2015 US OPEN: Djokovic Wins 10th Major (3rd in 2015) Defeating Federer

Dashing the hopes of millions of tennis fans around the world and thousands attending in person at Arthur Ashe stadium, Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4 to win his 10th major title, his 3rd major of 2015 and 2nd U.S. Open of his career. Although the score seemed very close, it was clear to me that the World #1 played the bigger points more solidly than his opponent, and took advantage of his opportunities more often when he had them. The key statistic was that Federer had 23 breakpoint opportunities but was only successful 4 times, while Djokovic had 10 less (13) breakpoint chances and converted nearly half of them (6). That was the match in a nutshell really.

Djokovic's win evens his career head-to-head with Federer at 21 apiece but more importantly he is now 3-1 in major finals, and has won two consecutive major finals against the 17-time champion.
Together, Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic together now have 41 major titles!

FILM REVIEW: Mission Impossible Rogue Nation

The other half and I have been mostly M.I.A. regarding Hollywood's summer blockbusters (We have seen Inside Out and Jurassic World and that's about it). Actually, we haven't done a very good job of watching movies in the theater this year. This is primarily because we've grown increasingly picky about only seeing movies in the theater that have rottentomatoes ratings over 90%. However, one of the movies we did shlep out to the Edward's Renaissance 14 in Alhambra to see was Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation. It got such excellent reviews (90% from audience reviews and 93% from critics) that we felt we should definitely check it out. (It should be noted that just because a movie does got excellent reviews doesn't mean that we will go see it. After all, Mad Max: Fury Road had a 97% rating from critics and 88% from the audience but we received word-of-mouth reviews from friends who had seen the film that ultimately influenced us not to see it in the theater.)

Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation opens with an incredible sequence where apparently Tom Cruise did his own stunt while holding on to the outside of a huge cargo plane while it took off. It's quite an astonishing sight to see one of the most famous people in the world and the star of the film clearly risking his life to make the film even more compelling.

As usual for most of these films, the plot itself is basically irrelevant. The enjoyment of the film is in its clever execution of multiple "impossible" sequence one after the other, with some leavening of humor expertly applied by Simon Pegg (Star Trek Into Darkness, Shawn of the Dead). Other standouts in the cast are Rebecca Ferguson as the enigmatic Ilsa Faust, who aligns herself with Cruise's Evan Hunt and claims that she is a double agent, but is she possibly a triple agent?

Overall, the film is a fun diversion and well worth the time and money spent to enjoy it in the theaters.


Title: Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie.
Running Time: 2 hours, 11 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and brief partial nudity.
Release Date: July 31, 2015.
Viewing Date: August 23, 2015.

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

Overall Grade: B (3.0/4.0).

2015 CINCY: Federer Claims 87th ATP Title; 7th Here; Reclaims World #2 Ranking

As I predicted yesterday, Roger Federer defeated Novak Djokovic to win the 2015 Cincinnati Masters. Federer won his 87th career ATP title, 7th in Cincinnati and 24th ATP Masters title of his career. Federer won 7-6(1) 6-3, never getting his serve broken for the entire tournament.

2015 CINCY: Federer-Djokovic XLI in the Men's Final Tomorrow

For the fifth time in 2015 Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are meeting on the ATP Tour, this time in the finals of the ATP Cincinnati Masters, a tournament where Federer is the 6-time (and current) champion and Djokovic has never been ultimately victorious despite reaching four finals.
The two have met 40 times overall and are tied at 20 wins apiece but this year Djokovic has won the last three times the two have played, all of which were in the finals of important tournaments: ATP Indian Wells Masters, ATP Rome Masters and the Wimbledon Men's Championships.

In the semifinals Federer beat Andy Murray in straight sets 6-4 7-6(6)  after Djokovic outlasted Aleksandr Dolgopolov 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2. In the final tomorrow Federer has a good chance to get revenge for his losses to Djokovic earlier in the year. He is 6-0 in Cincinnati finals while Djokovic is 0-4. Last week, Djokovic lost the final of the ATP Canadian Masters to Andy Murray after beat him 8 consecutive times, so despite the fact he has had Federer's number recently does not necessarily mean the World #1 will be successful.

MadProfessah's prediction: Federer.

2015 WIMBLEDON: Men's Final Preview (and Semifinals Review)

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] v. Roger Federer (SUI) [2]

Here are my predictions for the men's final at the Wimbledon Championships for 2015. Last year I did not predict that Novak Djokovic would beat Roger Federer in the final. This year I correctly predicted that Serena Williams would defeat Garbiñe Muguruza in the women's final. I also  correctly predicted correctly 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals, 2 of 2 women's semifinals, 2 of 2 men's semifinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

The Men's Semifinals: A Review
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] d. Richard Gasquet (FRA) [23] 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4. The winner of this match was never really in doubt. Richard Gasquet is a good grass-court player and deserves respect, but sometimes people are overmatched, and there's a reason why Djokovic has been #1 for more than a year while Gasquet is seeded #20. That being said, the Frenchman acquitted himself well and did not embarrass himself like he did at his hometown slam a month ago where none of the three sets he played against Djokovic were even remotely competitive. At this point in his career Djokovic simply doesn't lose in big tournaments to players outside the Top 10 (and rarely even loses to those players in those moments). His record in the last four majors is 25-2.

Andy Murray (GBR) [3] l. Roger Federer (SUI) [2] 5-7 5-7 4-6. This match-up between the 2012 Wimbledon champion (Federer) and the 2013 Wimbledon champion (Murray) for the right to face the 2014 Wimbledon champion (Djokovic) is a plot worthy of a Hollywood script. Many people thought that Murray would win this match because arguably he has been playing as well as Federer this year (they each have 6 losses but the Scot has 10 more wins, although bizarrely the Swiss has won one more title but Murray has had a better record at the Slams so far in 2015.) They both came into this match undefeated on grass for the year but Federer has worked himself into a deadly efficiency on his serve at this year's Wimbledon. He has only faced four breakpoints in the tournament to date and saved three of them(!). In this match against one of the best service-returners in the game Federer faced a breakpoint only in the very first game, and ended up winning 70 of 91 service points. This resulted in relentless pressure on Murray in his service games, who played very well, serving at a very good 74% but he was outmatched by Federer's 76%. The British player was only broken at the end of sets when the importance of the points increased geometrically and the tension ratcheted up exponentially. A key point was in the 10th game of the second set where the two played an excruciatingly long game, where Murray faced and saved 5 breakpoints that were set points. He saved them all with incredible defense and displaying his elite foot speed to bring the set score to 5-all and the capacity crowd in Centre Court (and Murray Mound/Henman Hill) roaring to its feat with joy. Federer shook off the lost opportunities, held serve in under a minute and the next time Murray served he was unable to again save all the breakpoints (which were also set points). Part of the reason Federer was so effective was that his movement was extraordinary and he was hitting his topspin backhand with authority, deferring the use of his effective slice backhand mostly to service return points. Murray played well but lost to the better player on the day.

The Men's Final: A Preview and Prediction

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs. Roger Federer (SUI) [2]. Of course this match is a reprise of last year's men's final, which was won by Djokovic in 5 sets, despite losing the first set in a tiebreak, and losing the fourth set when he was up a break (and had chances for a double break). These two players have the second longest rivalry in the history of men's tennis, having met 39 times before (Federer has a slight 20-19 edge). Even though the Federer-Nadal rivalry is more famous (and compelling) it actually only consists of 33 meetings (with the Spaniard dominating 23-10), the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry is men's tennis longest, stretching to 44 games, with Nadal slightly ahead (23-21). The two have played three times so far this year with Djokovic winning twice (Indian Wells final and Rome final) and Federer once (Dubai final). Federer-Djokovic XL is happening on grass at  the 2015 Wimbledon championships where the numbers indicate that the 17-time major champion is playing slightly better than the 8-time major champ. Federer has more winners, less errors, a higher service percentage, a higher service return percentage and an impeccable record on his serve at this year's tournament. Djokovic has been broken 5 times (but saved an incredible 20 of 25 break points) while Federer has been broken once (saved 3 of 4 breakpoints). If Federer does get into pressure situations for the first time in the tournament, how will he handle them? I'm sure his game plan is to serve well enough not to get into those positions in the first place (like he did against Murray), but Djokovic is an even better returner than Murray so I can't believe that this match will be that one-sided. That being said, I do think that Federer is playing better than he did last year and with Djokovic's loss in the French Open final a few weeks ago, he is the one who really has more mental pressure to still demonstrate that he has the game to take him into the upper pantheon of the tennis greats. Federer already knows that he will be in any conversation about the Greatest Of All Time regardless of the outcome of this match, which is his 10th Wimbledon final and 26th major final of his career (17-8); his legacy is assured. For Djokovic, playing in his 17th major final (4th in five years at Wimbledon) he is only 8-8 with the final determination of his relative greatness still to be determined. MadProfessah's prediction: Federer.

FILM REVIEW: Jurassic World

I'm a big fan of the original Jurassic Park film, which amazingly, was released way back in 1993. And, after last year's Guardians of the Galaxy I'm also a fan of Chris Pratt so when I started seeing the ads for Jurassic World I added the film to the shortlist of movies I wanted to see this summer. (Other movies on this very short list include Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Of course these all pale in importance to my anticipation of the release of the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens on  December 18.)

Jurassic World acts like it is a direct sequel to the original Jurassic Park, basically ignoring the two intervening films The Lost World and Jurassic Park III. In fact, Jurassic World is practically a reboot of the original, with many of the themes from the original: strong lead female role, extensive depictions of corporate greed, many situations endangering children, multiple examples of employee betrayal, a prideful, egotistical scientist, several fiendishly clever dinosaurs and lots of terrifying chase sequences.

There are two notable aspects of Jurassic World which are different from the original. The first is the idea that because there has been an operating dinosaur park for years two things have happened: 1) the park has become geographically huge, with multiple attractions (hence the upgrade from Park to World); 2) The attending public has grown so accustomed to seeing dinosaurs that they have grown inured to the novelty of interacting with gigantic animals that went extinct tens of millions of years ago.

Because of the situation reflected by (2) the corporate owners (represented by Irrfan Khan's multi-billionaire Simon Masrani) have invested tens of millions of dollars in literally constructing a new dinosaur hybrid, which they have named (after extensive focus group testing) Indominus Rex. The head of the park is Claire Dearing, played by Bryce Dallas Howard (as a particular example of a successful corporate woman) whose nephews are visiting their very busy aunt. Pratt plays Owen Grady, the primary "dinosaur-whisperer" on staff who has been trying to train velociraptors (the hyper intelligent dinosaurs from Jurassic Park) to follow voice commands.

Of course Indominus Rex escapes and goes on a rampage across the island, putting Claire's nephews in mortal danger, and of course demonstrating the hubris of humans thinking that they can mess with Mother Nature with impunity.

Overall, Jurassic World is a fun, entertaining trifle, with a script with holes big enough for a Tyrannosaurus Rex to run through. (Why do the kids talk about the impending divorce of their parents but then the subject is never mentioned again? Are we really to believe they not have continuous video coverage of Indominus Rex's cage so that they can figure out where it is at all times? Why can't they use the tracking device to confirm it's location?) Regardless, it is still enjoyable and worth seeing in the theaters. (There's a reason why it is absolutely demolishing box-office records and has a healthy 82% rating from the audience on rottentomatoes.com)

Title: Jurassic World.
Director: Colin Trevorrow.
Running Time: 124 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril.
Release Date: June 12, 2015.
Viewing Date: June 28, 2015.

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

Overall Grade: B/B+ (3.08/4.0).

2015 WIMBLEDON: Serena-Venus XXVI Headlines "Best Day In Tennis" On Monday

Venus Williams and Serena Williams have each won Wimbledon 5 times and have faced each other 5 times at the All-England Lawn and Tennis Club (4 times in finals!), and 25 times overall in their storied careers. Serena, 33, leads this rivalry 14-11 and their Wimbledon meetings 3-2. Venus, who turned 35 on June 18, actually won their last meeting (in Montreal last year) but Serena has won 5 of the last 6 matches the two have played.

At Wimbledon this year, Venus appears to be in better form, but she is currently ranked World #16 while Serena has been World #1 for well over a year. Venus won her first match 6-0 6-0 and has not dropped a set. In contrast, Serena played one of the most dramatic matches of the tournament so far against Briton Heather Watson in the 3rd round, coming back from two breaks (0-3) down in the deciding 3rd set to somehow even the set at 3-all. Watson broke again at 4-all and served for the match and got 30-15 (2 point away from victory) before losing 6-2 4-6 7-5.

I still expect Serena to win this match on Monday but I suspect it may be a 3-setter.

2015 WIMBLEDON: Nadal(#10) Upset In 2nd Round By Dustin Brown(#102)

For the fourth consecutive year 2-time Wimbledon champ (2008 and 2010) Rafael Nadal lost to a player ranked outside the Top 100. Before that he had reached the finals for five consecutive times that he played (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011). Today Nadal lost to 102nd-ranked Dustin Brown 7-5 3-6 6-4 6-4 in the 2nd round. Last year he lost to Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round, in 2013 he lost in the first round to Steve Darcis in the first round and in 2012 he lost to Lukas Rosol in five sets.

Amazingly, Brown is now 2-0 lifetime against Nadal, one of the very few people on the ATP tour who have a lead in their head-to-head record with the 14-time major champion. (Both meetings have occurred on grass.) Brown, 30, was born in Germany and has a Jamaican father and German mother. He is listed as 6-foot-5 and 172 pounds.

2015 WIMBLEDON: Venus Serves Up Double Bagel; #1 and #2 seeds Win 1R

The first day of play at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships is over and the Top 2 seeds in the men and women's draw have not dropped a set. #1 seed (and defending champion) Novak Djokovic faced the toughest resistance, against Philipp Kohlschreiber but still won 6-4 6-4 6-4. #2 seed Roger Federer won his match in straight sets (6-1 6-3 6-3).

On the women's side #1 seed Serena Williams started off very slowly against Margarita Gasparyan and found herself down 1-3 early on. She got back on track against a spirited opponent and ended up winning 6-4 6-1. #2 seed (and defending champion) Petra Kvitova dominated her opponent with a 6-1 6-0 win (in 35 minutes!)

Other notable victories include 5-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams 6-0 6-0 win over fellow American Madison Brengle in 42 minutes Interestingly, there have been two other "double bagels" so far in the women's draw: Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic also won their matches without losing a game.

The only major upsets so far is #9 seed Carla Suarez Navarro who lost 6-2 6-0.

2015 HALLE: Federer Wins 86th Career Title, Record 15th On Grass

As I expected, Roger Federer won his 8th title at Halle by defeating Andreas Seppi in the final 7-6(1) 6-4. It was Federer's 86th career ATP tour title and 15th career  grass court title. He improved to 12-1 over his Italian competitor and is now 15-5 in grass court finals and 86-44 in finals overall. It's the current World #2's fourth title of the year, following wins in Istanbul, Dubai and Brisbane.

Federer becomes the third player in ATP history to win a tournament 8 times. Rafael Nadal has won Roland Garros a record nine times and also has won clay court titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona 8 times each. Guillermo Vilas won his hometown tournament in Buenos Aires 8 times as well. Federer has won Wimbledon 7 times. So far!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Nadal Wins Grass Title In Germany But Loses In 1st Round At Queens

It's been an up and down few days for Rafael Nadal. Two weeks ago he failed to defend his French Open crown for only the second time in 11 years but he followed that defeat up by winning his first grass court title since he won Wimbledon in July 2010. Nadal defeated Victor Troicki 7-6 6-3 at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart on Sunday.

Sadly for the new ATP #10 player, he was unable to sustain that momentum and on Tuesday he lost (from a break up in the third set!) a close match with Aleksandr Dolgopolov 6-3 6-7(6) 6-4 at the Queen's Club.

Wimbledon starts in just over two weeks, on Monday June 29th.

2015 FRENCH OPEN: Stan Wawrinka Wins 2nd Major, Denies Djokovic Career Slam

Defying expectations, Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland outplayed World #1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the finals of the French Open on Sunday, winning 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4. Wawrinka, 30, becomes the first former Boys Champion of Roland Garros to win the title. Wawrinka upended a 3-17 deficit in meetings with Djokovic to win this most important match and is now 2-0 in major finals while Djokovic falls to 8-8 and his long wait to complete the career grand slam continues.

Amazingly, for the second time in seven years, the person who beat the King of Clay Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros did not win the tournament. Robin Soderling beat Nadal in 2009 but Roger Federer won the title and this year Djokovic beat Nadal in the quarterfinals relatively easily but ended up losing to Wawrinka!