2019 US OPEN: Dimitrov Earns First Win Over (Injured) Federer

Wow! Yesterday was a rough day for my predictions of the men's draw at the 2019 US Open. Grigor Dimitrov (currently ranked #78 in the world) defeated Roger Federer for the first time in 8 meetings. Prior to yesterday Federer had won 17 of the 18 sets they played. Dimitrov was able to win 3, after Federer went up 2 sets to 1 he got broken early in the 4th and when he broke back late in the 4th he was unable to capitalize on numerous break chances in the fourth set. Federer's back appears to be hurting him and he went down 4-0 in the 5th set very quickly and ultimately lost the decider 6-2.

2019 US OPEN: Thiem, Tsitsipas, Khachanov, RBA, Stephens, Kerber Lose 1R

The first round of the U.S. Open is complete and there have been numerous shock exits on the men's side of the draw. 4 Top 10 seeds have lost: Dominic Thiem(4), Stefanos Tsitsipas(8), Karen Khachanov(9) and Roberto Bautista Agut(10) which is a lot! On the women's side of the draw the biggest names to go out are 2017 US Open champ Sloane Stephens, 2004 US Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova and 2006 US Open champion Maria Sharapova and 2016 US Open champion Angelique Kerber. Additionally, 2-time major champ Garbine Muguruza(24) lost as well.

Of the first rounds to watch I mentioned in my 2019 US Open preview post, this is what happened:

• S. Williams (8) defeated M. Sharapova 6-1 6-1
• A. Sabalenka (9) defeated V. Azarenka
• S. Kenin (20) defeated C. Vandeweghe 
• D. Shapovalov defeated F. Auger-Aliassime (18)
• R. Opelka defeated F. Fognini (11)
• S. Tsitsipas (8) lost to A. Rublev
• N. Kyrgios (28) defeated S. Johnson

I'll be at the US Open all day this Sunday so I hope I see some good matches!

2019 FRENCH OPEN: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at the 2019 French Open.  I will also predict the men's semifinals. This year I predicted 0 of 4 women's quarterfinals correctly and 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals correctly. Last year I predicted 2 of 2 men's semifinals correctly and 2 of 2 women's semifinals correctly. 

Simona Halep (ROU) [3] Ananda Anisimova (USA) vs. Ashleigh Barty (AUS) [8]. 17-year-old American phenom Amanda Anisimova, who Matt Roberts of the Tennis Podcast says "has the best backhand in women's tennis" pulled off the biggest upset of an already surprising women's tournament at Roland Garros. She defeated last year's French Open champion and the prohibitive favorite Simona Halep in straight sets. In fact, Anisimova has won all 10 sets of tennis she has played at Roland Garros this year!  She will face Ash Barty who is the only player to be ranked in the Top 10 of both singles and doubles simultaneously on either side of the draw. Barty has been playing excellent tennis all year, having won her biggest title in Miami by defeating World #2 Karolina Pliskova. Barty was able to blunt the power of last year's semifinalist Madison Keys to reach her first major semifinal. Barty is now the highest rated player remaining in the draw, and has an excellent chance of winning her first Grand Slam singles title (she has two Grand Slam doubles titles). She has never played Anisimova before but her game is difficult for anyone to handle, with lots of spins and fearlessness at the net. Who will feel more nerves, the 23-year-old favorite or the 17-year-old upstart? Anisimova showed (almost) no nerves in her dismissal of Halep, so I suspect it will be Barty, but I think the Aussie's game will get her to the finish line. PREDICTION: Barty.

Sloane Stephens (USA) [7] Johanna Konta (GBR) [26] vs Marketa Vondrousova (CZE).  What is it about the French Open that so many players win their first (and perhaps only) major title here? Jelena Ostapenko (2017), Francesca Schiavone (2011)  and Anastaasia Myskina (2004) are just a few that come to mind. Can Johanna Konta join this list? She had never won a main draw match at Roland Garros yet when she defeated last year's finalist Sloane Stephens in straight sets Chris Evert said it was one of the best clay court performances she had ever seen. I definitely did not expect that to happen! Her opponent in her first major semifinal will be the 18-year-old Czech lefty Marketa Vondrousova who has reached the quarterfinals (or better) in every tournament she has played this year.  She already has demonstrated that she has made a quantum improvement in her game by defeating Petra Martic in the quarterfinals, a player she had lost 4 consecutive matches to  (including a clay court final this year). The two have  a 1-1 head-to-head record but Konta beat Vondrousova on her way to reaching the final in Rome just a few weeks ago (where she lost to Pliskova, who is no longer in the tournament). Konta has only one style of play while Vondrousova's game is much more creative and stylish, thus she can find multiple ways to win, and I think she will. PREDICTION: Vondrousova. 

TENNIS TUESDAY: Nole,Rafa Suffer Shock Clay Defeats; Fognini Wins Monte Carlo Masters; Fed Cup Final Is FRA v AUS;

FOGNINI WINS FIRST MASTERS SERIES SHIELD IN MONTE CARLO
Amazingly, the flamboyant and talented Fabio Fognini, 31,  won his first ATP Masters series event in Monte Carlo by following up his stunning defeat of Rafael Nadal with a relatively tight 6-3 6-4 win over Dusan Lajovic who beat the person who took out Djokovic the round before. Lajovic became the lowest seeded player in Monte Carlo in 18 years while Fognini became the first Italian player to win the Monte Carlo tournament in 50 years, and only the fourth player to win the tournament in the last 15 years since Nadal has won it 11 times, Djokovic twice, and Stan Wawrinka once (2014). It was  aoyhood dream for Fognini, who was born a short 40-minute drive away in San Remo, just over the border in Italy and often visited the famous tennis club as a youngster.

DJOKOVIC AND NADAL SUFFER SHOCK CLAY COURT LOSSES
In Monte Carlo, the two best players in the world, #1 Novak Djokovic and #2 Rafael Nadal both suffered shock upsets to start  their clay court season. Djokovic lost to Daniil Medvedev in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals in a tough 3-set match, while Nadal lost what he called "his worst clay court match in 14 years" to Fabio Fognini in the semifinals 6-4 6-2. Nadal was down 5-0 in the second set with Fognini serving for a bagel set before staging a mini-comeback that was ultimately unsuccessful.

FED CUP SEMIFINALS: FRA DEFEATS ROU 3-2, AUS DEFEATS BLR 3-2
Two exciting Fed Cup semifinals were played this weekend, with France utlasting Romania despite some heroics from Simona Halep to win 3-2 and Ash Barty continuing to drag her squad over the finish line, this time, against Belarus. In November France will face Australia down under!

2019 INDIAN WELLS: Andreescu and Thiem Win Their Biggest Titles In Thrilling Upset Over Major Champs

Defying the predictions of many observers (including yours truly) Bianca Andreescu and Dominc Thiem won the women's and men's championships at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Sunday. Andreescu received a wildcard into the event, becoming the first wildcard to win the title and the youngest player since Serena Williams won it at age 17 in 1999. Andreescu beat 3-time major champion Angie Kerber 4-6 6-3 6-4 in a very compelling contest which was decided by the 18-year-old Canadian's power and determination to win against her opponents guile, stamina and defense.

In the men's championship, Roger Federer won the first set and looked to be extending his streak of winning finals after having won the first set from 20 to 21 when Thiem raised his intensity and the power of his strokes to simply overpower the 100-time ATP singles champion. The 25-year-old Austrian was the tour leader in 2018 with the average speed of his groundstrokes on both wings (depsite a one-handed backhand) and in the final with Federer he exceeded his 2018 average in the match. The final score was 3-6 6-3 7-5. At 4-5 30-30 Federer came within 2 points of his 101st title when he approached the net on a good, deep cross-court approach shot only to find Thiem blasting a backhand directly at him which was too much to handle. A quick service winner later and Federer was unable to hold his serve at 5-all, getting his service broken and allowing Thim to serve out the championship with little hesitation.

Both youngsters came from behind in the match to win their biggest titles of their career. Of the two, Andreescu's was the more surprising result. Thiem has been known as a clay-court specialist, having reached (and lost) two Masters 1000 finals in Madrid and the 2018 Roland Garros final but with  a signature win over Federer (playing in his 9th Indian Wells final) on a hard court, Thiem showed he is  developing into an all-court player. Andreescu was playing in only her second WTA tour-level final and career earnings of $300,000; she earned $1.3 million on Sunday. There were echoes of last year when now World #1 Naomi Osaka was unseeded and won her first career title and then went on to win two consecutive hardcourt majors.

2019 INDIAN WELLS: Djokovic(1),Osaka(1),Halep(2),Bertens(7),Cilic(10) All Lose!

Major upsets in the Desert today! Both World #1's lost. Novak Djokovic lost 6-4 6-4 to Philip Kohlschreiber while Naomi Osaka lost 6-3 6-1 to Belinda Bencic. Other seeds who lost included World #2 Simona Halep, World #10 Marin Cilic, World #7 Kiki Bertens among others.

Winners included Venus Williams  and Garbine Muguruza (reaching the quarterfinals).

2018 US OPEN: Halep(1), Muguruza(12), Kasatkina(11), Dimitrov(8), Murray All Lose early; Serena-Venus XXX Looms

Oh my! The first three days of the 2018 US Open have concluded and with it, most of the first two rounds of play. The tournament started with a bang with World #1 and #1 seed Simona Halep becoming the first top seed to lose first round in the 50 years of the US Open. Halep was my pick to win the whole thing this year, but hard-hitting Estonian Kaia Kanepi knocked her out in straight sets! Other seeded upsets in the early rounds were 2-time major champion Garbine Muguruza, the wily Daria Kasatkina, #9 seed Julia Georges and CoCo Vandeweghe.

On the men's side the wailing was a little quieter with only Top 10 seed to go out was #8 Grigor Dimitrov, who unsurprisingly lost to Stan Wawrinka for the second consecutive first round in a slam. Other male players who lost early are Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kyle Edmund, Jack Sock and Roberto Bautista Agut.

In the first rounds to watch, Caroline Wozniacki got past 2011 champion Sam Stosur and amaria Sharapova ended Patty Schnyder's dream run to a main slam draw at nearly 40 years old. On the men's side the young Canadian Clash between Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime took on a scary turn when 18-year-old Felix was forced to retire due to a racing heartbeat despite splitting the first two sets and competing well in the 3rd.

The marquee event is now going to be the thirtieth matchup between Venus and Serena Williams. I didn't expect this matchup to happen in this tournament and I doubt anyone expected that the two sisters would play 30 matches against each other when they both became professionals well over 20 years ago. Serena leads the head to head 17-12 overall and 9-5 in grand slams. They have only met this early in a major tournament once before, in their first meeting in Australia in 1998. It should be a good match, but I'll pick Serena to get through, even though Venus won their last meeting in Indian Wells earlier this year. They are both playing better than I expected. I didn't really think Venus would get through her first round match with Sveta Kuznetsova or her 2nd round match with Camila Giorgi. as for Serena, after reaching the Wimbledon final her summer hard court prep has been horrific.

Sadly, I don't arrive in New York until tomorrow, so I will only be able to see one of them play on Sunday.

2018 WIMBLEDON: Federer Suffers Shock QF Upset Against Anderson

Atfer going up 2-0 in sets (after basically stealing the second set in a tiebreak) after going down 0-3 in games, Roger Federer had a break point that was a match point in the third set (on Kevin Anderson's serve) but failed to convert and then lost his own serve in the following game. He had multiple opportunities to break back to get to a 3rd set tiebreak but eventually Anderson held serve and won the third set 5-7. That was not any reason to panic but when Federer lost the fourth set 4-6 on one break of serve horrible memories of his similar 2011 loss from 2 sets up to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga started to creep into my mind and must have crept into his as well.

Eventually Federer lost 13-11 in the final set, despite serving first, he never got to a breakpoint/matchpoint in the final set, and finally in the 23rd game was broken himself and then lost the match in the very next game.

2018 WIMBLEDON: Upsets Galore! Muguruza,Cilic,Wozniacki, Sharapova,Azarenka All Lose!

Whoa! Through the first two rounds of play the women's draw has been decimated by an exodus of seeds.

• #2 Wozniacki - OUT 2R 
• #3 Muguruza - OUT 2R 
• #4 Stephens - OUT 1R 
• #5 Svitolina - OUT 1R 
• #6 Garcia - OUT 1R 
• #8 Kvitova - OUT 1R

The loss of the defending champion Garbine Muguruza before the weekend is pretty shocking, but the real surprise was Kvitova's departure because she has been the most successful player on the WTA tour all year and grass is where she usually plays her best tennis. (She was the odds favorite and my choice to make the final.)  Others have noted that since her 2014 win, the 2-time Wimbledon champ's results have become rather pedestrian at the All-England Lawn and Tennis Club. But it is quite unusual to lose so many major champions in the first round. 5-time major champ Maria Sharapova lost in the first round despite having match points while up a set and a break, eventually succumbing to Russian Vitalia Diatchenko. 2-time major champion Victoria Azarenka did not come close to upsetting Karolina Pliskova, the #7 seed, and lost in straight sets.

The carnage among the has not been limited to the women's draw, with the shocking departure of last year's Wimbledon finalist and the Queen's Club champion Marin Cilic. Many people expected that Cilic would make the final again, and possibly upset 8-time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer in the semifinals.

2018 FRENCH OPEN: Early Rounds Complete

The early rounds of the French Open are now complete as the second Grand Slam of the year reaches it's halfway point on Sunday.

WOMEN'S DRAW
There have been some surprising upsets in early rounds with the most notable being defending champion Jelena Ostapenko [5] losing in the very first round (in straight sets 7-5 6-3!) on the very first day of the tournament (which I attended). On the same day (a few hours before) Venus Williams [9] also lost in the 1st round, also in straight sets, 6-4 7-5, Qiang Wang. Other "early" round losers were Petra Kvitova [8] (l. Anna Kontaveit) and Elina Svitolina [4] (l. Victoria Kuzmova).

Serena Williams is playing in her first Grand Slam tournament since having a child and getting married (in that order :)) and although she had looked scratchy in her earlier tournaments this year (in Indian Wells and Miami) in Paris she has surprisingly looked quite solid and yesterday defeated Julia Georges [11]  to make it to a 4th round meeting with Maria Sharapova who also looked very sharp in taking out Karolina Pliskova [6]. It will be there 22nd meeting and Serena has won the last 18 times the two have played since 2004.

Simona Halep [1] and Garbine Muguruza [3] have looked the sharpest so far in the tournament but Caro Wozniacki [2], Sloane Stephens [10] and Madison Keys [13] are all dangerous contenders still in the draw.

MEN'S DRAW
The biggest seed on the men's side to fall in the early days of the tournament was Grigor Dimitrov [4] who lost in straight sets to 34-year-old Fernando Verdasco in the 3rd round. The story on the men's side has been the travails of Sascha Zverev [2] to live up to his outstanding ATP tour play and make a move in the majors. After cruising in his 1st round match by losing 4 games against Richar Berankis, Zverev has played three consecutive 5-set matches, and saved a match point in the 3rd round. The German is now in his first major quarterfinal.

Rafael Nadal is going for his 11th French Open title and it doesn't look like anyone will be able to stop him from doing so this year. He was forced into a tiebreak in his very first match with Simone Bolleli but since then the King of Clay has not given up more than 3 games in a set.

The other contenders remaining in the tournament are Dominic Thiem [8], Marin Cilic [4], Juan Martin del Potro [6], David Goffin [9] and John Isner [10].

2018 MADRID MASTERS: Thiem Hands Nadal His 1st Clay Court Loss Of The Year

Rafael Nadal lost his first match on clay in over a year in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Mutua Madrid Open. Last year Nadal had won the tournament by defeating Dominic Thiem in the final, but this time he lost to Thiem in the quarterfinals. The King of Clay had won a record 50 consecutive sets on clay before losing two in a row (7-5 and 6-3) to the Austrian resident of the World Top 10.

Nadal's loss means that Roger Federer will regain the World #1 ranking, but if Nadal wins the Rome Masters, he can regain the Top ranking before the French Open begins on Sunday May 27. (NOTE: MadProfessah will be attending the tournament in person this year!)

2018 INDIAN WELLS: Venus-Serena XXIX, Azarenka Loses To Sloane; Nole, Sascha, Grigor, Petra, Garbi All Out Early!

The 2018 Indian Wells, the first ATP Masters series event of the year, is underway. I will be attending  the tournament all day (and night) on Wednesday. Sadly, it is not clear who I will see because there have been a number of upsets early on. World #2 Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Sunshine double and will not return t the tour until the clay begins.

World #3 Grigor Dimitrov lost to a resurgent Fernando Verdasco, World #4 Sascha Zverev lost to Joao Sousa (losing 5 games in a row from up 4-1 in the 3rd!) and Novak Djokovic lost #109 Taro Daniel.  There have also been upsets on the women's side with Petra Kvitova's win streak ended at 14 with a loss to teenager Amanda Anisimova and World #3 Garbine Muguruza lost to American Sachia Vickery. 2-time Indian Wells champion Victoria Azarenka lost to Sloane Stephens in her first comeback match in nearly a year.

However, the marquee comeback was that by Serena Williams of course. With her ranking currently in the 400s having not played a serious match since winning the 2017 Australian Open, giving birth and getting married, Serena managed to win her first two matches at Indian Wells. Her reward is that she will play her sister Venus. This will be the 29th meeting  and Serena leads 17-11. It will be around 7pm tonight. I'll be watching!

SHOCK! Federer Loses Grass Comeback Match To Haas; Now 19-2 IN 2017

Roger Federer played his first match since winning the Miami Open in early April on grass in Stuttgart against his good friend, 39-year-old Tommy Haas. Since, Federer is 35, this was the oldest combined ages of two players on the WTA tour since 1982. For the second time this year, Federer had a match point but ended up losing to Haas 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-4.

After skipping the entire clay court season and seeing Rafael Nadal dominate it and win his 10th French Open, this could not have been the way that Federer hoped to begin the blink-and-you'll-miss-it grass court season this summer.

2017 AUS OPEN: World #1 Murray and Kerber Lose On Same Day

Wow! I am back from vacation and just as I was going to bed I heard the news that World #1 Andy Murray, who was now the presumptive favorite at the 2017 Australian Open due to 6-time champion Novak Djokovic's shock exit in the 2nd round, had lost to Mischa Zverev, the older brother of #NextGen Sascha Zverev. 19-year-old Sascha had thrilled the crowd the day before by taking Rafael Nadal to 5-sets, eventually running out of gas despite winning the first and third sets.

Murray lost in 4-sets to the 29-year-old Zverev 7-5 5-7 6-2 6-4, continuing his disappointments in Melbourne where he has lost in the final (a record) 5 times.

World #1 and defending champion Angelique Kerber lost to a red-hot Coco Vandewghe who basically bludgeoned the counterpunching German off the court 6-2 6-3. Kerber had looked a little shaky in her first two rounds (dropping a set both times) but she had a 2-0 head-to-head against the American so this result was a surprise, but I agree with others who would not call it a huge upset.

2017 AUS OPEN: 6-time Champ Djokovic Loses To Istomin (#117) In Shocking Upset

Wow! I'm still on vacation in Hawaii but I feel compelled to blog about one of the biggest upsets in recent history that happened last night. I caught about an hour of the 2nd round match of the Australian Open match between Dennis Istomin (ranked #117in the world) and the current World #2 Novak Djokovic. Amazingly, the 6-time Aussie Open champion lost to the hard-hitting guy from Uzbekistan in a high-quality 5-set match that was well over 4 1/2 hours long. The score was 7-6(8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. Djokovic was so dominant in Australia that he had rarely lost a set in the first week of the tournament, let alone three, especially to someone outside of the Top100.

Istomin's defeat of Djokovic in Melbourne ranks up there with recent shocking upsets such as Djokovic's loss to Sam Querrey in the 3rd round of Wimbledon in 2016 and Rafael Nadal's loss to Lukas Rosol in the 2nd round of Wimbledon in 2012.

2016 DAVIS CUP: Argentina Stuns Croatia As Delpo and Delbonis Win Last 2 Matches To Clinch Nation's 1st Win

Wow! The 2016 tennis season ended with a bang on Sunday as Argentina won its very first Davis Cup (in its 5th appearance in the final) when Juan Martin Del Potro and Federico Delbonis won two must-win matches to give their country a 3-2 win in the Davis Cup final over Croatia, in Zagreb.
The day began with Del Potro coming back from 2 sets to none down for the first time in his career against World #8 Marin Cilic to win in 5 sets: 6-7(4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in 4 hours 43 minutes. This is the third time this year Cilic has had a 2-0 set advantage in a five-set match and ended up losing it (Wimbledon quarterfinal against Roger Federer and the USA vs Croatia rubber versus Jack Sock.)

But Delbonis' feat was even more amazing. He had to win a live fifth rubber against a higher ranked opponent, playing at home. The 26-year-old lefty Argentine is ranked 41 in the world and is known as a solid clay court player but he defeated the 37-year-old 6-foot-11 Ivo Karlovic (World #20) in straight sets: 6-3 6-4 6-2. Karlovic leads the tour in aces and has the #2 best serve (behind John Isner) but it was Delbonis who never had his serve broken in the match.

Argentina was in the Davis Cup final in 1981, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2016, finally winning it for the first time this year. Croatia won it once before in 2005. Last year Great Britain won

2016 WTA TOUR FINALS: Cibulkova Shocks Kerber To Win Biggest Career Title

Defying the odds and most predictions, Dominika Cibulkova defeated World #1 Angelique Kerberb 6-3 6-4 playing fierce, high-quality tennis to win the WTA Tour finals, the biggest title title of her career (and over $2 million in prize money). The surprising result means that Cibulkova will end the year ranked World #5, her highest ranking ever. (She started the year ranked #38.)

Cibulkova became the second player (after last year's winner Agnieska Radwanska) to lose two matches en route to winning the title. The WTA Tour finals is only open to the Top 8 players of the year and thus employs a round-robin format (instead of the typical win-or-go-home rules). Cibulkova lost an epic 3-setter to Kerber in her first match, and then lost again in straight sets to Madison Keys. She had to win in straight sets against Simona Halep and hope that Kerber did not drop a set against Keys. Kerber obliged her (and won her first four matches), thus allowing Cibulkova to sneak into the semifinals. There Cibulkova played another intense 3-set match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, coming back from a set down and a break down in the final set to reach the biggest final since reaching the 2014 Australian Open final.

Cibulkova simply played her best tennis when it counted the most. She served at 84% and won 70% of her second serve points. She had twice as many winers as errors (28 to 14) and just kept on going for her strokes, outlasting Kerber's impeccable defense. Kerber didn't help her cause by not serving well (6 doublefaults) but in the end Cibulkova went out and won this match.

2016 RIO OLYMPICS: Djokovic, Serena, Venus, Aga, Muguruza All Out Of Olympics Early

The Rio Olympics have been beset by shocking upsets. All four #1 seeds (in Men's singles, Women's singles, Men's doubles and Women's doubles) have lost early! Novak Djokovic lost 2 tight tiebreak sets against 2012 bronze medalist Juan Martin del Potro in the first round of play on Sunday.

World #1 and defending Gold medallist Serena Williams lost in straight sets 6-4 6-3 to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, revealing what appears to be a troubling shoulder injury (she had 5 double faults in one service game!) The other defending Gold medalist Andy Murray is still in the tournament, as is 2008 Champion Rafael Nadal.

The women's quarterfinals are set, and the only major champions remaining in the draw are Petra Kvitova (who faces Svitolina) and Angelique Kerber (who faces Johanna Konta of Great Britain). American Madison Keys is only two matches away from playing for a medal, and she would have to beat Daria Kasatkina and then the Kerber/Konta winner to do so.

In doubles, both the Murray brothers and the Williams sisters lost their first round match.

2016 WIMBLEDON: Venus, Serena Get Through Tough 3-Set Matches

Venus Williams and Serena Williams each prevailed in their tension-filled, three-set matches at a rain-soaked Wimbledon on Friday.

Venus outlasted Daria Kasatkina of Russia, 7-5 4-6 10-8 despite having a match point at 6-5 30-40 when the rains came down and play was suspended as the American looked on with disbelief. When the two players came back on the court, Venus failed to break serve and win the match and play continued for another 30 minutes.  Eventually she prevailed in the 16th game of the third set instead of the 12th.

Serena's match was even more dramatic. After dropping her very first service game of the match to fellow American Christina McHale, Serena went down 1-3 and had to claw it back to a tiebreak, which she eventually lost, 9-7, despite holding set points. She bounced back well in the second set, taking it 6-2 but then went down 0-2 again in the deciding set. The 6-time Wimbledon champion did not panic, but calmly broke back and leveled the match and earned multiple break opportunities. Eventually, she broke her opponent in the 9th game and calmly served out the match with three consecutive aces!

In other news, there were two early round upsets with World #4 Stan Wawrinka losing in four sets to Juan Martin del Potro today and World #2 (and reigning French Open champion) Garbine Muguruza losing in straights sets to Jana Cepelova yesterday.

There's another potential upset brewing with Sam Querrey leading defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6(6) 6-1 when rain suspended play for the day.

For the first time since 2004, Wimbledon will schedule play on the middle Sunday of the two-week event.

2016 MONTE CARLO: SHOCK! Djokovic Loses To Vesely In 3 Sets

For the first in 2016, World #1 Novak Djokovic finished a completed match not as the victor. It happened in his first match on clay in Monte Carlo (which is basically his home court--he lists his residence there), losing to lefty Czech Jiri Vesely 6-4 2-6 6-4 in just over 2 hours. This is the first time in over 84 matches that Djokovic, 28, has lost to a player younger than he is (Vesely is 22). Vesely is currently ranked #55 and it is the first time Djokovic has lost to someone outside the Top 50 in over 5 years (Xavier Malisse at Queens Club in 2010).

Djokovic was forced by an eye infection to retire in the Dubai quarterfinals, but has won every other tournament he has played in since the 2015 Cincinnati Masters. The Monte Carlo Masters defending champion is now 28-2 for the year. (At this point last year Djokovic was 17-0). This loss on clay must put a damper on his chances of finally clinching the French Open this year, although it probably increases the likelihood that he will play in Madrid. It also gives hope to fans of Roger Federer that maybe this is the year Federer can win in Monte Carlo!