2019 US OPEN: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at the 2019 U.S. Open Championships.  I will also predict the men's semifinals. This year I predicted 4 of 4 women's quarterfinals correctly and 1 of 4 men's quarterfinals correctly. Last year I predicted 1 of 2 men's semifinals correctly and 2 of 2 women's semifinals correctly. 

Belinda Bencic (SUI) [13] vs. Bianca Andreescu (CAN) [15].  Bianca Andreescu is the real deal. The Canadian teenage phenom is playing in her first major draw at the US Open and is in to the semifinals without playing her very best tennis. How? She has a big game, and she is incredibly mentally tough. She outlasted Angie Kerber to win the biggest title of her career at Indian Wells in March and she won another major tournament in her hometown of Toronto when Serena retired with a back injury. Speaking of injury, Andreescu will jump from outside the Top 100 to the Top 10 on Monday despite being injured for nearly 4 months this year! Bencic has her own amazing story. She reached the quarterfinals of the US Open way back in 2014 when she was even younger than Andreescu is now and a horrible sequence of injuries generally prevented her from achieving the results that were expected. The two have never played each other before so it is hard to know what will happen. Bencic has the guile and tennis IQ of  a Latter-Day Hingis but Andreescu has a supernova-hot desire to win and a powerful game to back it up. It should be an incredible match. PREDICTION: Andreescu.

Serena Williams (USA) [8] vs. Elina Svitolina (UKR) [5].  Serena was devastating in her 6-1 6-0 demolition of Wang Qiang in her quarterfinal match, while Svitolina was just a bit better on the big points to ease past Jo Konta 6-4 6-4 in her quarterfinal. Serena and Svitolina have played 5 times and Serena has only lost once, but it was the last time they played, at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Svitolina is a much better player since then, and is playing in her second consecutive semifinal. Serena is playing in her 13 US Open semifinal and has a 9-3 record at this stage. I am hoping that she is mentally prepared for this match, because Svitolina is similar to Halep (whom Serena lost badly to in the 2019 Wimbledon final) with great movement and the ability to not make errors while retrieving a lot of attempted winners. Hopefully Svitolina will not be affected by the fact that her boyfriend Gael Monfils lost his chance to reach another major semifinal in a soul-sucking 5th set tiebreak due to not one but two double faults against Matteo Berretini. It should also be noted that Svitolina beat Venus Williams in the second round, so if she were to beat Serena she would be one of the rare people to beat both sisters in the same major tournament. Regardless, if Serena is focused and patient, which she has basically looked in every match (except for the Round of 16 against Petra Martic) she should prevail. PREDICTION: Williams.

2019 CANADA: Rafa Wins 35th Masters Title; Bianca Wins Canada As Serena Sobs

19-year-old Bianca Andreescu became the first Canadian woman in 50 years to win her country's Canadian Open tennis championship when Serena Williams retired down 1-3 in the championship match on Sunday. Williams said she had had back spasms the night before and that "she couldn't move" and started sobbing on the court. Later, she went to Cincinnati for the Western & Southern Financial Open tournament but withdrew from her match there. Presumably the next time we will see Serena will be at the 2019 S Open which starts August 26. Andreescu is now #14 in the rankings, achieving the amazing feat of having her ranking be less than her age in record fashion. he has won her first 7 matches against Top 10 opponents. Many expect her to be in the Top 10 soon herself, and she is considered (by some) to be "in the mix" for the US Open. Naomi Osaka (despite losing in straight sets to Serena) regained the World #1 ranking due to Karolina Pliskova's loss to Andreescu early in the tournament.

Rafael Nadal won his 5th Rogers Cup title in Montreal, demolishing Daniil Medvedev 6-3 6-0 in about 70 minutes. Amazingly, it was the first time in his career that Nadal had defended a hard-court (non-clay court) title, since he had won the 2018 Rogers Cup in Toronto last year. It's Nadal's 35th Masters series shield, increasing his lead over his rivals (Novak Djokovic has 33 and Roger Federer has 28). Nadal is the first player to win 2 Masters titles this year (having also won in Rome), while Federer won Miami and Djokovic won Madrid.

2019 WIMBLEDON: Halep Stuns Serena To Win 2nd Major Title

To the surprise of most observers, World #7 Simona Halep put on a devastating display of accurate, defensive, propulsive tennis on Wimbledon Centre Court to defeat 23-time major champion Serena Williams 6-2 6-2 in 56 minutes to win her second major title.  The loss means that Serena is still stuck at 23 major singles trophies, the most in the modern era, but still 1 behind the odious Margaret Court, who won 24 (although 11 were from her home country's tournament in Australia, at a time when it is quite difficult to really consider the Australian Open a grand slam tournament). The 6-2 6-2 drubbing she received is her worst loss in  a major final (where she is now 23-9) since she lost the 2014 French Open to Garbine Muguruza by the same score. She has now lost 3 major finals in a row, to Kerber, Naomi Osaka and Halep.

WOMEN'S FINAL REVIEW

For the second year in a row, Serena lost in the Wimbledon final after making it through the draw in dramatic fashion, but without having to play a Top 10 player before the championship match. Last year she lost to Angie Kerber in straight sets and today it was Simona Halep. In both cases the reasons for these results are complex, but I feel like in today's match too many people are chalking it up to amazing play by Halep and downplaying the weaknesses that Serena revealed. It is true Halep had a mere 3 unforced errors in 2 sets today. But Serena had double that number of unforced errors in the first two games. Her serve was NOT ready to go at the beginning of the match, and after 11 minutes she was down 0-4. Both her serve and her return, two of the best parts of her game, and probably the best in women's tennis, completely disappeared. I suppose that would be enough to rattle anyone, but there were multiple times when she was in a winning position with a ball to hit out of reach that she would overhit it, trying to bludgeon it and intimidate her opponent. Instead, she hit the ball over the line. This must have happened at least a half-dozen times. Also, Serena seemed unprepared for Halep amazing defensive skills, powered by incredible anticipation and stupendous movement. Serena would hit what she thought was a winner, Halep would get it back and Serena would hit another shot that would win the point against most players, Halep would make a ridiculous get and then Serena would hit an error. I believe these mistakes were primarily caused by her lack of match play and the fact she hadn't played a top player in the tournament up to that point and she has had almost zero match play outside of the majors since she returned to competitive tennis in May 2018. She is yet to have won a title of any kind since the January 2017 Australian Open. At age 37 (38 in September) it is becoming increasingly clear she just simply can not continue to just focus on the majors, unless she finds a way to completely overhaul her mental approach to playing  a major final, which is a very unlikely prospect. I still believe (and hope) that she will win 24 (or more!) grand slam singles titles, but even if she doesn't, there's no doubt in my mind that Serena Williams should be considered the G.O.A.T.

2019 WIMBLEDON: Men's Semifinals Preview (and Predictions) #Fedal40

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) [23]. Roberto Bautista Agut has beaten World #1 Novak Djokovic two times this year but the Serb has an overall head-to-head of 7-3 but the two have never played on grass. Djokovic has only lost one set this Wimbledon (a tiebreak set against Hurkacz) and is playing in his umpteenth major semifinal while his opponent is playing in his first. It's disparities like that which allow the Big 3 to continue dominating the rest of the men's tennis tour, and it frankly doesn't look like that will end any time soon, since Djokovic is the youngest of the trivalry at 32 years old. Djokovic has a 5-3 record in Wimbledon semifinals and 4-1 record in Wimbledon finals.   Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3] vs Roger Federer (SUI) [2]. For the first time in 11 years, there will be a Fedal match at Wimbledon. The two have played 39 matches and Rafael Nadal leads 24-15 and won their last match in the 2019 French Open semifinals in straight sets.Tennis fans are salivating over the possibility of a reprise of the Greatest Match of All Time which occurred when the two met in the 2018 Wimbledon final, which was won by Nadal 9-7 in the fifth set. I seriously doubt the match will meet those impossible standards, but it is incredibly significant. Federer has 20 major titles and Nadal is breathing down his neck with 18. If Nadal wins this match and subsequently wins the title on Sunday, he will be only one behind Federer and most people think that the Spaniard will win at least one more Roland Garros title. Nadal has been relentless at this year's Wimbledon, which many people is playing so slowly it resembles a clay court. If that's the case one has to give him the edge over Federer. However, I still think it's a grass court and Federer, even at age 37 is the best grass court player in the world. Mad Professah's pick: Federer.

2019 WIMBLEDON: 1st Round Complete (Osaka [2], Thiem [5], Zverev [6], Tstitsipas [7] Upset!)

The first round of the 2019 Wimbledon is over and there have been a surprising number of upsets, especially in the men: fifth seed Dominc Thiem, sixth seed Alexander Zverev and seventh seed Stefanos Tsiptsipas all lost! Additionally, the second seed Naomi Osaka lost on the women's side. Osaka lost to Yulia Putintseva, who beat her for the second time in two weeks and now has  a career 3-0 record on the 2-time major champion.

Thiem lost to Sam Querrey in 3 sets, Zverev lost to Jiri Vesely in 4 and Tsitsipas lost to Thomas Fabbiano in 5.

On the women's side former Wimbledon champions Garbine Muguruza (2017), Venus Williams (2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008), Maria Sharapova (2004) all lost in the first round. American teen phenom Cori "Coco" Gauff became the youngest player to make it to the draw via qualifying and dispatched 39-year-old Venus Williams in straight sets (6-4 6-4).

Favorites Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Ash Barty, Angelique Kerber all won their first round matches relatively easily. Serena Williams looked a bit rusty but also won in straight sets 6-2 7-5.

2019 WIMBLEDON: Analysis of Men's and Women's Draw

The draw for 2019 Wimbledon is out! On the men's side World #1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic is seeded #1. On the women's side, the (brand new) World #1 is Ash Barty, who is also seeded #1 but the defending champion is Angie Kerber.

The projected women's quarterfinals by seedings are:

• Ashleigh Barty (AUS) [1] v Angelique Kerber (GER) [5]
• Kiki Bertens (NED) [4] v Petra Kvitova (CZE) [6]
• Naomi Osaka (JPN) [2] v Simona Halep (ROU) [7]
• Karolina Plisova (CZE) [3] v 8 Elina Svitolina (UKR) [8] 

The projected men's quarterfinals by seedings are:

• Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] v Stefanos Tsitsipas(GRE) [7]
• Kevin Anderson (RSA) [4] v Alexander Zverev (GER) [6]
• Roger Federer (SUI) [2] v Kei Nishikori (JPN) [8]
• Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3] v Dominic Thiem (AUT) [5]

First Round Matches To Watch:

• Coco Gauff (USA) versus Venus Williams (USA)
• Alison Riske (USA) versus Donna Vekic (CRO) [23]
• Samantha Stosur  (AUS) versus Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) [30]
• Dominic Thiem (AUT) [5] versus Sam Querrey (USA)
• Frances Tiafoe (USA) versus Fabio Fognini (ITA)[12]
• Lucas Pouille (FRA) [27]  versus Richard Gasquet (FRA)

Serena Williams is seeded #11 on the women's side while some people are complaining that 2017 champion Roger Federer was moved up to the #2 seed, but he also drew Nadal into his semifinal bracket, while Djokovic gets last year's finalist Kevin Anderson who has been hampered with an injury all year. The last time Federer and Nadal met at Wimbledon was in the 2008 final, now called the "Greatest Match of the Century."  Can history repeat itself?