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.

2019 FRENCH OPEN: Barty Wins First Major Title, Reaches World #2

As I predicted, #8 seed Ash Barty, 23, defeated Czech lefty Marketa Vondrousova, 19, in the final of the 2019 French Open, 6-1 6-3. Barty's win means that her new ranking will be World #2 on Monday. In fact, she will be less than 200 points behind World #1 Naomi Osaka who has won the two previous majors (2019 Australian Open and 2018 U.S. Open).

In the final, Barty was quickly up a set and a break (6-1, 2-0) and unlike the last two women who were in that situation in the Roland Garros final (Simona Halep in 2017 and Sloane Stephens in 2018), Barty did not falter and went on to win the title, instead of losing in three sets.

Barty had never passed the second round in her five previous appearances before this year. By winning the major she became Australian's latest major champion after a gap of 8 years (2011 US Open) and her ascent to World #2 is the first time an Aussie woman had been ranked that high since 1976.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Big 3 Are All Top 3; Tsitsipas Beats Nadal; Djokovic Wins Madrid; Kiki Beats Halep

THE BIG THREE (DJOKOVIC, NADAL, FEDERER) ARE ATOP THE ATP RANKINGS AGAIN
The big 3 first occupied the Top 3 spots at the top of the rankings on July 9, 2007 (when Djokovic joined Nadal and Federer). Last week, Federer returned to the Top 3 where Djokovic and Nadal were holding down the two top spots. Together the three players account for an astonishing 792 weeks at #1, with Federer owning the record 310 weeks, followed by Djokovic with 251 and Nadal with 196.

TSITSIPAS BEATS NADAL IN MADRID SF, OWNS WINS OVER BIG 3 AT AGE 20!
The Madrid Masters ended with Rafael Nadal suffering his 3rd consecutive semifinal loss in a clay court tournament in 2019. He lost to Fabio Fognini (in straight sets) in Barcelona, to Dominic Thiem in Monte Carlo and he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Madrid! This is the first time since 2004 that Nadal has reached this point in the season without having won a title. His last chance at a clay title will be Rome, where both World #1 Djokovic and (surprisingly!)  World #3 Federer are also playing. The key take-away from Madrid though is despite being just 20-years-old Tsitsipas already has wins over all of the members of the trivalry and is up to World #7 in the rankings. He beat Federer in the 4th round of the 2019 Australian Open, he beat Nadal in Madrid and he beat Djokovic in Montreal last summer.

KIKI BEATS SIMO TO WIN MADRID; RISES TO WORLD #4
Surprisingly, Kiki Bertens became the first player to ever win the Madrid Open without dropping a set when she defeated 2-time champion (2016 & 2017) Simona Halep 6-4 6-4. Bertens had lost the final last year to Petra Kvitova but she has had some of her best results in her career in the last year, including a win over Venus Williams at Wimbledon. With the biggest title of her career she becomes the highest ranked Dutch player ever, rising to World #4 this week!

DJOKOVIC RETURNS TO FORM WITH WINS OVER THIEM & TSITSIPAS TO WIN MADRID MASTERS
For the first time this year, the person who beat Nadal on clay did not win the tournament. Less than 24 hours after beating Nadal, Tsitsipas had to face Djokovic in the final, and was fairly easily dismissed, 6-3 6-4. Djokokic had more trouble in the semifinals against Dominic Thiem, whome he defeated in two tiebreak sets despite being down a service break in both sets! With his win, the World #1 cements his place at the top of the rankings, especially considering he has won the last three major tournaments in a row and now has tied Nadal with 33 Masters shields. Federer lags behind with 28.

FEDERER HITS 1200 WIN MILESTONE; DECIDES TO PLAY ROME
Roger Federer hit another career milestone by winning his 1200 match in Madrid (by coming from behind to beat Gael Monfils). After losing a tight 3-set match to Dominic Thiem (despite holding two match points) he decided to play Rome for the first time since 2016.

2018 CINCY: Djokovic Beats Federer To Complete Masters Set, Bertens Saves MP To Beat Halep

Novak Djokovic won his first ATP Cincinnati Masters title in his 6th final, beating Roger Federer 6-4 6-4 on Sunday. It means that the 13-time major champion has now won all of the biggest tournaments in tennis (all 4 majors, the World Tour final and all 9 ATP Masters shields) at least once, something Rafael Nadal and Federer have not done. The fact that the 2018 Wimbledon champion won this important US Open series event means that Djokovic is one of the favorites for the 2018 US Open, which starts on Monday August 27. Also, with Djokovic's return to firm and his head-to-head leads (27-25 versus Nadal, 24-22 versus Federer and 25-11 versus Andy Murray) against all his rivals in the Big Four is rekindling the G.O.A.T discussion. Djokovic is back to World #6.

On the women's side Simona Halep was playing for history as well on Sunday, trying to become the first woman to pull off the Canada-Cincinnati double. However, despite having a match point against Kiki Bertens, the World #1 lost 2-6 7-6(6) 6-2. She is still the #1 seed for the upcoming US Open, while Bertens reached her career high ranking of World #13 after the biggest win of her career.

Sadly, I went 0-for-2 in my predictions of the Cincinnati men's and women's finals. Hopefully I have a return to form at the US Open!

2018 STUTTGART: Federer Wins 98th Title (Defeating Raonic), Will Return To World #1

Roger Federer resumed his presence on the ATP tour as the grass season began with a first-ever title in Stuttgart. In two consecutive rounds, Federer defeated Nick Kyrgios (in the semifinal) and Milos Raonic (in the final).

Both of these matches were quite significant. The 6-7(2) 6-2 7-6(5) win over Kyrgios resulted in a return to the top of the ATP rankings by Federer. For the third time in three meetings their match was decided by a 3rd set tiebreak, this time won by Federer; he now leads the head-to-head 2-1.

The final was also significant, and was a 6-4 7-6(3) win, extending Federer's win streak on grass to 16 (including wins at Halle and Wimbledon in 2017). It was Federer's 148th ATP tour final, and he now has a 98-50 record, with an 18-6 record in grass finals. This was Federer's 98th final win (65 of which he won in straight sets) and 3rd title of the year. The all-time record is held by Jimmy Connors at 109. Can Federer reach or exceed this number? It's more likely now than it was last week.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Halep Gets #1; Garcia,Nadal Keep Winning

SIMONA HALEP EARNS #1 WTA RANKING AFTER BEATING OSTAPENKO IN CHINA
For the third time in 2017, there is a new #1 player on the WTA tour. Simona Halep reached the pinnacle of women's tennis on Saturday when she reached the final of the Wuhan Open by defeating Jelena Ostapenko 6-2 6-4. Of course, Halep has had multiple chances to reach #1 in the last 4 months and famously lost the 2017 French Open final to Ostapenko in June. The Romanian is the 25th player to reach #1 but the fourth #1 this year, following Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza before her.

CAROLINE GARCIA WINS WUHAN AND BEIJING TO REACH TOP 10 FOR FIRST TIME
Could Andy Murray's prediction that Carolina Garcia of France would be a future #1 from four years ago be coming true soon? Garcia is playing some of the best tennis of her life and has now won two consecutive titles, the Wuhan Open (d. Barty) and China Open (d. Halep). She is on an 11-match winning streak and has surged into #9 on the WTA tour, reaching the Top 10 for the first time and becoming the second player since Marion Bartoli did it in 2013.

NADAL TOTAL 2017 MATCH WINS AT 6; GRABS BEIJING TITLE BY CRUSHING KYRGIOS
World #1 Rafael Nadal has won his 75th ATP tour title at the China Open (just 2 behind the #4 record holder John McEnroe) and now has the most match wins on tour for 2017: 61. He beat Grigor Dimitrov and Nick Kyrgios in the semifinal and final matches after saving match point against Lucas Pouille in his first match in Beijing.

FEDERER CELEBRATES 20 YEARS ON ATP TOUR (DEBUTED #803 ON 09/22/97)
World #2 Roger Federer celebrated 20 years on the ATP tour a few weeks ago. He debuted at #803 on the ATP rankings at age 16 on September 22, 1997. Interestingly, other future #1's were nearby, with Lleyton Hewitt at #808 and Juan Carlos Ferrerro at #756.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Rafa Returns to #1; Dimitrov and Zverev Win 1st Masters Titles; Halep Misses #1 Again

NADAL REGAINS ATP #1 RANKING
Thanks to Roger Federer's withdrawal from Cincinnati after injuring himself in the final of Montreal Masters against Sascha Zverev, and the absence of Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic from the tour for the entire hard-court season to date has resulted in Rafael Nadal ascending to the top of the ATP rankings for the 4th time in his career.

#NEXTGEN MASTERS: DIMITROV WINS CINCINNATI, ZVEREV WINS MONTREAL
Grigor Dimitrov wins the Cincinnati Masters by defeating Nick Kyrgios in straight sets. Sascha Zverev won his 2nd Masters title of the year by defeating Roger Federer at the Montreal Masters.

HALEP MISSES (ANOTHER) CHANCE TO REACH WORLD #1
Simona Halep faced off against Garbine Muguruza in the Cincinnati tournament with the #1 WTA ranking on the line. This is the second time this summer Halep has been one match win away from the top spot (previously if she had won the French Open final she would have reached the #1 ranking). This time she did not come close to achieving the result, managing to win only one game against Muguruza. Karolina Pliskova continues her reign at the top for the time being.

AZARENKA OUT OF US OPEN DUE TO CUSTODY BATTLE WITH BABY DADDY
Somehow I missed the announcement that new mother Victoria Azarenka had split with Billy McTeague the father of her son, Leo, a few weeks after Wimbledon. But now the issue is front and center because the custody fight over their son is causing Azarenka to withdraw from the 2017 U.S. Open. McTeague is refusing to give permission for Azarenka to leave the state with their son, even though Azarenka said she would pay for McTeague to stay in a New York City hotel to continue joint custody while she competes in this year's tournament. That was deemed unacceptable by her ex, so forcing the tennis star to choose between her son and playing the last major of the year resulted in the withdrawal.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Muguruza Soars To WTA #2, Thiem Hits ATP #7, Grass Season Begins

WTA Rankings: Muguruza #2 (And Closing On Serena), Venus Back In Top 10, Kiki Goes +68
This week's WTA rankings are out and, as expected, 2016 French Open champion Garbine Muguruza is at World #2. She is close enough behind Serena that it is possible (but unlikely) that if the Spaniard were to defend all her 1365 Wimbledon finalist points and Serena Williams not defend her Wimbledon champion points, the 22-year-old could claim the #1 spot for the first time. Venus Williams has returned to the WTA top 10, landing at #9 and will most likely be seeded #8 at Wimbledon because #8 Belinda Bencic is injured. After her Roland Garros triumphs, Kiki Bertens jumps 68 places from #96 to #27. She will almost certainly be seeded at Wimbledon, and play for a medal in Rio.

ATP Rankings: Thiem Enters Top 10, Goffin Knocking At #11, Djokovic Nearly Double #2
After battling each other for a major semifinal spot, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin have career high rankings, landing at #7 and #11, respectively. By dint of his holding all four major titles simultaneously, Djokovic has a record number of ATP ranking points (16,950) which is almost double the total of World #2 Andy Murray. Despite leaving his favorite tournament early due to a serious wrist injury, Rafael Nadal moved up to #4 in the rankings which should prevent him from a quarterfinal meeting with anyone else in the Top 4 at Wimbledon.

Djokovic Blows Past $100 Million Career Prize Money:  $101,917,404
With his win on Sunday, Novak Djokovic is slowly making his case to be considered the greatest of all time. By holding all four major titles simultaneously he has accomplished something neither of his contemporaries (Federer and Nadal) have done, and thanks to the monotonic increase in prize money with time, Djokovic is almost certain to end with more prize money than either of them either. Due to his unprecedented success in the ATP Masters Series event, he has earned more than $101 million in his time on tour, and he is not yet 30.

The Grass Season Begins And Federer Returns In Stuttgart, Brown Wins in Manchester
This year Federer is playing not one but two Wimbledon warm-up tournaments, in Stuttgart and Halle. He has reached the Wimbledon final the last two years, losing both times to Novak. Dustin Brown won a grass court challenger tournament in Manchester over the weekend and is now back into the Top 100.

Tommy Haas Hasn't Retired (Yet) But Has Been Announced As Indian Wells Tournament Director
After the collapse of support for Raymond Moore as longtime director of the ATP masters tournament in Indian Wells due to his rampant misogyny and sexism, a search was conducted for a new TD. The announcement was made last week that Tommy Haas (who is still an active member of the ATP Tour, and very popular among the players) has been named as the new Indian Wells tournament director, subject to the approval of the boards of the WTA and ATP.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Murray Regains #2; Muguruza Reaches #4; Federer Suffers 1st Rd Upset In Shanghai

MURRAY REGAINS WORLD #2 AS FEDERER SLIPS IN SHANGHAI
The points for his 2014 win at the Shanghai Masters 1000 having slipped off this week, Roger Federer slipped to World #3, swapping places with Andy Murray, who could cement his spot as #2 if he were to do well at this year's tournament. After an excellent 2015, Kevin Anderson is finally rewarded with a Top 10 showing, coming it at #10.

FEDERER SUFFERS SHOCK LOSS TO LEFTY SPANIARD (NOT WHOM YOU THINK)
Defending champion Roger Federer lost his first round match at the ATP Shanghai Masters 1000 to a lefty Spaniard, Alberto Ramos-Vinolas. Last year, Federer was also in trouble in his first round match, having to save five(!) match points to get past Leonardo Mayer (but he went on to win the tournament). This time, despite hitting twenty three more winners than his opponent and breaking him more times and outserving him (10 aces to 1) Federer lost 6-7(4) 6-2 3-6 after getting broken in the penultimate game. This is his first round loss since losing to Nick Kyrgios at the Madrid Masters on clay. However, Kyrgios is a known up and coming player while Ramos had never beaten a Top 10 player before in 15 meetings.

MUGURUZA WINS BEIJING OPEN OVER BASCZINSKY, BOTH GET RANKINGS BOOST
2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbine Marguruza won her biggest tournament of her career at the China Open in Beijing last weekend. She defeated Timea Basczinsky in straight sets. Both players were rewarded with rankings boosts: Muguruza moved up from #4 and is essentially tied for the #3 position with Maria Sharapova (she trails by 1 point out of nearly 5000) while Basczinsky entered the Top 10 for the first time, rewarded for her two major quarterfinal results (French Open and Wimbledon) this year.

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),

Tennis Tuesday: Murray Pushed Out Of World Top 10 By Cilic and Nishikori

The impact of the results of the year's last grand slam tournament are being seen in the new rankings of the WTA and ATP. Men's U.S. Open finalists Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori made big moves in the Top 10, ending up at #6 and #9, respectively. However, with players entering the Top 10 that means some players will get pushed out. Notably absent from the Top 10 is Andy Murray who fell two places to #11 and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who also fell two places to reach #12. Another player who made a big jump in the rankings is Gael Monfils who is now at #18.

On the women's side, the finalists Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki spent the night after they competed against each other in the 2014 U.S Open women's final by partying together. Wozniacki is ensconced at #9 while Serena extends her run at the #1 to 205 weeks and will almost certainly surpass Martina Hingis total of 209 weeks in the next month or so. Wozniacki's return to the Top 10 pushed out Jelena Jankovic. At the very top of the rankings Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova all went up a notch while Li Na fell out of the Top 5 for the first time in over a year.

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.

ATP Rankings: Ferrer Reaches World #3

As noted in a recent comment, the new World ATP Rankings are out and for the second consecutive week there has been a rare change in the Top 5 rankings. 2013 French Open finalist David Ferrer of Spain swapped places with 2013 Wimbledon champion Andy Murray of Scotland to reach #3 in the world. Ferrer had spent 5 weeks at #3 earlier this summer.

Other interesting moves in the ranking this week are Jo-Wilfried Tsonga going up to #8 and Nicolas Almagro going up to #13. Gael Monfils is the biggest mover in the Top 100 this week, shooting up 11 places to #31 after a week in which he defeated Roger Federer at the Shanghai Masters.