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

Here are my predictions for the men's final at the US Open for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted Marin Cilic would defeat Kei Nishikori. This year I correctly predicted 0 of 2 women's semifinals, 2 of 2 men's semifinals, 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Men's Semifinals Review: How They Got Here
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] d. Marin Cilic (CRO) [9] 6-0 6-1 6-2. Ouch! The World #1 sent a signal to the rest of the field by demolishing the defending champion in under 90 minutes. As I predicted, Djokovic continued his dominance of Marin Cilic by extending his head-to-head undefeated stretch to 14 matches in a row. I didn't see the match but I think the score basically tells the story. I heard that Cilic was slightly injured (apparently he hurt his ankle in beating Tsonga in 5 sets on Tuesday) but even if he had been at 100% it is doubtful Cilic would have prevented Djokovic from winning this match and reaching his 4th consecutive major final.

Roger Federer (SUI) [2] d. Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [5] 6-4 6-3 6-1.  
This second semifinal was expected to be more competitive despite the fact that Federer has a decisive 16-3 head-to-head advantage (11-0 on hard courts). After all, Wawrinka had won the last time they played, in the quarterfinals of the French Open. However, playing Federer in Paris is not the same thing as playing Federer in New York, especially as the 17-time major champion has grown more accustomed to his bigger racquet and incorporated new tactics into his game to surprise and confound his opponents. Federer is serving incredibly well, and did not have his serve broken in this match, despite facing a triple breakpoint hole in the first set. He simply outplayed his compatriot and came away with the win, again.

Men's Final Preview: Who Will Win
This is the match-up that most tennis players were hoping to see at the beginning of the tournament: #1 Djokovic versus #2 Federer. The two are playing for the forty-second time on the tour, i.e. Federer-Djokovic XLII, with the 17-major champ leading the head-to-head slightly 21-20 but the World #1 has a 16-14 edge in hard courts and the two are tied at 6-all in hard court finals. Amazingly, Djokovic is playing in his 6th U.S. Open final (1-4 so far) and 18th major final (9-8). Federer has won the U.S. Open 5 times and is playing in his 7th U.S. Open final (5-1) and record 27th major final (17-9). If this match was being played on Australian hard courts  I would give Djokovic the edge but the fact that it is being played in New York is a huge edge for Federer. The problem is that Federer has had match points against Djokovic in Nw York before and failed to close him out. Hopefully he will learn from these matches and be sure not to let the match get to a fifth set, where Federer does not actually have a great record. That being said, Federer has won his last twenty eight sets played (including the Cincinnati final against Djokovic) and I expect him to win at least two more here.
MadProfessah's Pick: Federer in 3 or 4 sets, Djokovic in 5 sets.

2015 US OPEN: Pennetta Wins 1st Major (And Announces She'll Retire By End of 2015!)

In the first ever all-Italian major women singles final, Flavia Pennetta defeated Roberta Vinci 7-6(4) 6-2 (as I predicted) to win the 2015 U.S. Open. The #26 seed completed her fairy tale run at the last major tournament of the year by beating one of her best friends and compatriots just one day after Vinci had achieved the biggest upset in tennis history by ending Serena Williams' streak of grand slam matches won at 33. Pennetta had to beat the #2 seed Simona Halep in the semifinals, #5 seed Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals and 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in the 4th round. Her opponent in the final was one of her best friends, someone she has known since they were both 10 years old and were roommates for four years in Rome. Their camaraderie could be seen after the match in the warm embrace at the net and their interaction during the trophy presentation.

Pennetta stunned the tennis world by announcing her retirement during the trophy ceremony, by saying that she had "made a big decision a month ago" and that "this is how I say goodbye to tennis."
She later clarified in  post-match press conference that this was her last U.S. Open but that she would continue playing until the end of the year. She became the oldest first-time Grand Slam winner ever, and also the person who played the most major tournaments (49) before capturing a title. (The previous record holder was Marion Bartoli who had played 47 majors before winning Wimbledon in 2013; she decided to retire within  a month of that victory.)

By winning this match, Pennetta will receive $3.3 million, almost 30% of her previous career total of $10.5 million. In the stands was not only the Prime Minister of Italy who flew from Italy through the night, but also Pennetta's fiance' Fabio Fognini (ATP player currently ranked #32 who made a big splash at the tournament himself by eliminating Rafael Nadal in the 3rd round.)

Pennetta will move to World #8 in the rankings on Monday and could possibly qualify for the year-end championships in Singapore. Even though Serena's bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam ended yesterday against Vinci, she tweeted out her support for Flavia's win and reaction to the retirement news.

2015 US OPEN: Women's Final Preview (and Semifinals Review)

Roberta Vinci (ITA) vs. Flavia Pennetta (ITA) [26] 

Here are my predictions for the women's final at the US Open for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted Serena Williams would defeat Caroline Wozniacki. This year I correctly predicted 0 of 2 women's semifinals, 2 of 2 men's semifinals, 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Women's Semifinals Review: How They Got Here

Roberta Vinci (ITA) d. Serena Williams (USA) [1] 2-6 6-4 6-4. Once the other two grand slam champions (Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka) were removed from the tournament in the quarterfinals, the chances of Serena's eventual victory skyrocketed. The three remaining semifinalists possessed one win over Serena in 19 matches played so in theory the American should have been able to achieve the calendar grand slam with much less than her "A" game. However, inexplicably and quite surprisingly, somehow this did not happen. Despite winning the first set 6-2 in 36 minutes, Serena was broken in the second set and was unable to break her Italian opponent's serve, despite its relative weakness. (This was punctuated by Vinci hitting a bizarre 83 mph ace in the 8th game of the second set.)  Serena was clearly nervous and stopped moving her feet and going for 100 percent on her shots. This allowed Vinci to go for her shots and play well within herself and sneak out the last two sets and complete the most stunning upset in tennis of the century, if not ever.

Flavia Pennetta (ITA) [26] d. Simona Halep (ROU) [2] 6-1 6-3.  Pennetta played some of the best tennis of her life to dismiss Halep, who never seemed to find her best tennis despite playing in this incredibly important match that would determine who gets to play in a major final. The 33-year-old Italian was able to win 15 points in a row at one point, even after the 23-year-old Romanian had finally managed to earn a 3-1 lead in the second set, only to see it disappear quickly. Pennetta ended up winning the last five games in a row, punctuated by a blistering forehand winner on mach point which barely clipped the baseline as it zoomed past the hapless Halep.  

Women's Final Preview: Who Will Win
Who would have thought that there would (ever) be an Italian women's final at a major? Pennetta was a 150-to-1 bet to reach the final while Vinci was a 300-to-1 bet to get there. And yet these two players will face off for the 2015 U.S. Open women's singles title. Pennetta has more power and leads their head-to-head 5-4, but surprisingly the two have not played since 2013. Can Vinci really get over winning the most incredible match of her and play her first major final less than 24 hours later and play her best tennis? Somehow I doubt it. MadProfessah's pick: Pennetta.

2015 US OPEN: Upset Of The Century! Vinci Defeats Serena In Semifinal, Denying Her Grand Slam Bid

In one of the greatest upsets in sports history, unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci recorded her first ever victory over Serena Williams in the semifinals of the U.S. Open, where Serena had won three consecutive titles, denying the 21-time major champion her chance to win a calendar Grand Slam.
The score was 2-6 6-4 6-4. Serena was 25-3 in major semifinals before today and 43-1 against unseeded players a

With Flavia Pennetta winning the other semifinal the women's final will be an all-Italian affair between first-time finalists for the first time since the 2010 French Open between Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur. Pennetta was a 150-to-1 shot and Vinci a 300-to-1 shot to win the title at the beginning of the tournament. Tomorrow one of them will be the 2015 U.S. Open champion.

2015 US OPEN: Men's Semifinals Preview

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [19] Marin Cilic (CRO) [9]. Proving that last year's title run here was no fluke, Marin Cilic outlasted Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinal by winning the fifth set 6-4 despite blowing a 2-0 set lead. It's somewhat unfortunate that the draw has produced Djokovic-Cilic and Federer-Wawrinka instead of Djokovic-Wawrinka and Federer-Cilic. This alternate draw would be more suspenseful because those in those matchups the higher ranked player has lost to the lower ranked player in important meetings (Wawrinka beat Djokovic in the finals of the 2015 French Open and Cilic beat Federer in the semifinals of the 2014 U.S. Open. However, what we have instead is a pair of matches where the higher ranked player has a clear head-to-head advantage. Djokovic leads Cilic 13-0 and Federer leads Wawrinka 16-3. The last meeting between  Cilic and Djokovic was at Wimbledon and was a pretty routine win by the World #1. A win here will let Djokovic reach his 4th major final of 2015, and his 8th final in the last 10 majors (where he has been 3-4). For such a great hard court player he deserves another opportunity to demonstrate his prowess in New York. Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Roger Federer (SUI) [2] vs Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [5].  This should be the more compelling and emotionally resonant of the two major semifinals played. Things are always complicated when two players from the same country compete on the world stage and the dynamics between Federer and Wawrinka are in a transitional state. For almost a decade, Wawrinka has been looking up to Federer, not really believing he was his equal and but in the last 8 majors played Wawrinka has won twice and Federer has won none. Combined with the fact that in their last meeting Wawrinka essentially blasted Federer off the court at Roland Garros this year on his way to winning his 2nd major. It's hard to believe that Wawrinka can duplicate such a performance, especially on the hard courts of New York where Federer has won 5 times (although he has not been in a final here since losing to Juan Martin del Potro in 2009). That being said, if Donald Young could win a 6-1 set against Wawrinkain the 4th round then I am fairly confident that Federer will be able to beat even the new and improved Wawrinka, Mad Professah's pick: Federer.

2015 US OPEN: Women's Semifinals Postponed Due To Rain

Due to rain, the women's semifinals at the U.S. Open are being moved to the day session (11am EDT/8am PDT) on Friday with the men's semifinals starting at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT).

Here is the order of play:

2015 US OPEN: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the US Open for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs Roberta Vinci (ITA) [16]. As I said before when I was predicting the women's quarterfinals, this semifinal was going to be irrelevant. The more interesting topic to discuss is the fact that for the second time in this tournament, Serena lost a set. The fact that it was against her sister Venus is not surprising, and to be sure, it never really looked like the defending champion was in danger of losing this match. Vinci did well to win a match I did not expect her to win by gutting out a 3-set win over Kiki Mladenovic. However, as an Italian journalist admitted in a press conference today, "Even in Italy we think [Vinci] has no chance." Despite the fact that she has never lost a set in 4 meetings to Vinci, Serena refuses to take anything for granted and said "She's in the semifinals for a reason." Amazingly, Vinci is one of three different Italian women to be in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in the last four years (Sara Errani in 2012, Pennetta in 2013, Vinci and Pennetta in 2015). Things did not work out too well for the Italians before and I doubt it will this year. PREDICTION: Williams.

Petra Kvitova (CZE) [5] Flavia Pennetta (ITA) [26] vs. Simona Halep (ROU) [2].  Pennetta surprised many people by taking out the 2-time Wimbledon champion in three tough sets. She was down a set and a break when P3tra started losing the range on her shots and allowed the Italian to escape with a 4-6 7-5 6-4 win. Halep's win was even more dramatic. She was playing another 2-time major champion in Victoria Azarenka, someone whom she had never beaten before. Things started off well for Halep, who won the first set by earning an early break and holding to take it 6-3, but then it was mostly one-way traffic in Vika's favor until the clouds grew grey and stormy. Just before play was suspended in the third set, Halep was able to get the break back despite being down 0-2 and ended up winning the final set 6-4. Major semifinals are incredibly important matches, as the winner gets to make history by apperaning in a major final. Halep is 1-1 in major semifinals to date while Pennetta is 0-1. Pennetta may actually think that she has more pressure on her because she has a 3-1 head-to-head advantage over Halep. However, that one win came earlier this year in Miami on hard courts while the losses occurred before Halep became the player she is today. PREDICTION: Halep. 

BOOK REVIEW: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

Aurora is actually structured as seven medium-length chapters that are really connected novelettes (or is it novellas?) All I knew about this book was that it was written by Kim Stanley Robinson (who is best well-known as the award-winning author of the Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars trilogy), that it is one of the most well-received hard science fiction books of 2015 and that it is about a generation ship or arc ship flying 12 light years to Tau Ceti (a trip that takes nearly 2 centuries at sub-luminal speeds). Although Robinson's Mars trilogy is well-regarded by many people, I have never been able to finish one of his books before (including trying the first book in that trilogy). However this time my experience with a book written by Kim Stanley Robinson was quite different since I couldn't put Aurora down and raced through it from start to finish in under 24 hours! Some other readers have complained about a slow beginning to the book but I'm not one of them. I was sucked in right away by the setting of the book on a space ship that has been on a journey to the stars for well over a century. This scenario is one of the classic situations of science fiction and represents a real, possible future for humanity. The verisimilitude of the situation I found completely compelling and this had me immediately invested in the characters, especially Devi, Freya's mom, the unofficial Chief Engineer of the Ship.

Devi's daughter Freya becomes the most important human character in the book, the person we follow for the rest of the book after Devi's departure from the narrative after the end of the second chapter. The character I identified with the most, and the one probably most important to the narrative arc of the story is The Ship, the name given for the central computer on the ship, who is re-programmed by Devi to use "greedy algorithms" and other modifications which eventually lead to something resembling self-awareness by Ship.

There are stretches of the book where I found it impossible to put down, even there is always a LOT of information and technical data being thrown at the reader (providing context and details of the journey of the ship and its human inhabitants). In particular, chapters 2 through 4 are increasingly compelling as the stakes for our Ship dwellers get raised higher and higher and the suspense becomes more and more intense. Interestingly, it is not just the hard science of interstellar travel which comes to dominate the book but the ``soft" sciences of sociology, psychology and politics that become increasingly important as the interpersonal dynamics of the ship's population change dramatically as the ship reaches its destination and the dwellers are forced to respond to what they find there. Also biology (or more specifically zoology) also plays a key role in what happens on the ship and to our Ship dwellers.

I was somewhat disappointed by the ending, which basically seems to make an argument AGAINST the premise of man's colonization of the stars. This seems like a curious position to take for a hard sci-fi author and is a view I think is antithetical to how most science fiction fan's view humanity's future. To be fair, Robinson does seem to endorse man's travel to other planets in the solar system, it's interstellar travel that the book seems to be frowning upon. In fact, Robinson explicitly endorses a notion of Earth exceptionalism that for humans to prosper they need to have the possibility of returning to Earth in  a single lifetime; by definition this curtails the possibility of sub-luminal interstellar travel. 

Regardless of Robinson's questionable concluding message Aurora is a gripping, compelling work of speculative fiction that I am confident will capture the imagination of many other science fiction fans.

Title: Aurora.
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson.
Paperback: 480 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: July 7, 2015.
Date Read: August 30, 2015.

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A-.

TENNIS TUESDAY: A Short Photo Essay On My Labor Day Trip To The U.S. Open

Fourth Round match between Kevin Anderson and Andy Murray

This shot is taken from Section 111 (right next to the ESPN commentators booth). I arrived during the middle set of the Halep-Lisicki match and basically every seat in the stadium (including the one I had paid for!) was taken. I waited until Halep won the second set and then kicked the person out of my seat. Then I proceeded to sit there through the last set of the women's match (which Halep won 6-7 7-5 6-2) and the first  three sets of the Murray-Anderson match (which took well over three-and-a-half hours). The tennis was excellent, and I was quite impressed with Anderson's two-handed backhand and his ability to move for a 6-foot-8 guy. I was also impressed by Halep's grit fighting through physical difficulties herself even as Lisicki started cramping at 2-all in the final set. He is much more than just a huge serve and  a big forehand; moves about as well as Del Potro. Like the Argentinean, Anderson can crush the ball. The forehand winner he hit at 6-5 in the first set tiebreak was clocked at 108 miles per hour!

Shot of Section 111 (where I sat  for the Murray-Anderson match)
showing how empty the stadium was for the Berdych-Gasquet
match

I left the court at the end of the third set tiebreak (which Murray won) to give my aching bladder some relief and to try, recharge my iPhone at the American Express lounge (they have portable mophie chargers for cardmembers) and see if I could see some of the Federer match on the big screen. Every screen was showing the last set of the Murray-Anderson match so I saw the last few games and the tiebreak on the 60" TV screen in the Amex Cardmembers upstairs lounge.

Courtside shot of Richard Gasquet in his 4th Round
match against Tomas Berdych

I went and got some food and a drink and by this time the Federer match was on the big screens outside (it was 9pm so the lounge was closed). After Federer won the first set (curiously by the same score that Anderson won his tiebreak less than 30 minutes before--7-0) I went back to Louis Armstrong, which was like a ghost town. Berdych had won the first set 6-2 but the second set was starting. There were announcements that only Day session reserved seat holders were being let in but no one checked my ticket and I walked in and in a few minutes was sitting courtside near the right-hand baseline (from the perspective of the umpire). It was a great perspective to see the amazing talent and skill of both Gasquet and Berdych. I saw the second and third sets of the Berdych-Gasquet match and then around 11:15pm I had had enough tennis and left the courts. While on the 7 train back to Manhattan I got notification on my phone that Gasquet and Federer had closed out their matches.

It was a great experience, it will be interesting to see how next year is different since they are changing the Louis Armsrong stadum and moving Grandstand to over by Court 17, to make two "small show courts" and two "large show courts" (Ashe and Armstrong).

2015 US OPEN: Men's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the US Open for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals. This year I have also predicted the women's quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP) [19] Rafael Nadal (ESP) [8]. It was expected that the World #1 would have to face a Spanish lefty in this quarterfinal, but Feliciano Lopez was not the Spanish lefty that the draw would have indicated would have made it this far. Thanks to a career-best performance by Fabio Fognini on Friday night, the 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal was bounced from the last major tournament of the year. However, as is often the case, Fognini could not recover from such a huge win in time to build on it, and instead went down in straight sets (blowing a 4-1 lead in the 2nd set) two days later to Lopez. Although Lopez was the initial beneficiary of Fognini's upset of Nadal, ultimately it will almost certainly accrue to Djokovic's benefit, because he is playing someone whom he has never lost to in 5 meetings (although they have not faced each other since 2012 but even so, Djokovic leads the set count 11-1). Lopez gets some great pop on his serve and is a good volleyer, but his backhand side is simply not a Top 20 shot and Djokovic is talented enough to direct many, many shots to that wing to make this match up a mismatch. This is Djokovic's 26th consecutive major quarterfinal, a positively Federian statistic. A win here will let Djokovic reach his 8th consecutive U.S. Open semifinal, which, somewhat bizarrely, he has only won once (in 2011, when he also won the Australian and Wimbledon) Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [19] Kei Nishikori (JPN) [4] vs Marin Cilic (CRO) [9].  This quarterfinal was predicted to be a reprise of last year's major final, with the defending champion attempting to get revenge for the defeat he had against Nishikori at the Citi open in Washington. However, despite winning the U.S. open final, Cilic is 3-6 career against Nishikori lifetime so he actually caught a big break when Nishikori was bounced out of the tournament by his Frenchman Benoit Paire, who  is the person Tsonga eliminated in straight sets to reach this quarterfinal. Tsonga has been playing excellent, efficient tennis through four rounds: he has not had his service broken in the 12 sets he has played and won so far. Cilic on the other hand has lost three sets in his last two rounds, although he has been winning the decisive set each time by a dominating margin. Somewhat surprisingly, Cilic has a distinct advantage in their career head-to-head and is currently sporting a 4-1 lead.  However, Tsonga dominated their first two earlier meetings on the challenger tour and their hard court matches have always been close. This should be a cracker of a match. I definitely believe Tsonga has the weapons to beat anyone on the day that all his weapons are working at maximum effect. If he does so, he will reach his seventh career semifinal (his first at the U.S. Open--Cilic only has one career semifinal, but then he went on to win the tournament). Mad Professah's pick: Tsonga.

Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [5] vs Andy Murray (GBR) [3] Kevin Anderson (RSA) [15]. The tall South African player has been getting closer and closer to his first major quarterfinal, despite having lost seven previous 4th round matches at majors, including at Wimbledon this year where he led the defending champion Noval Djokovic 2-sets-to-0 up and was at 5-all in the 5th set before succumbing to the eventual tournament winner. It must have seemed like deja-vu when Anderson won the first two sets against Andy Murray on Monday evening but despite Murray winning a 3rd set tiebreak, he could not win a 4th set tiebreaker, and thus his string of 18 major quarterfinal appearances ended in a dramatic 7-6(5) 6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(0) that lasted well more than four hours. and delighted and entertained the capacity-plus crowd on Louis Armstrong stadium (including  yours truly!) Thus Anderson will play 2-time major champion Stan Wawrinka, who dismissed American lefty Donald Young in four sets. Could Anderson's breakthrough against Murray duplicate Marin Cilic's breakthrough last year? Cilic had never beaten Gilles Simon in 5 meetings and won a tough 5-setter against the French player and used that confidence to win his first major title, beating two Top 5 players along the way. Anderson actually has a 4-3 head-to-head edge against Wawrinka, and has won the last 4 matches he played against him, including at Queen's Club, just a few months ago. However, the two have never played in a major (best-of-five set match) before. You have to believe that Anderson must believe that he can beat just about anyone at this point, considering his recent results, and this is a winnable match for him. I think that pressure may get to him, and I suspect Wawrinka will use his experience in these situations to pull through. Mad Professah's pick: Wawrinka.

Roger Federer (SUI) [2] vs Tomas Berdych (CZE) [6] Richard Gasquet (FRA) [12].  Amazingly, in both men's matches I managed to be in the audience for on Labor Day there were surprising upsets (where the  lower seed one). Gasquet has been playing excellent tennis all summer, as his Wimbledon semifinal indicates, but I doubt very many people thought that the Frenchman would get past the tall Ccech player despite their even head-to-head at 6-all. Because, the Murray match was so long and it's conclusion coincided with the beginning of the Federer match, Louis Armstrong was deserted b the crowd and barely a few hundred hard-core fans (like yours truly!) stuck around to watch this important match. Happily, this meant I was able to view the match from courtside! Gasquet's backhand and movement is very impressive but what won him this match was his impeccable serving. After blowing the first set, Gasquet dominated the next 3, winning 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-1. This is great news for Federer, because he is 14-6 against Berdych but 14-2 against Gasquet. Gasquet has only been in two major semifinals in his career, while Federer has been in a record 37 (6 more than Jimmy Connors previous record) and he is clearly not finished breaking records, especially here in New York. Mad Professah's pick: Federer.

2015 US OPEN: Women's Quarterfinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the US Open for 2015. Last year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 3 of 4 men's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs Venus Williams (USA) [23]. The most incredible story in tennis, and possibly in the entirety of women's sports, enters its fifteenth year as these two African-American siblings continue to battle near the pinnacle of the game that they have devoted their professional sports lives to. This meeting will be their 27th (Serena leads their overall head-to-head 15-11) and it is on the 14th anniversary of the first time the two played in grand slam final (when Venus won the 2001 U.S. Open). This is the second consecutive major tournament where they have  had to face each other. Serena won their 4th round meeting at Wimbledon this year relatively easily in two decisive sets, but lost their previous meeting in the semifinals of the Canadian tournament last year. (Serena leads 8-5 in major tournament play.) Although Venus has been playing extremely well (especially considering her 23 seeding, it would be a surprise if she could make this match even competitive. There's no question that she is the person on earth who knows Serena's game the most but will that experience actually improve her chances of dashing her sister's hopes for tennis immortality? This will probably be Serena's most emotionally tough match of the fortnight, but she should be a lock to reach her 5 consecutive major final and actually play for the possibility of the calendar grand slam, something Martina Navratilova did as well (she lost that match to Hana Mandlikova in 1985). PREDICTION: Serena.

Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) [13] vs Roberta Vinci (ITA) [16]. This is the accidental quarterfinal. Kiki did well to upset the solid #13 seed Makarova in the previous round and Vinci is here (again!) because Eugenie Bouchard got a concussion after her Friday match and had to default her fourth round match against the Italian. I'll put my money on the Frenchwoman to get through but noone from this quarter is going to be playing in the final on Saturday night. PREDICTION: Mladenovic.

Petra Kvitova (CZE) [5] vs Samantha Stosur (AUS) [22] Flavia Pennetta (ITA) [26].  For some reason the Italian plays her best tennis in New York; she's reached five of her six major quarterfinals at the U.S. open, leading to her 2013 semifinal appearance. Kvitova has never played her best tennis in New York, but she has won the New Haven tournament  (played the week before the last major of the year) for three consecutive years. This is her first major quarterfinal in New York, completing her career set. With her power it is hard to see why she has not had more success on the hard courts in North America but perhaps all that changes this year. Kvitova should be the overwhelming favorite but Pennetta is feisty and fearless and she should find a way to pose the Czech lefty some serious questions. PREDICTION: Kvitova. 

Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [20] vs. Simona Halep (ROU) [2]. The top half of the draw is dominated by the Williams sisters, with an almost certainty being that one of them will be in the final on Saturday. In the bottom half of the draw any one of the four remaining players is a legitimate major finalist and two of them are multiple slam winners (Azarenka and Kvitova). Azarenka plays her best tennis on hard courts while Halep is clearly excellent on all surfaces--there's a reason she is clearly the #2 player in the world behind Serena. However, the player who people feel is Serena's most serious challenger (the one who has the most belief, and who held a match point against her earlier this year in Spain) is the former World #1 Belarussian. This match should actually be the most high quality match of the four and is the most difficult to predict. Azarenka is 2-0 against Halep but hasn't played her since 2012, when Halep simply was not the player she is today (and Azarenka was a better player than she is today). I think Halep will show how much she has improved, and demonstrate how much more Azarenka has to do to get back to the top of the women's game, but it won't be easy. PREDICTION: Halep. 

2015 US OPEN: Order of Play For Labor Day Visit (Halep, Murray, Berdych, Kvitova, Federer)

Well, I have a ticket for Louis Armstrong and a grounds pass so these are matches I will be able to see today. I'll try and do more updates today but I doubt I'll have as good seats today as I did yesterday, when I was courtside on Grandstand!

EYE CANDY: Pablo Hernandez (3rd Time!)

Pablo Hernandez has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram (@pablohernandeofficial) and is also active on Tumblr and Twitter. His pictures have appeared twice before here as Eye Candy (March 17, 2014 and October 8, 2012). Although there are not many models who have appeared more than three times here at MadProfessah.com I suspect that this will not be the last time we see Mr. Hernandez here!

2015 US OPEN: African-American Lefty Mixed Duo Townsend and Young

They lost this second round match to the excellent doubles team of Kubot/Hlackova who had taken out the #1 seeds in the first round.

I was in the first row on Grandstand!

2015 US OPEN: Order of Play For Today's In-Person Viewing!

The order of play for Sunday September 6th at the U.S. Open shows that there are some interesting and exciting matches on tap for me to see while I'm there. Unfortunately, most of them are in the behemoth that is Arthur Ashe Stadium. I just have a grounds pass today, but I couldn't afford a seat i Ashe that would let me view the play from the vantage point that would seem reasonable. But I'll still have fun watching those matches on the big screen On Grandstand there's the intriguing mixed doubles duo of Taylor Townsend and Donald Young at 130pm that I will check out before  the Venus match (I have never even heard of Anna Kontaveit, have you??) and the Serena-Madison match and then that's basically it for singles matches. I'm hoping for no upsets!

I'll try and post some updates about how the day is going either here or on Twitter later!

2015 US OPEN: Fognini Upsets Nadal In Late Night Thriller!

I just arrived in NYC to attend the 2015 U.S. Open so I did not have time to blog about the huge surprise result that happened last night. Fabio Fognini beat Rafael Nadal for the third time this year, but this time was definitely not a charming experience for the 14-time major champ! It was the first time in a major tournament that Nadal had won the first two sets and not won the match (150-0).

Nadal was up two sets and a break before somehow Fognini turned the match around. (I saw the first set and a half and then went to pack and get ready for bed last night). Somehow the Italian leveled the match at 2-sets all (3-6 4-6 6-6 6-3) and then broke first to up 2-1 in the fifth set. Then there were an incredible SIX consecutive breaks of serve in a row, with Fognini finally holding at 5-4 to win the match well after 1am in New York City (I was long asleep--I turned off the coverage after Nadal broke back to even the match at 4-all.)

The amazing thing about this match is that Fognini won it, Nadal didn't lose it. The Italian hit 70 winners (to 57 unforced errors), more than twice Nadal's 30 winners (to only 18 unforced errors).
The loss means that for the first time since 2004 Nadal will not win a major. This was basically guaranteed when he did not win the French Open this year (only the second time in 11 years that has happened). So Nadal's streak of 10 consecutive years of major titles (2005-2014) surpasses Federer's streak of major titles from 2003-2010. (It should be noted, that in Federer's worst year, 2013, he at least reached a semifinal and a quarterfinal and he has reached finals in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015--winning only once.) The $80 million question is, now that he has stopped winning majors regularly, will Nadal come back to challenge and win another? (I think the answer is yes he will get to multiple finals, I'm not completely sure he will win multiple majors, however.)

Nadal has slipped to World #8 in the ATP rankings and his best Grand Slam results this year are Quarterfinals in Australia (l. Tomas Berdych) and Roland Garros (l. Novak Djokovic) with 2nd round losses at Wimbledon (l. Dustin Brown) and and now a 3rd round loss to Fognini at the U.S. Open.

Federer easily won his 3rd round match and still has not lost a set. He faces John Isner in the fourth round on Monday and I'll be there to see it!

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).

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Famous Neuroscientist Oliver Sacks Was Gay!

Noted neuroscientist Oliver Sacks died last weekend at age 82. I was unaware, and I suspect many of my readers are also, that Dr. Sacks was (sorta openly) gay. Thanks to my local NPR station (KPCC 89.3 FM) I learned not only that Dr. Sacks was gay but that as a young medical resident he spent a fair amount of time in Southern California, including at famed Muscle Beach in Venice, CA where he was known as "Dr. Squat" because he could squat lift 575 pounds!

Apparently he was very conflicted about his sexuality, as this excerpt indicates:

He had here his early struggles with his gay identity — he was celibate from his 30s until he was 75, when he met the love of his life, to whom he dedicated his last book — along with ensuing, difficult relationships. He got into a couple of biker brawls. He had a mad drive to prove himself as a body surfer in Venice (where he dislocated a shoulder and broke a few ribs) and a Muscle Beach muscle man.

His last book was published this year and titled On The Move. In it he mentions more details about his love life, including the name of his lover, Bill Hayes.

The picture at the top of this post show Sacks in 1961 (at age 28) and then later on years later. He apparently loved motorcyles his entire life as well.

BOOK REVIEW: Time Salvager by Wesley Chu

Wesley Chu is probably best known as the author of the well-regarded Lives of Tao trilogy. I only discovered this series earlier this year but devoured them quite quickly and enjoyed them a lot. One of the nice things   about discovering the series in 2015 as that all three books of the series were out and available to read, with the final book, The Rebirths of Tao coming out in 2015.

Amazingly, Chu has published not one but two books this year. This second book is Time Salvager, which is the first book in a new trilogy. The Tao trilogy is an action-packed speculative fiction (with YA tinges) set in a near-future where two groups (the Genjix and the Prophus) of human-alien symbionts called Quasings are engaged in a violent, no-holds barred battle against each other for control of planet Earth. Time Salvager is very different; it is still science fiction but this book is a dystopian, time-travel thriller.

Time Salvager is primarily the story of James Griffin-Mars, a chronman, i.e. someone who is doing important work to serve humanity by risking his physical and mental health by repeatedly going back in time and grabbing energy sources and materiel that a war-weary and technologically-static Solar System needs to survive. The other main character is Elise Kim, a 21st century biologist who was in charge of a United Nation-sponsored project to investigate and potentially resolve a curious algae bloom which is starting to devastate Earth's oceans.,

The dystopian setting for Time Salvager  Chu has dreamed up here is quite compelling (and very depressing). Basically, in the future humanity has lost the ability to innovate and produce enough energy and resources to support itself so the accepted plan for survival basically involves cannibalizing the past in order to support the future. And for most of humanity on various outposts in the solar system (and particularly on Earth) life is grim. The back story for how things got to be so bad by the 26th century would make an excellent prequel. We get bits and pieces of that story (various references to wars and global disaster) as the primary plot involving James and Elise develops in this book.

Chronmen by training and selection are borderline personalities and James bears this out. He repeatedly hallucinates and is wracked with guilty dreams. Elise is from 2097 (still hundreds of years in the past from James' present) and has a fresh (and horrified) perspective on the dystopian hell that Earth has become. (The world's oceans have LITERALLY gone to sh*t and many, many of the world's metropolises have been destroyed by war, disaster or human strife.)

 Besides the setting, the other aspect of the book that I found most compelling was Grace Priestly, the inventor of time travel. She is depicted as a feisty old (and lascivious) biddy. Another strength of the book was the villains. There are many evil corporations and their evil minions are doing Very Bad Things. As he demonstrated previously in the Tao books and again here, Chu is excellent at writing bad guys. He's also quite good at writing people who are working with the bad guys but realize at some point they are on the wrong team, so they are at least nuanced in their "badness." You want to hate them but then they do something surprising so you aren't so sure.

There are aspects of  Time Salvager  that I really did not like, the most notable of these is the inclusion and depiction of the Efren, the tribe of people that Elise and James run into in the ruins of Boston. I don't know why but none of those scenes worked for me whatsoever. It just seemed very patronizing that Elise shows up and can convince the Efren that she can save the planet. Why would they believe her? And why would James? I understand that for plot purposes we need to give Elise a mission to accomplish in the future and a way for James to get over his social maladaptiveness but The Efren subplot really didn't work for me at all. I almost found it borderline offensive, in fact, because basically they are treated as noble savages.

Anyway, another aspect of the book that I really liked a lot was the internal conflict depicted in the time-travel organization and I liked the action/fighting scenes. (Chu is also quite good at writing hand-to-hand combat and other fight/action sequences.) No wonder he won the 2015 John W. Campbell award!

Overall, Time Salvager is a pretty fun book, with some thought-provoking depictions of a dystopian, corporate-dominated future for Mankind, populated by characters that you will probably have strong feelings about (both positively and negatively).

Title: Time Salvager.
Author: Wesley Chu.
Paperback: 384 pages.
Publisher: Tor.
Date Published: July 7, 2015.
Date Read: July 12, 2015.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.50/4.0).

PLOT: B+.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A-.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Rogue Kentucky County Clerk Demonstrating Necessity Of Church-State Separation

In case one needed more evidence of why the separation of church-state is so important, the ongoing saga of  Kim Davis (the rogue Rowan County, Kentucky clerk) who has been refusing to issue marriage licenses despite exhausting all her possible legal avenues. (The United States Supreme Court denied her request for a stay on an order from a federal district court judge to issues marriage licenses on Monday night.)

On Tuesday, Davis responded to a question asking what authority she was using to continue denying marriage licenses to duly qualified married couples by saying "God's authority."

Davis and her Deputy Clerks have been ordered to appear in court on Thursday to explain to federal judge David Bunning why she should not be sanctioned (held on contempt of court) for not following his court order. Maybe this saga will be over soon and the proper relationship between church and state will be restored.

TENNIS TUESDAY: U.S. Open Draw Devastated By Exit Of 13 Seeded Players (10 Female, 3 Male)

The Women's Draw at the 2015 U.S. Open has been devastated by the loss of 10 seeds in the first two days: Maria Sharapova(3) (withdrew with injury before playing), Lucie Safarova(6), Ana Ivanovic(7), Karolina Pliskova(8), Carla Suarez Navarro(10), Timea Bascinsky(14), Jelena Jankovic(21), Alize Cornet(27), Irina-Camelia Begu(28), Sloane Stephens(29) and Svetlana Kuznetsova(30)!

On the men's side there have only been three upsets: Kei Nishikori(4) by Benoit Paire of France, Gael Monfils(16) (forced to retire due to an injury) and Gilles Simon(11) by American Donald Young (coming back from 2-6 4-6 0-3 to win in 5 sets!)