Serena Williams Verdict is In.

The penalty has been issued, and it seems to be what I had expected.  No way was the WTA "cash cow" going to be sitting out any events.  Serena was issued a Grand Slam record fine of $82,500 and is basically being put on 2 years Grand Slam probation.  If she flips out again, she will be suspended from a future Grand Slam event.... I wonder if she will pay the fine in "straight cash, homey"?

Nikolay Davydenko Wins ATP World Tour Championship

Nikolay Davydenko in somewhat surprising fashion is the year-end champion defeating Juan Martin Del Potro 6-3, 6-4 in Sunday's final.

Davydenko's week started on shaky ground losing his first match to Novak Djokovic, and putting him into a hole where he could not lose again, and thats what he did.  In his journey to the championship Davydenko defeated the Australian Open winner (Nadal), the French Open winner (Federer), the Wimbledon champion (Federer), and the U.S. Open winner (Del Potro) in route to win the title.

Davydenko's season started very slow.  He was hampered by injuries for the first quarter of the season, but when finally healthy Davydenko was consistently good.  Could this win be a look into what to expect for the future?  Davydenko has been a top 10 player for the last 5 years, but never seemed to be able to get over the hump and make a run at the #1 ranking or finally win a major that has eluded him for so many years.  Called "the machine" for his consistent play, Davydenko may have the momentum to make a run in 2010.

ATP World Tour Finals Round Robin Results and Semifinal Matchups.

Round robin play at the ATP World Tour Finals has concluded.  3 of the top 4 ranked players are going home, and will not be crowned the season ending champion.

Group A Final Results:

Roger Federer  2-1

Juan Martin Del Potro  2-1

Andy Murray  2-1

Fernando Verdasco  0-3

Federer and Del Potro advance to semifinals over Murray by percentage of games won.  Verdasco went 0-3 but lost close hard fought matches in all 3 of his matches. 

Group B Final Results:

Robin Soderling 2-1

Nikolay Davydenko 2-1

Novak Djokovic  2-1

Rafael Nadal  0-3

Nadal dropped a goose egg and Djokovic was eliminated by the tiebreaker rule.  In an upset Soderling and Davydenko advance to the semifinals.

The Semifinal matchups look like this:

Roger Federer  vs.  Nikolay Davydenko

Robin Soderling  vs.  Juan Martin Del Potro

I like a Federer vs. Del Potro final with Federer winning.

Goodbye Rafa....ATP World Tour Finals Update.

Rafael Nadal is out of contention for winning the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.  Today Rafa lost to Nikolay Davydenko to go to 0-2 in the competition.  He has one more match left against Novak Djokovic in the tournament.  Is the Rafael Nadal era coming to an end?  Or is he saving something for the Davis Cup Final next week?  Could he still be bothered by lingering injuries?  I guess only he knows what is going on, but it is odd for Rafa to lose to two players he normally dominates.

The standings look like this:

Group A

Roger Federer  2-0

Andy Murray  1-1

Juan Martin Del Potro  1-1

Fernando Verdasco  0-2

The final matches for this group are  Federer vs. Del Potro and Murray vs. Verdasco.    I think Federer and Murray will be the winners and both move on to the semifinals.

Group B

Robin Soderling  2-0

Novak Djokovic  1-1

Nikolay Davydenko  1-1

Rafael Nadal  0-2

With Nadal being eliminated look for him to possibly withdraw and have Jo-Wilfried Tsonga take his spot.... the final matches for this group are Nadal vs. Djokovic and Davydenko vs. Soderling.  Djokovic needs this match in order to stay in the tournament, so look for him to come out playing his best tennis, and I like Davydenko to beat Soderling making a 3 way tie at 2-1.  Then the tiebreaker of how many sets they lost and games they won by comes into effect.  I'm not sure who is in the lead on that as of now, but I'm going to guess and say Soderling and Djokovic continue on to the semifinals.

Mid Week News and Notes.

The ATP is not going to re-open  the Andre Agassi case after his admission of using crystal meth.  The ATP's reason was that they cannot penalize Agassi since he is already retired.......duh.  This was "newsworthy" on a few tennis sites.  I thought it was humorous at how common sense it was, yet they thought it was worth mentioning.  Well no shit the ATP isn't going to re-open the case.

Juan Carlos Ferrero has been named the #1 substitute for Spain in their Davis Cup Final against the Czech Republic.

Novak Djokovic is changing clothing sponsors after this season.  He is leaving Adidas to Italian clothing company Sergio Tacchini.....yeah, I don't care either. 

Ana Ivanovic who was once "banging" fellow tennis player Fernando Verdasco, but is not being "plowed" by golfer Adam Scott, has re-hired former coach Sven Groeneveld to help her shake the "curse of Verdasco's weiner", and get her game back to the top 10 level it once was.

Roger Federer says he is only "midway" through his career and plans to paly past the 2012 Olympics and hopes to play long enough so that his twin daughters will be able to see and remember his playing days.

29th ranked player in the world, American Sam Querrey is back practicing after a near career ending injury scare.  Querrey was sitting on a glass table changing his socks when the table broke.  The fall caused a 3 inch gash in his forearm that needed 25 stitches.  Doctors were worried that may have caused nerve damage to his serving arm.  Everything seems to be going well, Sam is back on the court and says he just needs a little longer to warm his arm up.

ATP World Tour Finals update.

All the players have played in their first matchup.  Everything is going pretty much as expected with the exception of one upset:

Group A-

Roger Federer defeated Fernando Verdasco, and Andy Murray beat Juan Martin Del Potro in a tough 3-set match.

The group standings look like this:

Roger Federer   1-0

Andy Murray    1-0

Juan Martin Del Potro  0-1

Fernando Verdasco     0-1

Group B-

Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling continued their rivalry.  It is well known that these 2 guys don't like eachother.  Actually I can't think of a guy that Soderling does like.  He goes by the philosophy of:  "The less people that like me, the more people I don't have to talk to in the locker room".  Well Soderling just like he did in Paris at the French Open beat Nadal 6-4, 6-4.  Also Novak Djokovic stole the match between him and Nikolay Davydenko.  Davydenko won the first set and was up a break in the 2nd and was looking to close out the match when Djokovic fought and broke back to force the match to a deciding 3rd set.  Djokovic got an early break and was leading the whole 3rd set until late when Davydenko broke back to make it 5-5.  Djokovic then quickly broke and served out the victory at 7-5 in the 3rd.

Standings:

Novak Djokovic   1-0

Robin Soderling    1-0

Rafael Nadal         0-1

Nikolay Davydenko   0-1

ATP World Tour Finals Preview

The round robin matches in London, England have already started, but the results that have happened did not sway the opinions I had beforehand.

Group A features Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del Potro, and Fernando Verdasco.  Looking at this group and knowing Del Potro isn't 100% , and that Fernando Verdasco isn't in the same class as the other 3 it simply comes down to Roger Federer and Andy Murray continuing on to the semifinals.

Playing in Group B are Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko, and Robin Soderling... Novak Djokovic has been playing unbelievably well in the past few weeks.  I like him to advance advance to the semifinals.  Now the other obvious pick would be Nadal to advance to the semi's as well. BUT Spain has a Davis Cup Final next week, and the question arises as to how much he will go "all out" and risk any injury knowing the Davis Cup matches are coming up soon.  I cannot really seeing Rafael Nadal holding anything back.  He only has one gear and that is full-speed.  Davydenko could upset someone and slide into the semi's, and Soderling is pretty solid, but seems to not be playing at a really high level.  I don't think Robin has much of a shot of advancing.

So I like Federer, Murray, Nadal, and Djokovic going to the semifinals.  With Federer getting revenge for his loss to Djokovic in Basel, and takes the season ending championship with a close hard fought win over the "Djoker".

(in the picture above, from left to right:  Verdasco, Del Potro, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Murray, Davydenko, Soderling.)

Leaving Comments???

I had a problem brought up to me.  I know of 2 people who are having trouble leaving comments on my tennis blog.  The settings were set to "only registered users can comment".  Well I have changed it to "anyone can comment, even anonymous"  Hopefully this rectifies the situation.  So please leave a comment if you can.  I want to see if the problem has been fixed.

Midland, Michigan is the best "Tennis Town" in America.

I'll just provide the link.  The article pretty much sums it up.  I can't put any spin on it other than add some skepticism as to how many Midland schools will be having small tennis courts on their playgrounds.  I'll keep my eyes open.  Odds are the money they won will be put into the tennis center.  Either for renovations or just to pad the bottom line with a profit, lining the "big wigs" pockets.  Hopefully it will be used for a new mascot.  That thing with the big tennis ball head is pretty weak.  The next time I go by a school in Midland I'll be looking out for all these tennis courts.

Midland is best "tennis town"   There is the link.

Andy Roddick Pulls Out of ATP Finals...Groupings Set.

Andy Roddick was forced to pull out of the year end ATP finals due to a injured knee.  Robin Soderling of Sweden has taken his place in the 8 man field.   The round robin groupings also were announced.

Group 1 will feature:

Roger Federer

Andy Murray

Juan Martin Del Potro

Fernando Verdasco

It is still a possiblilty that Del Potro may pull out before the start of next weeks finals.  He has been hampered with a sore groin, so he may not be able to compete.  If he is unable to play, top alternate Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will take his spot in Group 1.

Group 2 features:

Rafael Nadal

Novak Djokovic

Nikolay Davydenko

Robin Soderling