The Mad Professah Lectures

Roger Federer won his 100th career title in Dubai on Saturday, becoming the second male player to reach this landmark, after Jimmy Connors who ended his career with 109 titles. Can Federer equal or break this record? Possibly, but it will be tough unless either he plays beyond the 2020 Olympics, which many of us doubt he will do, or he goes on a winning spree in the next 15 months or so.

Another question is will Federer's title haul exceed his other rivals for G.O.A.T. status, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, both of whom have more Masters Series shields than the Swiss player. Djokovic has 73 titles while Nadal has 80, but they are both 6 and 5 years younger than Federer, respectively.

Federer's 100th title came at the Duai Duty Free Open, where he has now been champion 8 times in his career. He beat Stefanos Tsitsipas the 21-year-old Greek phenom who ended Federer's title defence of the Australian Open this January. Tsitsipas has a game style reminiscent of Federer's (great movement, shot-making, one-handed backhand) but he's 6-foot-4. Federer had an awful conversion rate on breakpoints in their first meeting in Melbourne but in Dubai he broke in the very first game of the match, defended the 2 breakpoints he had serving out the first set, and then broke Tsitsipas again in the 19th game of the match and easily held serve to win the second set and championship 6-4 6-4.

Roger Federer beat World #1 Novak Djokovic 6-3 7-5 to win his seventh(!) Dubai Duty Free Open title and 84th ATP career title overall. Federer improved to 20-17 in his head-to-head against Djokovic, and is now 84-42 in career tournament finals. Federer has now won three titles 7 times: Halle, Wimbledon and Dubai.

The match was a high quality affair with Djokovic earning 7 breakpoints but failing to convert any of them while Federer converted both of the only to breakpoints he had, one in each set. He also served incredibly well, hitting 13 aces, raising his career total over the 9,000 mark.

Roger Federer won his first clash with Novak Djokovic in over 18 months, by coming back from a set down to prevail 3-6 6-3 6-2 and claim his 3rd Top 10 win of 2014 (having beaten Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Murray in Australia), one less than he had for all of last year. And the first to months of the year are not done yet! Djokovic is 0-2 against Top 10 players, both from Switerland (having lost to 2014 Austrailan Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals).

Federer improved to a 17-15 head-to-head versus Djokovic and  13-12 in hard court matches. The 4-time Dubai champion from serbia has yet to win a title in 2014 and Indian Wells starts next week. That's the first time that has happened since 2006. Either Federer or Djokovic has won 9 of the last 11 Dubai tournaments. Last year Berdych beat Federer in the semifinals and then lost to Djokovic in the final. Federer has a lifetime 11-6 record against Berdych but has lost their last two meetings.

For the 32nd time in their careers, the 17-time major champion Roger Federer will face 6-time major champion Novak Djokovic. Federer sports a slight 16-15 head-to-head lead overall and a 12-11 lead in hard court matches. However, Djokovic has won both times they played in 2013, which it must be remarked was one of Federer's worst years on tour. If he is able to acquit himself well against Djokovic at a tournament he has won 5 times before, the G.O.A.T's 2014 will definitely start looking promising.

The winner of the blockbuster semifinal between Djokovic and Federer will likely face Tomas Berdych, who beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his quarterfinal and will probably beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in his semifinal. Last year Djokovic beat Berdych in straight sets to win the title.

Venus Williams, 33, won her 45th WTA Tour title, in Dubai, by defeating Alize Cornet 6-3 6-0. The title was Venus' first since Luxembourg in October 2012, and only her second since winning two consecutive titles in Dubai and Acapulco in February 2010.

Venus looked very sharp against Cornet, taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity that arose when the Frenchwoman surprisingly upset her sister Serena in the semifinals.

Sadly, a 25th meeting between Venus Williams and Serena Williams will not happen because Serena was bounced 6-4 6-4 from the WTA tournament in Dubai by Alize Cornet. Venus, who won this title in 2009 and 2010 but has not played here in the intervening years, is on a 14-match winning streak in the Arab emirate. She dismissed former World #1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 6-2, following up wins over Flavia Pennetta and Ana Ivanovic.

I like Venus' chances to win her 3rd title in Dubai. Can Alize Cornet really become one of the rare players to beat Venus and Serena in the same tournament and win it? I doubt it. Go Venus!

Roger Federer continued his strong play in 2012 by extending his winning streak to 10 in a row, capturing his  second consecutive ATP title of the year, the Dubai Duty Free Championships. Federer defeated Murray 7-5 6-4 in the final, one day after Murray had handed World #1 Novak Djokovic his first defeat of the year, and Federer won one of the closest matches of the year against Juan Martin del Potro, who he beat last week in the final of the Rotterdam tournament.

Federer improved his career head to head to 7 wins and 8 losses against Murray and his overall record in finals to 72 wins and 30 losses. Since turning 30 on August 8, 2011 Federer is 41-5, winning 5 of the last 7 tournaments he's entered.

The first Masters 1000 tournament of the year starts on Monday in Indian Wells, followed afterwards by the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Last year, Djokovic won both American hard court Masters series tournaments over Rafael Nadal.

The Other Half and I were feeling like watching something not too serious for the last weekend of the year and since Brad Bird is one of our favorite directors (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant) we decided to go see his lastest film, even if it is the 4th installment in the Mission Impossible movies starring Tom Cruise.

Also influencing our decision to see the film was the fact that it was sporting a surprisingly positive rating on rottentomatoes.com of 93%, pretty high for your typical mindless action flick. The third one (2006's Mission Impossible III) had been produced and directed by JJ Abrams and had (somewhat ineffectively, in my estimation) combined numerous action sequences with intricate, highly charged emotional scenes between Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

This fourth outing stars Cruise again (now 49 years old but astonishingly still able to maintain his credibility as male action hero) as well as Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Paula Patton (Déjà Vu, Precious) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town). (Spoiler alert! Tom Wilkinson has a literally short-lived cameo as the Secretary of Defense and Anil Kapoor (the TV host in Slumdog Millionaire) shows up late in the film as comically randy billionaire.) Looks like actor Josh Holloway (Sawyer on Lost) is starting to get some work in movies although his part is also pretty small.

I would talk about the plot of the movie but it is typically simultaneously indecipherable and non-sensical. What is most important in this kind of movie are the shooting locations, the fancy gadgets and the overall production values and on this level Mission Impossible IV does not disappoint.

The movie begins in Budapest, Hungary (the second film I have seen in little over a month to do so: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy also begins with a pivotal scene in this apparently gorgeous city) and then movies on to The Kremlin in Moscow, then the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa), located in the United Arab Emirates and then ends in Mumbai, India. It really is quite thrilling to get a close-up look at the interior an exterior of the Burj Khalifa, as well as the view from 130 stories.

There are all sorts of fanciful gadgets used by the "Impossible Mission Force," even the much-maligned, (frankly ridiculous) full-face masks introduced in the very first edition of the series which basically allows anyone's face to appear on anyone else's body (perfect facial impersonation). However, here the writer (or director) do themselves a favor by making fun of the face masks, while still deploying them in a way which forwards "the plot."

The production values are frankly top-notch throughout and though the film is well-over 2-hours it never seems to slow down and due to the penchant for killing characters played by major actors the viewer really does have a sense that perhaps this time the bad guys will actually win and that any member of the team can be killed at just about any moment.

Except for Tom of course. After all, there is the inevitable Mission Impossible V  to look forward to!

Title: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Director: Brad Bird.
Running Time: 2 hours, 13 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence.
Release Date: December 21, 2011.
Viewing Date: December 30, 2011.

 Plot: C.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: B+ (3.33/4.0).