The Mad Professah Lectures

Venus Williams won her first match at Indian Wells in over 16 years the hard way. The former World #1 faced another former #1 in Jelena Jankovic. The two have a very close rivalry, with the Serb leading 7-6 in their first 13 meetings, in which all but four have gone to three sets.

Jankovic led this match 6-1 4-1 at the 40 minute mark and for all intents and purposes it looks like the match would be over in under an hour. Then somehow Venus started connecting with her serve and was able to break back and even the second set at 4-all. Then she broke and served for the set at 5-4 but lost serve. Jankovic went up 6-5 and when Venus was serving she went down 15-40 or double match point. Venus saved those match points and another on the way to reaching a tiebreak, in which Jankovic again took an early lead of 4-2 but then lost it on a forehand error 7-5. In the third set Venus went up 4-0 and then the two traded service breaks until Venus served out the win easily at 5-1 to win her first match at the BNP Paribas Open since 2001 1-6 7-6(5) 6-1. The two now have a tied career head-to-head.

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!)

Wowsa! After one day my U.S. Open bracket is already busted! (You can see my WTA and ATP picks here and here.)  THREE Top 10 seeds (all in 3-time defending champion Serena Williams half of the draw) fell in the first round. And this was after the news came late last night that #3 seed Maria Sharapova (also in Serena's half) was withdrawing from the tournament with a leg injury! Ana Ivanovic(7), Karolina Pliskova(8), Carla Suarez Navarro(10) all fell to lower ranked opponents, thus clearing the path for Serena to win her 7th major title. Other notable losses were Sloane Stephens (losing to fellow American Coco Vandeweghe), 2-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and former World #1 Jelena Jankovic. Venus Williams barely escaped being included in the carnage when she blew two match points in the 3nd set tiebreaker but thanks to an early break in the 3rd set, she was able to keep her nose in front and get a 6-4 6-7(7) 6-3 win over Monica Puig.

The biggest upset was on the men's side with #4 seed (and 2014 US Open finalist) Kei Nishikori falling to talented Frenchman Benoit Paire after failing to win two match points in the 4th set and then losing a tight 5th set. The other finalist, defending champion Marin Cilic won his first round match rather easily, and World #1 Novak Djokovic put on a frightening display by dispatching Joao Sousa of Brasil in 71 minutes while losing only 3 games in the process.

2-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova looked unbeatable through her first two rounds of her title defense but then in the second set (at 6-3 4-2) of her third round encounter with former World #1 Jelena Jankovic she suddenly started missing the lines and things went down hill from there.

Kvitova had lost 3 games through the first two matches but when Jankovic started putting up stiff resistance she did not handle the tension well, and lost the second set 5-7.

The third set was a closer affair with both players holding serve until the tenth game when Kvitova, serving to stay in the match was up 30-15 but then lost three consecutive points on errors to lose the match 6-4 in the third.

The removal of Kvitova from the bottom half of the draw leaves that section wide open, with no major champions remaining.

In the bottom half of the draw Caroline Wozniacki, Aga Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza, Jelena Jankovic and Madison Keys all have chances to get to Wimbledon final by simply winning three more matches.

Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic are the 2015 BNP Paribas Open champions. Djokovic, as I predicted, defeated Roger Federer in an exciting 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 match (that was much closer than the score indicates). Halep defeated Jelena Jankovic 2-6 7-5 6-4 in a drama and error-filled encounter that featured 18(!) breaks of serve between the two players.

It's Djokovic's 21st ATP Masters Shield title, just 2 behind Federer and 5 behind Nadal on the all-time leaders list and 50th ATP career title overall. He is now 18-20 in his career head-to-head with Federer and ties him with 4 titles at the Indian Wells tennis garden, becoming the first player since Federer did it twice (from 2004-2006) to defend this title.

It was Halep's first Premier Mandatory title, and her 11th career WTA title overall.

In one of the biggest upsets of the year to date, World #6 Milos Raonic won his first match in six meeting against World #3 Rafael Nadal 4-6 7-6(10) 7-5, saving three match points in the process, to reach a semifinal against Roger Federer, who dispatched Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-0. Raonic has one match in 9 meetings with Federer. The other men's semifinal will feature Djokovic-Murray XXV.

The women's side of the draw was stunned when Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament prior to her semifinal match with Simona Halep, citing a knee injury. This was somewhat ironic, because it was her sister Venus Williams withdrawal in their scheduled semifinal 14 years ago and the crowd's reaction that led to the absence of the Williams sisters from the Indian Wells tournament since 2001. Serena's return to the tournament is one of the big tennis stories of the year so far and hopefully this knee injury will not dampen her prospects for the rest of the year. Serena was playing in only her second tournament of the year and presumably will now skip the Miami tournament, but she has a week before she would play her first match at the tournament located within a 30 minutes of her main residence.

Halep will face a resurgent Jelena Jankovic who dispatched Sabine Lisicki in the only women's semifinal match. Lisicki had beaten last year's champion Flavia Pennetta in one of the most dramatic matches of the year (6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(4) and was unable to sustain the mental energy for two consecutive nights, losing after being up a set and a break.

As I predicted yesterday, the men's final will feature the mouthwatering showdown between World #1 Rafael Nadal versus World #2 Novak Djokovic in their record 41st meeting on the ATP world tour. Nadal is in his record 9th Rome final and is shooting for his 8th Rome title while Djokovic is in his 5th Rome final and is hoping to win his 3rd Rome title. Nadal currently leads the head-to-head 22-18,  but Djokovic won their last meeting in the final of the 2014 Key Biscayne ATP Master series in straight sets and 2 other meetings since losing to Nadal in the 2013 US Open final. Overall, Djokovic leads 12-9 in finals, but Nadal leads 13-3 in clay court meetings. Djokovic got through a tough 3-hour match against Milos Raonic while Nadal destroyed Grigor Dimitrov playing in his first Master Series semifinal.

In the women's final, defending champion Serena Williams will face hometown favorite Sara Errani. Serena had a tough time getting past a spirited Ana Ivanovic  6-1 3-6 6-1. Errani did very well to win her second consecutive match against a Top 10 player, following  her tough 3-set dismissal of Li Na with a straight sets win over Jelena Jankovic to become the first Italian woman to reach the final of her hometown championships in over a generation.

MadProfessah's predictions: Djokovic and Serena.

The semifinals of the last big clay court warm-up tournament (in Rome) before the clay court major in Paris starts on May 25th are set.

On the men's side Rafael Nadal outlasted Andy Murray despite losing the first 5 games of the match, by winning the last three games of the match 1-6 6-3 7-5 to reach the semifinals. Nadal will face Grigor Dimitrov. On the other half of the draw Milos Raonic will try to prevent the seemingly inevitable Nadal-Novak Djokovic final. Djokovic took 3-sets to dismiss David Ferrer 7-5 4-6 6-3.
Nadal has not looked fresh and has been coming through some tough 3-set matches, including a 3-hour-18-minute slugfest against Gilles Simon a few rounds ago and another 3-setter against Mikhail Youzhny.  How will the World #1 do against a ready and rested youngster like Dimitrov, who just turned 23 this week? MadProfessah's prediction: Djokovic-Nadal final.

On the women's side, Serena Williams is showing that she is playing her way into form on her way to try to defend her 2013 French Open title. She will face Ana Ivanovic, who handed Serena her most stinging defeat of the year at the 2014 Australian Open for a much anticipated rematch. Ivanovic has already beaten the second best clay-court player on tour in Maria Sharapova in this tournament, snapping a 7-year losing streak to Masha. 2-time Rome champion Jelena Jankovic will face Sara Errani, the hometown favorite who eliminated World #2 Li Na, using the crowd support to earn a rare win over a Top 10 opponent and her very first over someone from the Top 3 (in 21 tries!) There's a chance of an all-Serbian final, but instead I suspect it will be a Jankovic-Serena final on Sunday. Madprofessah prediction: Serena-Jankovic.

We are just about halfway through the 2014 Australian Open and upsets have been rare. There are only 16 people left in the draw on the men's and women's side and the Top 4 are alive in both halves.

On the men's side Novak Djokovic [1], Rafael Nadal [2], David Ferrer [3], Andy Murray [4] and Roger Federer [6], Tomas Berdych [7], Stanislas Wawrinka [8] and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [10] are still in the tournament. Unfortunately for 17-time major champion Federer, he will face Tsonga in the round of 16, the tightest clash among closest seeds in that round. Tsonga beat Federer in the 2013 French Open quarterfinals but lost to him in the australian Open quarterfinals here last year. The Swiss great has a 9-4 head-to-head record versus the Frenchman. This match will be a good test to see if Federer will have a better year in 2014 than he did in 2013. Go Roger!!

On the women's side, Serena Williams [1], Victoria Azaarenka [2], Maria Sharaopva [3], Li Na [4], Agnieska Radwanska [5],  Jelena Jankovic [8], Angelique Kerber [9] are still left in the tournament. The most exciting match-up in the 4th round should be between 2013 most improved player Simona Halep [11] and Jankovic. The pop-corn match of the round will be a reprise of last year's controversial semifinal between Azarenka and Sloane Stephens [13]. Go Sloane!!

Here are my picks for the "best" (or most memorable) tennis matches played by women in 2013. These are basically the matches that had the most impact on me while they were occurring, feature some of the best play or the most amazing shots, had the biggest impact on the rest of the tennis season or are matches that I would most likely to watch again in the future. 
I have previously compiled lists of the Best Women's Tennis Matches for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010, and 2011, skipping last year. I have also compiled lists of the Best Men's Tennis Matches for 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2006. These lists can all be accessed at my MadProfessah.com under the Tennis tab which also contains my coverage of the four major tournaments.

This match is on the list because it was the most thrilling women's match I was able to see in person this year. The match took place in Louis Armstrong Stadium on Sunday September 7 and I was in the fourth row with a great view of the action. I had never been a fan of Carla Suarez-Navarro but was impressed with her one-handed backhand. Angelique Kerber also impressed me with her movement and defensive skills. In this match, it was clear that the Spanish clay-court specialist was the aggressor against the hard-hitting lefty. This must have been due to the game plan of her coach, Conchita Martinez, because this was not Suarez Navarro's usual playing style.
The feeling in the stadium was electric, as momentum shifted numerous times, and it seemed fitting that the result should come down to a third set tiebreak.

As expected, Serena Williams continued her recent undefeated streak by outlasting Jelena Jankovic 6-4 2-6 6-4 in the semifinals of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul. Williams will face Li Na, who defeated the 2011 WTA Championships winner Petra Kvitova 6-4 6-2. With her win, Li will reach world #3 for the first time, becoming the highest ranked player of Asian descent, male or female.

Serena was clearly physically hampered in her match with Jankovic, who is one of the rare players on tour to have beaten Serena four times and matches up well with her. Oddly, both players ended the match with an equal number of winners and errors, 40 each for Williams and 22 each for Jankovic. But somehow Serena was able to gut out her record 77th win of the year.

In the final, Serena has a 9-1 head-to-head advantage over Li Na, although the two have played some relatively close matches this year that were decided by a single service break or less per set. With Serena ailing and Li Na ascendant, this is probably the Chinese player's best chance to score  a big win over Serena.

However, Serena is playing in her 6th year-end championship (having won 3 times before, including last year) while Li Na is playing in her first. Serena is playing for history, since only Chris Evert (4), Steffi Graf (6) and Martina Navratilova (8) have won more than four year-end championships.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena.

(L-R) Sara Errani of Italy, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic, Serena Williams of USA, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, Li Na of China, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, and Angelique Kerber of Germany pose with the Billie Jean King trophy for the official photo of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships-Istanbul

The 2013 Year-End Championships of the WTA Tour begin on Tuesday in Istanbul. The eight players who have qualified have been split into two groups of four. The Red Group consists of Serena Williams, Agnieska Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber.  The White Group consists of Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Jelena Jankovic and Sara Errani. The two groups play 3 round robin matches against each other with the top 2 players qualifying for the semifinal matches against players from the other group (which are elimination rounds), the winners who will meet in the final.

Tuesday features Azarenka versus Errani, Williams versus Kerber and Radwanska versus Kvitova.
Serena won the title last year and has already won 10 titles in 2013 but would love to make it 11.

Serena Williams defeated Jelena Jankovic 6-2 6-2 for her 10th title of the year and 56th of her career. She now has 73 wins and only 4 losses in 2013. Despite the lopsided score the final was not without drama as both players appeared to be struggling with injuries in the second set, with Jankovic calling for the trainer after the third game even though Serena was the one who was grimacing in pain and had just been broken. However when she returned to the court with her hip taped Jankovic was unable to trouble the World #1 and the match was soon over with Serena winning the last five games.

Serena is now 7th on the all-time list of WTA titleholders:

Additionally, Williams now has 56 WTA titles to her name, separating herself from Virginia Wade and Lindsay Davenport for standalone seventh place on the all-time list of most WTA titles - she now trails only Martina Navratilova (167), Chris Evert (154), Steffi Graf (107), Margaret Court (92), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (68) and Billie Jean King (67). She had been tied with Wade and Davenport at 55.

I think it is pretty likely that Serena will end her career at #5 on the list. She should be able to win a dozen more titles in the next two years and she has said that she wants to play until the Rio Olympics.

At the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Serena Williams will face Victoria Azarenka in Sunday's final. Serena defeated defending champion Li Na 7-5 7-5 in a very tight semifinal match which featured 12 breaks of serve. But that was just the warm-up for the clash between Jelena Jankovic and Azarenka which turned into a 3-set serving disaster that included an astonishing 23 breaks of serve and a combined 20 double faults. Vika eventually prevailed 4-6 6-2 6-3.

Today's final will be a reprise of last year's US Open final which was won in dramatic fashion by Serena despite Azarenka leading 5-3 in the 3rd set and this year's Doha final which was won by Vika 7-6(6) 2-6 6-3.

Serena won last week in Toronto and is playing well this summer, having only lost three times this year and won her 2nd French Open title. That being said, she did not look that good against Li Na and clearly had some kind of abdominal injury which hampered her ability to hit her serve as fast as she wanted. She has clinched the US Open Series title one week early and is eligible for up to $1 million in bonus prize money if she defends her title in New York.

Azarenka defended her major title in Australia earlier this year and knows that she has the game to defeat Serena, even though she has only ever done it twice in fourteen meetings. Her only other win was in the final of the 2009 Miami title when Serena was injured.

I believe Serena will win the match, but it will not be easy. If she really is injured enough so that she can't get free points on her serve that will make it a long day at the office. She has a much better return of serve and a better serve (when not injured) than Jankovic so that will make this a much tougher match-up for Vika. That being said, the fact Serena has never won this title before and that she is playing one of the few people who ha beaten her all year should make it an interesting match. That being said, there's a reason why Serena sports a 12-2 head-to-head versus Azarenka (7-2 on hard courts and only 3-2 in finals). MadProfessah's pick: Serena.

I have been on a plane for most of today, flying back from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. But with time to contemplate the Day of Carnage at Wimbledon (seven former World #1's lost on the same day: Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Lleyton Hewitt, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki) I am still stunned that Federer's streak of 36 consecutive grand slam quarterfinals would end to Sergiy Stakhovsky! But, the Ukrainian played VERY well, hitting 72 winners to only 17 unforced errors (over 4 sets!). Here are some highlights:

The women's quarterfinals are now set at the 2013 French Open. Last year, I predicted 2 of 4 women's quarterfinals correctly and 4 of 4 men's quarterfinals correctly. I have also previewed the 2013 French Open men's quarterfinals.

Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS). It is good to see the talented and popular Russian player playing in only her 2nd consecutive major quarterfinal after being out of the game for more than six months following a knee injury last year. Serena leads their head-to-head 6-2 but the two have not played since 2009, which interestingly was the same year that Kuznetsova outlasted Serena in a high-quality match at this same stage in Roland Garros en route to winning her 2nd major title. Kuznetsova did well to outlast #8 seed Angelique Kerber to reach this point. However, Serena has been slicing through the draw like a scythe, determined to erase all memories of last year's disappointment with determination and domination. She has lost 10 games in 8 sets of tennis, that's an average of 1.25 games per set, or 2.5 per match. And she's done that while playing two seeds, Roberta Vinci and Soran Cirstea.It's true that Sveta has the game to beat Serena here, and she has done it before, but at this point Serena not winning the title here would be even more surprising than her 1st round exit last year. Mad Professah's Pick: Serena in 2 sets.

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [4] vs Sara Errani (ITA) [5]. This is an interesting match-up between the two most successful counterpunchers on the women's tour right now. Radwanska broke through to reach the 2012 Wimbledon final, and Errani reached the 2012 Roland Garros final.  Both women lost those matches, to card-carrying members of the Big Babes of TennisS club, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, respectively. That said, it is somewhat surprising that Radwanska has such a large head-to-head lead of 6-1 in their careers, including 3-1 on clay. Aggie has even beaten Errani while she has become an elite player, now ranked World #5 (just below Radwanska herself, who has soared as high as #2 and challenged for the top spot last year. Errani had to come back from a set and a break down against Carla Suarez Navarro to even reach this spot, despite suffering a mysterious injury which reduced her breathing capacity in the second set. I suspect that Radwanska will be the fresher player and use that advantage to reach her  first semifinal at Roland Garros, where she will have almost no change of reaching the final against either Serena or Kuznetsova. Mad Professah's pick: Radwanska.

Maria Kirilenko (RUS) [12] vs Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [3].  This is a match-up between two competitors with vastly different levels of experience. This is Kirilenko's 1st quarterfinal appearance at Roland Garros but Azarenka's 3rd. Similarly, Vika is a 2-time major champion and 10-time major quarterfinalist while the other Russian Maria has yet to taste true success at a major tournament., having appeared in just 4 major quarterfinals in her career. Paris has so far been Azarenka's worst surface, but I'm sure she feels that "anything Maria [Sharapova] can do, I can do better" and so she wants to show the world that she can be successful on a stage other than Melbourne. Despite their close head-to-head rivalry, these two have never met on clay, and I doubt the match will be as close as their past history suggests it could be. As usual, the more experienced (and more aggressive) player will end the match with the victory. Mad Professah's pick: Azarenka in 2 sets.

Jelena Jankovic (SRB) [18] vs Maria Sharapova (RUS) [2].  Ahhhh, grudge matches. These two players really do not like each other, which one would think would make their matches more interesting, but it seems like it makes their meetings very difficult (and uninteresting) to watch. The two have met eight times and only once has the Serbian Drama Queen been able to come away with a win. The two have never met on clay, which is probably Jankovic's best surface and Sharapova's worst, thus complicating things but it should not stop the Russian from reaching her 3rd consecutive semifinal at Roland Garros in 3 years. Mad Professah's pick: Sharapova in 3 sets.

Serena Williams extended her winning streak to 24 matches in a row by defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 to win her 51st WTA title, the 2013 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Serena has won all 16 matches on clay played this year, claiming titles in Charleston (d. Jelena Jankovic), Madrid (d. Maria Sharapova) and Rome, with Roland Garros starting next Monday May 27th in Paris. She is now clearly the #1 player in the world and the clear favorite to win her second French Open title.

Serena hit 41 winners to 19 unforced errors and only at 6-1 3-4 on serve with Azarenka serving at 40-15 did the match seem potentially in question, but Serena broke back and served out the next game and match with two aces. She improved her dominance over World #3 Azarenka to 12-2, getting revenge for her 3-set loss to Vika in the 2013 Doha final. Ominously for the rest of the field, that was Serena's last loss, and at age 31 it is looking like she may not lose another match until she turns 32!

AP/Mic Smith

As I predicted, Serena Williams won her 3rd consecutive Family Circle Cup title by defeating Jelena Jankovic, 3-6 6-0 6-2, in Charleston, S.C. Jankovic played fearlessly and well, and deserved to win the first set. Serena failed to convert 5 break points in the 4th game of the 1st set and was promptly broken at love in her service game and went on to lose the first set 3-6 after getting broken again. In her win over sister Venus Williams on Saturday, Serena had had zero unforced errors in the first set but against Jankovic she had 12. Serena was able to break early in the 2nd set and consolidated the break.

The key moment in the match was the 3rd game of the second set with Jankovic serving when Serena put up her racquet saying she wasn't ready. Jankovic has a habit of not looking at the receiver when she serves and has been accused of "quick serving" opponents on multiple occasions. According to Sports Illustrated, here's what happened:

Jankovic: “How long do I have to wait?”Serena: “Until I’m ready. I don’t play slow.”Jankovic: “But you go like this [crouching in return position]Serena: “Honestly, you got a problem? I’m not the one.”

It was quite an extraordinarily dramatic moment for a tennis match (watch it yourself here). Unfortunately for Jankovic, the end result was that she lost the next 4 games and the set after the verbal exchange. It appeared to lower the level of her play and raise Serena's. Serena ended the match by winning 12 of the last 14 games. Her first clay court win over Jankovic improved her career head-to-head to 6-4.

In the end, Serena finished the match with 39 winners to 25 unforced errors. The 2013 Family Circle Cup was her 2nd consecutive title in as many weeks, on two different surfaces. It was her 49th career title and her 3rd of the year (Brisbane, Miami and Charleston).

According to the WTA:

Only nine women have won 50 or more WTA titles, namely Martina Navratilova (167), Chris Evert (154), Steffi Graf (107), Margaret Court (92), Evonne Goolagong (68),Billie Jean King (67), Lindsay Davenport (55), Virginia Wade (55) and Monica Seles (53).

Serena will almost certainly exceed Lindsay Davenport's career title haul of 55 but I doubt she will get to Billie Jean King's gaudy total of 67. The most titles she has won in a year was in 2002, when she won 8, but last year she won 7 and this year to date she has already won 3 titles before her best part of the year has arrived (summer hard court and grass). This augurs well for Serena's 2013.

The 24th meeting between Venus Williams and Serena Williams was their most lopsided, with Serena winning easily 6-1 6-2 in the semifinals of the 2013 Family Circle Cup in Charleston. More than 9,000 fans attended the match, a record figure for the venerable WTA tournament that has been around since the 1970s. It was the first time the sisters had played each other on tour since the Year-End Championships in late 2009, so interest was high. Serena's 5th consecutive win in the all-Williams series improved her career head-to-head against her sister to 14-10. The score reflected the lowest number of games won (3) by the loser of the match in 24 meetings.

Serena is the #1 player in the world and is on a winning streak, having just picked up the Sony Open Tennis title in Miami last week. On the other hand, Venus is ranked #24 in the world (a huge improvement from one year ago when she was barely in the top 100) and is still learning how to remain competitive on the WTA tour while managing an auto-immune disorder (Sjogren's syndrome) which leads to fatigue, joint pain and lack of stamina. The fact that both sisters had to play 3 matches in under 24 hours must have been much more difficult on Venus than Serena.

Jelena Jankovic will be in the final, attempting to stop Serena from winning her 3rd consecutive title here. Jankovic is a former #1 player herself and has a surprisingly close 4-5 head-to-head career record against the current #1, including an important 4-6 6-3 7-6(5) semifinal win on clay in Rome (where she also beat Venus the round before in the quarters and then lost the final to the much lower ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez). Jankovic is having a resurgence of her own and has already won a clay court title (her 13th career title overall) this year (in Bogota).

Serena's goal for the year is to improve her results at Roland Garros from last year (where she suffered her first round loss in a major) and on clay generally. She won both Charleston (w. Lucie Safarova) and Madrid (w. Victoria Azarenka) in 2012 (I was able to Serena in Rome during my vacation). Defending her Charleston title is a very likely occurrence, although it should be a fun to watch, and reasonably close match. The women's final will air on ESPN2 at 1pm EDT.

This is an interesting weekend for the Serbia-America rivalry in tennis. Serena is facing Jankovic in Charleston, while more than halfway across the country in Boise, Idaho the United States is facing Serbia in a Davis Cup quarterfinal. World #1 Novak Djokovic is trying to carry his team past a U.S. team that includes World #24 John Isner, World #20 Sam Querrey and the Bryan Twins. Amazingly, Serbia is one match win away from eliminating the United States if either Djokovic defeat Querrey or Victor Troicki defeats John Isner. The Querrey-Djokovic match will be played first. Djokovic has recently lost two matches in as many weeks (in Indian Wells to Juan Martin del Potro and in Miami to Tommy Haas) to end his red-hot start to 2013 and Querrey had been the last player to beat the World #1, on an indoor hard court in Paris last October. However, Djokovic has a 5-1 career head-to-head edge over Querrey, and dismissed the top American relatively easily 3 weeks ago and should be able to repeat that success in a best-of-five match.

The Tennis Channel will continue its live coverage of the Serbia-United States Davis Cup quarterfinal most of the day.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena in 3 sets, Serbia d. United States in Davis Cup.

Getty/Clive Brunskill

World #2 Maria Sharapova has been in the final of the Miami tournament four times but never claimed the title, losing to Kim Clijsters (2005), Svetlana Kuznetsova (2006), Victoria Azarenka (2011) and Agnieska Radwanska (2012). This year she will face arguably her biggest test in the final, World #1 Serena Williams. Williams easily dispatched defending champion Radwanska, the World #4 player, 6-0 6-3 in a sparking display that included 40 winners and 21 errors in just 15 games played. Williams improved to 5-0 against the Polish Wimbledon finalist.

The Miami tournament, now called Sony Open Tennis, is considered by Serena to be her hometown tournament, since she owns a house with her sister Venus in nearby Palm Beach Gardens, although nowadays she spends more of her downtime in Paris. With her win yesterday Serena broke the record of Steffi Graf for the most wins ever at this tournament, and now sports a 60-7 record here.

Sharapova is also playing well, and she beat one of her least favorite people on the tour, Jelena Jankovic, 6-1 6-3, one day after outlasting pint-size dynamo Sara Errani 7-5 7-5 in a reprise of the 2012 French Open final.

However, Serena often seems to bring her best tennis to matches against Sharapova, whom she has a career head-to-head record of 9-2, with the two losses coming within 6 months of each other in 2004. She has not lost to the 4-time champion since. In fact, she has delivered memorable beat downs to Sharapova, like a 6-0 6-1 drubbing in the 2012 London Olympics gold medal match and a 6-1 6-2 win in the 2007 Australian Open final, the latter I think is the best Serena has ever played.

I seriously doubt she wil do so on Saturday.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena (in straight sets).