The Mad Professah Lectures

ANDY MURRAY DEFEATS STAN WAWRINKA IN BATTLE OF COMEBACK KIDS
Former World #1 and 3-time major champion Andy Murray defeated 3-time major champion Stan Wawrinka 3-6 6-4 6-4 to win his first title since March of 2017. The tournament win is notable because both Murray and Wawrinka had extended departures from the tour due to injury, with Murray having a "hip resurfacing surgery" in January of this year which most people expected to completely end his competitive tennis career.


BENCIC GRABS LAST SLOT IN WTA TOUR FINAL BY WINNING KREMLIN CUP
Belinda Bencic continued her excellent 2019 season by grabbing the final slot in the Elite 8 season-ending WTA Tour Finals by winning the Kremlin Cup title over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Bencic only needed to reach the final to claim the berth but came back from a set to win her 4th career title.


SHAPOVALOV REACHES FIRST ATP TOUR FINAL IN 8 TRIES AND  WINS IT!
Denis Shapovalov of Canada had lost his first 7 ATP tour semifinals but at the Stockholm Open he reached the final and surprisingly won it with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Yuichi Sugita. The 20-year-old Canadian rejoins the Top 30 and gets bragging rights over his 19-year-old countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime who is higher ranked on the tour but has yet to win an ATP tour title despite reaching 2 finals this year.

Defying my prediction, Bianca Andreescu defeated Serena Williams in the women's final of the 2019 U.S.Open 6-3 7-5 to win her first major final. The 19-year-old Canadian became her country's first major title winner (of any gender) and the first player born since 2000 to win a major title. (There is still no player born in the 1990s or the 2000s who has won a major title on the ATP tour.)

For the fourth time in a row that she has played in four major finals since returning after getting married and having a baby, Serena was unable to play her best tennis. Despite winning the first point with an ace, Serena still got broken in her very first service game, by hitting a double fault on breakpoint. In fact, this was an augur of things to come, because Serena had an awful serving performance today, with only 44% of her first serves going in (compared to 66% of Andreescu's). But even from the back of the court, Andreescu was able to match (and at time, outmatch) Serena's power, and most definitely consistency. For the second US Open in a row, Serena played a player more than a decade younger who had won the Indian Wells tournament and who was completely unfazed by playing in her first major final. Some people say that Serena lost these matches to Osaka and Andreescu because the younger players played the "best match of their lives." I strongly disagree. They played well, but not extraordinarily so. Andreescu is always aggressive and today was no different. After losing in the first round of qualifying last year (and the year before), the 19-year-old won the entire tournament in her first maindraw appearance. In fact, she has won her first 8 matches against Top 10 players and will make her debut in the Top 10 herself at #5 on Monday. How many more majors will Andreescu win? Time will tell, but she appears to be the multi-slam winner women's tennis has been waiting for.

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.

For the first time in nearly two years Serena Williams is in the final of a regular tour-level tournament after reaching 3 major finals (2018 Wimbledon, 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Wimbledon) in that period. She will face 19-year-old hometown heroine Bianca (Bibi) Andreescu who is playing in her 3rd final of 2019 in the Rogers Cup final in Toronto, Ontario.

Serena has been playing excellent tennis in Canada. In the quarterfinals she finally got her first win over Naomi Osaka (in straight sets!) on Friday 6-3 6-4. Defending champion Simona Halep retired against Marie Bouzkova after losing the first set, Serena was forced to win a 3-set semifinal 1-6 6-3 6-3 against the Czech qualifier.

Andreescu is the first Canadian woman in 50 years to reach the final of the Canadian Open. She has made incredible strides and will be in the Top 20 on Monday for the first time.

Kingdom of the Blind  is another sublime entry in the long-running Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series set in the mythical town of Three Pines, a suburb of Montreal. This is the fourteenth book and unlike some other police procedural murder-mysteries the sequential order is VERY important as the passage of time and events from earlier books very much influences the story. 

These books must be read in order for the greatest effect and thus that makes it difficult to write a review of this book without spoiling the earlier ones. As I have said before, I believe that one of the key factors in how strong a series is (or will be) is the complexity of the supporting characters. Louise Penny has done an amazing job of populating the Gamache series with a number of supporting characters who have large, distinct and memorable personalities. These have become familiar (and perhaps a little rote) over the course of the series. That being said, in some books these “supporting characters” have become main characters and generally the books where this occurs have not suffered from their promotion. Another thing that Penny has done well is create new characters and added them to the mix, and these characters have grown and been incorporated into the stories in increasingly interesting ways.

In Kingdom of the Blind there are really three main protagonists, Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Amelia Choquet. Beauvoir and Gamache have been a team from very early in the series but Choquet has only been a presence in the last few books. Of course, all our favorites from past books, Ruth, Rosa, Clara, Myrna, Reine-Marie, Gabri and Olivier make appearances, mostly as cameos (unfortunately). 

This time the primary mystery is about the will of a crazy old lady who despite being apparently penniless leaves inheritances of millions of dollars to her three kids. Myrna, Gamache and a handsome young stranger are named executors of her estate despite apparently having no connection to the deceased and we and they first need to solve the puzzle of why this woman decided on them as her will's executors. Soon after the will is read publicly there’s a murdered corpse to add to the story and off we go. 

Overall, I would say that is a better than average entry in the Gamache series. The primary murder mystery is interesting (but actually not too difficult to solve). As with most of her best books, the most salient aspects of the story involve events which happen to our protagonists (especially Gamache and Beauvoir) that will have long-term impacts on these characters lives, insuring we continue to connect to, and emphasize with, them.

RATING 4.5 STARS.

Title: Kingdom of the Blind.
Author: Louise Penny.
Paperback: 416 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: November 27, 2018.
Date Read: March 8, 2019.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0).

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

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.

ANDY MURRAY HAS SECOND HIP SURGERY TO END CHRONIC PAIN
3-time major champion Andy Murray had a "hip resurfacing" operation last week in a last-ditch attempt to extend his tennis career and to end chronic pain in this joint. This happened a few days after he returned home after losing a 5-set thriller in the first round of the Australian Open against Roberto Bautista Agut.

SIMONA HALEP PICKS NEW FULL-TIME COACH
Former World #1 Simona Halep has finally found a replacement coach for Darren Cahill. She has selected the former coach of David Goffin, Thierry van Cleemput. The two started working together informally last month in Melbourne before she played her epic match against Serena Williams in the 3rd round.

KIKI BERTENS WINS THRILLER AGAINST DONNA VEKIC IN RUSSIA
Kiki Bertens defeated Donna Vekic in the final of the WTA Premiere level tournament in St. Petersburg 7-6(2) 6-4. the current World #8 has won 3 tournaments in the last year, including two on hard courts.

SHAPOVALOV AND AUGER_ALIASSIME POWER CANADA IN DAVIS CUP
Youngsters Denis Shpovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime together were able to power Canada over Slovakia to take their nation into the final of the revised Davis Cup.

International LGBT journalist Rex Wockner reports that Canada now has universal transgender rights, i.e. every province and territory in the country has enacted non-discrimination statutes which prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and allow legal changes in gender.

However, Xtra points out that there still is no federal trans rights bill enacted, although one is currently under consideration in the Senate:

The bill’s sponsor, Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, told the Hill Times he’ll fight to get the bill passed before the June 30 summer break, even threatening to use time allocation — a parliamentary motion that curtails debate and forces a vote, but often prompts opponents to delay other bills in retaliation.
“It’s a hill I’m prepared to die on. This has to be passed before the summer break,” Mitchell said.

Hat/tip to Rob Salerno

UPDATE: C-16 passed its third reading in the Canadian Senate on Thursday and will almost certainly go into effect soon!

Hat/tip to TransGriot

I'm in San Diego playing in a tennis tournament myself so I have limited access to my blog. However, I was able to catch most of Serena's match in the semifinals of the 2015 Rogers Cup in Toronto last night against 18 year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

Clearly Serena's elbow injury is real and it is impacting her serve. Serena lost to Bencic 3-6 7-5 6-4 in a taut, drama-filled encounter. Serena was on in the second set until the 8th game when she inexplicably got broken. Bencic had a set point serving at 5-3 and threw in a very nervous double fault. Serena pounced, broke back and then held serve for 5-all. But then, Serena had 0-40 on Bencic's serve and somehow failed to convert on any of those break points as well as a few others and the Swiss teenager held serve. Then Serena had to hold serve at 5-6 and started missing multiple serves (I think at one point she missed FIVE in a row) and got broken to lose the second set. She immediately demolished her racquet.

In the third set things went from bad to worse for Serena. She fell behind 1-5 when suddenly she calmed down and steadied her game. She brought it all the way back to 4-5 (breaking Bencic twice in succession) . In the final game Serena started with an ace but good returning by Bencic caused her to get behind in the points early and Serena eventually faced a break point which was also match point.
Bencic returned Serena's second serve well (first serve missed by a mile) and then was able to hit a winner to close out the match for an incredible win.

It was Serena's first 3-set loss of 2015 (now 15-1) and her first loss to a teenager since losing to Sloane Stephens in the 2013 Australian Open quarterfinals. It was also Serena's only second loss of the year (now 41-2). She had 59 unforced errors and 64 winners (+5) while Bencic had 5 more errors than winners.

Bencic will face Simona Halep in the 2015 Rogers Cup final.

MadProfessah's prediction: Halep.

James D. Stewart is very well-known in the world of college mathematics as a Professor emeritus at McMaster University and the author of the best-selling calculus textbook, often called the "Stewart Calculus." However the fact that the author of Stewart's Calculus is openly gay (and Canadian!) is certainly not as widely known.

Stewart, 73, was made very wealthy by the success of his textbooks and used his money to support various philanthropic projects, mostly involving music and mathematics. In Toronto, he is known for the development of Integral House, a $32 million dollar architectural wonder which served as his residence and a state-of-the-art concert facility for 150 people with perfect acoustics and dramatic curves.

 Sadly, in 2013 Stewart was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and given a year to live; he succumbed to the disease earlier this month on December 3, 2014.

Toronto's The Globe and Mail reports:

The house and all its custom-designed furnishings were an expression of his love of curves, so prominent in calculus. But there was no “formula” for the house, he said – it was a work of art that he was lucky enough to live in, and that brought him into contact with musicians he might otherwise never have met. 

It also became a great party centre during Pride Week and at Halloween, when the all-male guests were expected to show up in extravagant drag. “He was a crazy guy, privately,” Mr. Ralph says. “That man could party. He would let it all go.” 

Dr. Stewart was “out” his whole adult life, and supported many services and initiatives for LGBT people. Joseph Clement, who is making a documentary about Integral House and its owner, said that in the early 1970s, Dr. Stewart helped launch the Pride movement in Hamilton by inviting Toronto activist George Hislop to speak in the city.

As a gay mathematician myself I had heard that Stewart was gay but had not seen any documentation of this fact. It's sort of sad that fact is becoming more well-known now that Stewart is dead, but it is still an encouraging notion that a gay man was responsible for teaching generations of college students calculus.

Anthony Moufarej is a 22-year-old model from Quebec, Canada. According to his Model Mayhem page he is 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds and of Middle Eastern descent (which we could probably figure out from his name). According to other websites, he is from Lebanon.  Here at MadProfessah.com our motto is "Hawt is hawt" and we have featured other models of Lebanese descent before, like the stunning Adam Ayash.

Anthony has a presence on Facebook and there are lots of pictures of him available on Tumblr and Pinterest.

Happy Holidays!

As I expected, World #1 Novak Djokovic defeated Milos Raonic to win his 20th ATP Masters shield at the 2014 Paris Masters. The score in the match was 6-2 6-3 and the victory marked  Djokovic's 600th career win on the ATP Tour (Roger Federer has 991 and Rafael Nadal has 706) and his 56th win of the year (8 losses). It was Djokovic's 4th Masters 1000 title of the year, having previously won Indian Wells (d. Federer), Key Biscayne (d. Nadal) and Rome (d. Nadal)  and the first time anyone had ever defended the Paris Masters title.

The win mean's that the Serb's lead for the #1 position is now 1310 points ahead of Federer and so all he would need to do is win one match in London to seal his third year-end #1 (2011 and 2012). Djokovic has won the year-end championships the last two years without losing a match.

Much to my surprise, at the 2014 Rogers Cup both Agnieska Radwanska and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were able to win their respective finals against their older and more venerable opponents, Venus Williams and Roger Federer. Tsonga beat Federr 7-5 7-6(3) to win his 11th career title. He has now beaten Federer 3 times  at the Rogers Cup in Canada, despite having a 5-11 record overall againt the Swiss great.

Radwnska similarly dismissed Venus in straight sets 6-4 6-2, with Venus appearing not as sharp as she was in her surprising3-set  semifinal win over her sister, World #1 Serena Williams. At this point in her career, wins over the World #1 are probably more important than titles to Venus anyway.

As expected, World #3 Roger Federer continued his unbeaten record against Feliciano Lopez, as did Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against Grigor Dimitrov. It was Federer's 11th consecutive win against the Spaniard and Tsongas 4th consecutive win against the Bulgarian. It was also the Frenchman's 3rd consecutive Top 10 win in as many matches this week. He has beaten World #1 Nivak Djokovic, World #9 Andy Murray and World #8 Grigor Dimitrov. I actually expected Dimitrov to  turn things around against Tsonga, but instead he lost in straight sets.

Federer has a 11-4 head-to-head advantage against Tsonga and will be playing in his 120th career ATP Tour final, trying for his 80th title. Tsonga is playing in his 20th final, trying for his 11th title

MadProfessah's pick: Federer!

Surprsingly, Venus Williams beat her younger sister Serena Williams, the World #1, in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada on Sunday. It was the 34-year-old American's first win in 6 meetings with her 32-year-old sister, with their overall head-to-head now standing at 14-11 in Serena's favor.

Venus won 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-3, her first win over a reigning World #1 since her 2009 win over Dinara Safina in the Wimbledon semifinals. Venus will face Agnieska Radwanska in her 3rd final of 2014. Venus leads their head-to-head 5-3 but has lost the last two meetings to the popular Polish player. The two have no played since 2012 and clear the 2014 edition of Venus is a player that Radwanska has not met.

MadProfessah's pick: Venus!

In Montreal, Canada at the Rogers Cup, both Venus Williams and Serena Williams had to survive tough 3-set matches to reach a semifinal showdown against each other, their record 25th meeting on the WTA Tour. (Serena leads 14-10, having won their last 5 meetings.) Serena had to overcome a slow start against Caroline Wozniacki to win 4-6 7-5 7-5 while Venus followed up her epic win against Angelique Kerber on Thursday with a gutsy win against Carla Suarez Navarro despite blowing a 2nd set lead.

In the other semifinals Ekaterina Makarova will face Agnieska Radwanska.

MadProfessah's pick: S. Williams vs A. Radwanska final.

Serena Williams came back from 1-5 down in the first set of the final of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University against Angelique Kerber, saved two set points and won the match 7-6(1) 6-3 to win her 4th title of 2014. It was both competitors fourth final appearance of the year but Serena has not lost a final and Kerber is yet to win one. Serena, playing in her first tournament back after her disastrous French Open and Wimbledon results, confirmed her #1 ranking, which she has now held for an astonishing 200 weeks in her career. Only Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Chris Evert (260) and Martina Hingis (209) have held the top spot longer. Serena now has 61 career titles, having won earlier this year in Rome (d. Errani), Miami (d. Na) and Brisbane (d. Azarenka).

Also wining titles this weekend were Sveta Kuznetova, who won her first title in four years by outlasting tough competitor Karumi Nara 6-3 4-6 6-4 in the final of the Citi Open in Washington, DC. It was vindication for the 2-time major champion, who led 3-0 in the second set. It was just Kuznetsova's 14th career title. Last year, I attended the men's final of the D.C. tournament, seeing John Isner lose to Juan Martin del Potro in three sets. This year it was an all-Canadian affair, with Milos Raonic defeating Vasek Pospisil 6-1 6-4.


Raonic is now at #6 in the world, just two slots above fellow "Young Gun" Grigor Dimitrov who moves up to World #8. The Top 5 was unchanged with injured del Potro making his way out of the Top10.



For the women, Ana Ivanovic returns to the Top 10 after a 4-year absence, while Serena celebrates her  200th week at #1. Next week, 2014 French Open finalist Simona Halep will rise to #2 because Li Na has withdrawn from the entire summer hard court season (Canada, Cincinnati and New York) with an injury.

Can you understand the meaning of the title of this blog post? "Xe," "Xyr" and "Xem" are all proposed gender-neutral pronouns that can be used in place of "she/he," "hers/his" and "her/him." The school board in Vancouver, Canada has recently approved  a policy for the use of these pronouns in schools:

VANCOUVER -- Grammar teachers may need to amend their lesson plans after the Vancouver school board approved Monday a policy change that welcomes a brand-new string of pronouns into Vancouver public schools: “xe, xem, and xyr.”
The pronouns are touted as alternatives to he/she, him/her, and his/hers, and come as last-minute amendments to the board’s new policy aimed at better accommodating transgender students in schools.
The vote came after a brief debate that sparked unrest among opponents of the policy who shouted “dictator” and “liar” at trustees, as security guards and police officers watched from their posts at council doors. But supporters waved pink and blue-coloured flags and drowned out the detractors with their cheers once the policy passed. Three previous public meetings were similarly rowdy.
The vote may be the knockout blow in a bitter and protracted fight over the controversial plan to put gender-neutral washrooms in schools and support students in expressing their preferred gender identities.

What I find so interesting about this is that this pronoun scheme was invented in the early 1970s but is only now getting traction, according to the Business Insider: 

In 1789, William H. Marshall recorded the existence of the gender-neutral pronoun “ou.” “Ou will” meant “he will,” “she will,” or “it will,” according to Dennis Baron’s “Grammar and Gender.” “Ou” stems from the Middle English epicene “a,” used in the 14th century by writers for “he,” “she,” “it,” they,” and even “I.”
From there, Don Rickter is the most widely accepted inventor of “xe,” xem,” and “xyr” in 1973.
Another modern version of gender-neutral language are the Spivak pronouns. By dropping the “th” from “they,” “them, and “their,” mathematician Michael Spivak created “ey,” “em,” “eir,” widely used by LGBTQ advocates.

Would you be able to use these pronouns appropriately if the need arose? I think I could.

The men's semifinals for the 2014 French Open are set. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals and correctly predicted 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals. I also have already made predictions for the women's semifinals. Below are my predictions for this year's men's semifinals.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [1]  vs Andy Murray (GBR) [7]. Murray did not even play this tournament last year because of an injury but is playing in his 2nd career Roland Garros semifinal and 15th career major semifinal overall. Despite the fact that he has had his best results on hard courts, he is experienced on clay. However, like he does against all his contemporaries Nadal leads Murray 14-5  including 5-0 on clay.

Murray and Nadal played on clay just a few weeks ago in Rome and Murray won the first set 6-1 but ended up losing that three set match. Murray is tall enough that he should not be bothered by Nadal's extreme top spin. Since Murray is coming back from injury many felt that he wouldn't do well in Paris. Some of us didn't even think he would win his previous match against Gael Monfils in front of a Parisian crowd. Nadal has lost three times on clay this year (to Novak Djokovic in Rome, David Ferrer in Monte Carlo and Nico Almagro in Barcelona) so he is more vulnerable (and less confident) in Paris than he has ever been. However, it must help the King of Clay's confidence that he was able to dispatch one of these rivals surprisingly easily when he beat Ferrer 4-6 6-4 6-0 6-1 in the quarterfinals. I'm fairly confident that Murray will put up a better fight than that, but the eventual result will almost certainly be the same. Mad Professah's pick: Nadal in 4.

Tomas Berdych (CZE) [6]Ernests Gulbis (LAT) [18] vs Novak Djokovic (SRB) [2].  Since losing to Nadal in the final of the 2013 US Open, Novak Djokovic has only lost 3 matches and played 56. He lost to  Stan Wawrinka in Melbourne and to Roger Federer in Monte Carlo and Dubai.
Djokovic is playing at a high enough level that in my mind he is now actually the favorite to win here in Paris. He knows that he has the game to beat Rafa in five, he has just been unlucky the last two years. This year he has had quite a tough draw at Roland Garros but has been destroying excellent Top 10 players like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Milos Raonic in straight sets. His opponent in the semifinals surprised me by following up his dismissal of Roger Federer in the 4th round with a straight-sets shellacking of Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. The Latvian is finally living up to his prodigious talent and is most definitely a dangerous player but the inevitable high-stakes clash between the World #1 and World #2 is unlikely to be derailed by this 1st time major semifinalist. Instead, for the third consecutive year, the winner of the clash  between Nadal and Djokovic is almost certainly going to determine the winner of the French Open (and probably the year end World #1 ranking).  Mad Professah's pick: Djokovic in 4.

The women's quarterfinals are now set at the 2014 French Open. Last year, I predicted 2 of 2 women's semifinals correctly and 1 of 2 men's semifinals correctly. This year I correctly predicted 2 of 4women's quarterfinals and 2 of 4 men's quarterfinals. Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at Roland Garros this year.

Serena Williams (USA) [1]Maria Sharapova (RUS) [7] vs. Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) [18]. For the fourth year in a row, Maria Sharapova is in the semifinals of Roland Garros. The Russian player is 52-4 on clay for the last three seasons and with
Serena Williams crashing out of the tournament early most observers have ceded the 2014 title to the #7 seed.  However, she still had to make it through the draw and she has been down but not out in her last two matches but in both cases once she won the middle set she was able to close out the matches by obliterating her opponent to win the last 6 games in a row. Bouchard also displayed her mental toughness to win her second consecutive major quarterfinal despite being down in all three sets against an accomplished Spanish clay court player. The Canadian youngster was able to sneak out the first set in a tiebreak after being down a double break and won the final set despite being down 1-4. Bouchard and Sharapova have very similar playing styles (see ball, hit ball; hit ball harder!) and so far in their two career meetings Sharapova has earned victories. Bouchard is clearly the real deal and the most successful of the up and coming group of Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Monica Puig and Elina Svitolina. She will have most likely have very many opportunities to successfully reach major finals but this is not one of them. Mad Professah's pick: Sharapova in 3 sets.