Australian Open 2011: Semifinals Picks

For the women, I'm calling

1. Nails d. Caro because Nails does everything Caro does but better. She just needs to keep her head together, and all signs point to that


2. Kim d. Bepa because Kim can handle the big moments better and batten down the hatches despite a leg strain


3. Your Aussie Open 2011 Women's Single Champion: Nails! Because it would be awesome for 1.3 billion Chinese

1. Mandy d. Ferru: It's a hard court, it's not in England, and Mandy is playing calmer.


2. Fed d. Djoker: The last time the Djoker beat Fed, the Annacone effect hadn't fully taken, and Fed was looking too far ahead to playing Rafa the next day. He won't make that mistake again.


3. Your Aussie Open 2011 Men's Single Champion: Fed for the 17th time! And we'll see the him try to chase The Mighty Babes across Rod Laver Arena, and he'll turn into a blubbering dorkball that we all know that he is

Australian Open 2011: No More Rafa Slam

Rafa fans have seen this far too often. This time it wasn't his knees but his hamstrings.



Doesn't this make you want to hug him? Nothing means more to him than to feel like he could compete at his best level, and his



All credit to Daveed for playing a clean game and winning it in straights. Rafa is a gentleman and tried to deflect attention from his injury to Daveed. Let's just say it: Daveed did beat Rafa. Let's honor both of them: Rafa walked out on court, stayed on court and he was well enough to compete. He doesn't need any excuses.

London: WTF ... Cheesy Rock Star Entrances

As the season winds up, the World Tour Finals in London need to hype up the matches by introducing the players with cheesy rock star entrances.

You can almost hear Rafa saying "What's happening here? Why do they make me walk through this smoke?"

TMF is looking pretty sultry here.

The Djoker is a man of the people making fun of his eye troubles from the previous night.

Sod looks awkward.

Ferru is trying to enjoy his chance to hang out in the pantheon.

Chin up, Murray, you're playing in front of your home crowd.

At least your terrier Maggie enjoys the media attention.

US Open 2010: Spanish Shots of the Day

And I must emphasize Spanish shots of the day.

Nando comes back from two sets down to take out compatriot Daveed in the tiebreaker with this epic shot.



Rafa continues his quest to do everything Rogi can do.



This, of course, sets up a rematch of this great match from AO 2009.

Stuttgart & Rome Champions 2010

It looked like it was going to be a tight one. JuJu shifted up an extra gear that Sam didn't have to win the 1st tournament of her 2nd career, bringing home a silver Porsche (6-4 2-6 6-1).

	Stosur	Henin
Aces	2	4
DF	2	4
1st Serve %	55%	65%
1st Serve % Pts Won	30/42 (71%)	37/52 (71%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	16/34 (47%)	14/28 (50%)
Break Points Won	2/5 (40%)	4/10 (40%)
Total Service Points Won	46/76 (61%)	51/80 (64%)
Total Points Won	75/156 (48%)	81/156 (52%)

Keys to the match: Henin had a high first serve percentage and did a better job of returning her opponent's 2nd serve.



The point at 5:52 (15-0 at 1-0 on JuJu's serve) was probably the momentum decider. Sam had control of the point off a floater on her ad side. But instead of going for a DTL winner, Sam went for the safer CC shot, hoping to wrong foot JuJu, but JuJu responded with a sharp angled BH winner.

On the men's side in Rome there were one two rain delays before the Clay Monster marched over Daveed 5 and 2. Looking at the stats, it's surprising that the game score was close as it was. Daveed never really took advantage of attacking Rafa's second serve. How many more trophies will he bite?



I'm just going to suggest this because no one has thought of this already. Maybe that kid from Mallorca is the favorite to win at Roland Garros.

	Nadal	Ferrer
Aces	3	1
DF	0	5
1st Serve %	80%	72%
1st Serve % Pts Won	34/44 (77%)	36/58 (62%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	7/11 (64%)	9/23 (39%)
Unforced Errors	17	30
Winners	24	15
Break Points Won	3/13 (23%)	0/1 (0%)
Total Service Points Won	41/55 (75%)	45/81 (56%)
Total Points Won	77/136 (57%)	59/136 (43%)

Pretty obvious from the stats, that Daveed never got into Rafa's service games and never had a chance.



Even here, Daveed made four great gets (a FH squash shot, a slice off a drop shot, a behind the back shot, and a chicken volley) but still lost the point.