 in the 3rd round and 2012 Family Circle Cup finalist Lucie Safarova 6-4 6-1.

The winner of the Williams showdown will face either Stefanie Voegele or Jelena Jankovic in the final. Jankovic won her 500th WTA tour match, while Voegele upset Carolina Wozniacki 3-6 6-4 6-3.

ESPN2 will broadcast today's match between Venus and Serena at 1pm EDT.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena.

2012 Wimbledon Day 6: Multiple Marathon Day

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AP

Day 6 of 2012 Wimbledon was pretty much upset free, with 2011 Champion Petra Kvitova(4) demolishing fellow lefty Varvara Lepchenko, Serena Williams(6) finding a way to win against a tough Chinese opponent (former Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie) and Victoria Azarenka(2) winning easily. Other notable winners of third round matches to reach the second week were Tamira Paszek, Ana Ivanovic, Francesca Schiavone and Yaroslava Shvedova.

On the men's side 3-time finalist Andy Roddick lost to David Ferrer in 4 sets while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(5), Juan Martin del Potro(9), Marin Cilic(16) and two Americans, Mardy Fish(10) and unseeded Brian Baker, advanced to the round of 16 on Monday. The astonishing Lukas Roso who defeated World #2 Rafael Nadal in stunning fashion on Thursday lost pretty meekly to Phillip Kohlschreiber.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray(4) was able to get past Marcos Baghdatis 7-5 3-6 7-5 6-1  a few minutes after Wimbledon's curfew at 11pm local time which should have forced the cessation of the match.

Match of the Day: 
S. Williams USA (6) d. J. Zheng CHN (25) 6-7(5) 6-2 9-7. Serena Williams blasted a career-high 23 aces but was unable to overpower her opponent with groundstrokes. When the rallies went beyond four strokes Zheng won the majority of the points. In fact, despite not having a very powerful serve, Zheng was able to hold serve very easily for the entirety of the first set, with Serena continually failing to impose her will on her opponent's service games. The result was a tiebreaker in which Zheng had one set point and capitalized on her opportunity. In the second set Serena started connecting on her groundstrokes and finally broke Zheng twice to win the set easily. In the 3rd set Serena continued her serving clinic and took a long time to get into Zheng's service games. Luckily for her, there's no tiebreak in the final set at Wimbledon so, in her longest grand slam match in a very long time, Serena was able to break and then serve it out to win.

M. Cilic CRO (16) d. S. Querrey USA 7-6(6) 6-4 6-7(2) 6-7(3) 17-15. The second longest match in Wimbledon history (5 hours 31 minutes) featured two 6'6" hard-hitting, big-serving players with pretty similar games. It was high quality tennis throughout, but Cilic had many more chances, including serving for the match at 6-5 in the 4th set and was only 2 for 6 on break points in the 5th set and 5 of 16 for the entire match. Cilic-Querrey was less than half as long as the Isner-Mahut 11 hour, 5 minutes of play over 3 days.

USTA Names Men's and Women's Olympics Teams

The United States Tennis Association today named the members of the men's and women's teams who will represent the United States at the London Olympics. As I predicted, Venus Williams and Serena Williams were named to the team in both singles and doubles. Interestingly, John Isner and Andy Roddick  (as well as Mike and Bob Bryan, of course) were named to the doubles team, so I wonder who will get to play with Serena in the new mixed-doubles competition?

Williams Sisters Qualify For London Olympics

With the publication of the latest WTA rankings on Monday, the composition of the United States Olympic Team members who will be participating in tennis became clearer. The Top 56 players are automatically eligible to play at the London Olympics (which starts July 24th at the All-England Tennis Club in Wimbledon). 3-time Gold Medallist Venus Williams, 31, is now ranked #47, so she automatically qualifies, as does her 30-year-old sister Serena Williams, who is ranked at #6. Each country gets 4 singles players, so the other members of the team are expected to be Christina McHale (who is ranked #29) and Varvara Lepchenko at #52. Teen phenom Sloane Stephens may have to wait her turn for the Rio Olympics in 2016. There are also 8 "wild cards" so Stephens still has a chance to represent her country in London  but Vania King at #59 probably does not.

On the men's side, the ATP rankings indicate that Team USA is most likely going to include John Isner(#10), Andy Roddick, (#32) Donald Young (#48),  and Ryan Harrison (#52). #12 Mardy Fish has announced that he is not playing due to his recent medical situation with his heart.

There are also doubles teams (women's, men's and mixed) from each country. Obviously Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond and Bob and Mike Bryan will be included, but the mixed doubles team has to come from the people who qualify for singles. That has lead to an awful lot of speculation about who will be playing with  Serena: Isner, one of the Bryan brothers, or Roddick? Serena tried playing with lefty Bob Bryan in Paris and they lost in the first round. It will be interesting to see who she played the Wimbledon mixed doubles with. Obviously, she'll play the doubles with Venus.

2012 FRENCH OPEN Day 7: Lepchenko Upsets Schiavone

Varvara Lepchenko, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Uzbekistan (who I saw close up play a tough set against Aggie Radwanska at the Madrid Open which I attended while on vacation last month), eliminated 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the best match of Day 7 at Roland Garros 6-3 3-6 8-6 in 3 hours, 2 minutes. Some people called it an upset, but I totally expected Varvara to win this match. Other winners on Day 7 were Maria Sharapova, Kaia Kanepi (over former #1 Carolina Wozniacki), 2011 French Open champion Li Na and 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. The last two players dropped a set but easily won the deciding set against their less experienced opponents. Lepchenko plays Kvitova in the 4th round and it should be a tough match since lefties also do not like playing each other (since it happens so rarely). Lepchenko and Sloane Stephens are the two remaining American players in the tournament (male or female).

On the men's side the best match of the day was the very fit Juan Monaco's win over future phenom Milos Raonic 6-7(5) 6-3 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4 in nearly 5 hours. Monaco's prize will be a 4th round appointment with the King of Clay Rafael Nadal who made short work of attractive Eduardo Schwank. Other contenders to win today were Janko Tipsarevic, David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet (demolishing Tommy Haas 6-7(3) 6-3 6-0 6-0) and Nicolas Almagro.