Song of the Day: 'Angie' by the Rolling Stones

This one's for you, girl. 

Weekend Tennis Roundup

The past few months have been a little difficult to put it mildly -- my parents' car accident, my job (in)security, some problems in my apartment building and the lasting effects of losing my brother Bill -- so it was nice to have entirely positive Breakfasts at Wimbledon for once. First, Angelique Kerber did exactly what she was supposed to do by playing her crafty style of offense/defense with a lefty twist against a scratchy Serena Williams, who amazingly reached the finals of a major in just her fourth event since giving birth. (And to be honest, what would it say about the women's game if she had been able to waltz back in and win it, anyway? Kim Clijsters did something similar in 2009, but was much younger.) It was a beautiful sight to see -- Angie hit line after after and threaded the needle on nearly every passing shot -- and powered her way to her third Grand Slam title. 

She's the female Stan Wawrinka!

Novak Djokovic similarly rose to the occasion by putting an end to Kevin Anderson's incredible run, taking the South African gland freak out in two easy sets and one nail-biter, in which Nole saved five set points. Damian was crestfallen that his beloved Rafael Nadal had finally returned to good form on the grass yet still lost. But I kept reminding him that Nadal (and Roger Federer) had been racking up majors lately, and the return of sinewy Serb into the mix will hopefully soon mean the end of Alexander Zverev in the top three when he still can barely win a best-of-five match. To put my money where my mouth is, I'm willing to say I'd even be happy if Andy Murray were to win the upcoming U.S. Open!

These two sure cleaned up nicely!

The Champions' Dinner becomes The Champions' Dance... @djokernole and @angie.kerber take the stage #wimbledon

A post shared by Wimbledon (@wimbledon) on Jul 15, 2018 at 4:05pm PDT

Too cute for words!

Djokovic with a son.#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/PyNDz47ZZK

— Tenis Kanalı (@TenisKanali) July 15, 2018

Update From Down Under

A few quick thoughts about last night's Australian Open results. For some reason, I just can't seem to see being upset that Colombians Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal knocked out Lleyton Hewit and retiring hunk Sam Groth before beating the Bryan brothers. (That second part I was happy about!)

De hombre a hombre ...

I'm a Marin Cilic fan -- that aqua blue is a very good color on him -- although I'm not sure he needed to make another Slam final.

Nice effort from Kyle Edmund to get to the semis, though. Wonder if he will be the new Milos Raonic, Richard Gasquet type or if he could actually win one one day.

Damian and I stayed up all night only to watch Angelique Kerber lose 9-7 in the third to that pipsqueak. (My guy had to be at work at 9 a.m. -- says he can barely keep his eyes open after "that fiasco.") To be honest, Angie was playing so passively -- could she hit more than two shots past the service line, for god's sake? -- that she really didn't deserve to win. But when she somehow got to double-match point by hitting some classic Angie shots, I thought she might sneak through anyway. Hard to believe the No. 1 and 2 seeds made it to the final yet it feels like a bit of a second-tier event to me.

Sure hope Chung Hyeon gives Roger Federer a match. I hate lame semis in majors, which is exactly what Elise Mertens vs. Wozniacki was until Caroline started to choke.

And in the end, it's always nice to see David Lee smiling. (Noticed he has a little bit of belly and it made him seem ever hotter!)

Love this so much! And so happy for Helena Sukova, who was Martina Navratilova's Roberta Vinci back in 1984.

Weekend Tennis Roundup

There are a million stories out of Melbourne, so let me just home in a few that really stood out. Hungarian hunk Márton Fucksalot — I mean Fucsovics and his pornstache gave Roger Federer a little bit more of a match than anyone expected. 

You may recall I noticed HIS ASS in June ...

Thumbs up!

Roger, please. ✋#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/FM7RMEkOju

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2018

In fairness, there wasn't a lot he could do about this.

Damian was disappointed that Juan Martin del Potro lost to Tomas Berdych. But neither of us was complaining about getting to see the bottom-heavy Czech play again, this time destroying Fabio Fognini. (Márton has a better face than the Byrdman, but not quite the bod.)

Next up for Berdych is Federer. After upsetting the Swiss legend a couple of times, now it seems HE feels the pressure when they play, making it nearly impossible for him to get a set anymore. Guess we'll see if that's changed.

While I've been pretty down on my beloved women's tour of late, I have to admit the two best matches I watched this weekend were on the ladies' side. Simona Halep is definitely an embarrassing No. 1 -- have I mentioned that she won just ONE tournament last year and lost in the first round of two of the majors?! -- but she and Lauren Davis sure put on a show in their third-round match. The pint-sized American was fearless and aggressive, and probably would have won it when she had three match points if her toe nail hadn't come off. Halep ended fighting back, winning 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 to advance to the fourth round, where she easily dismissed Naomi Osaka, who I really thought had a bright future but am starting to doubt her mental strength. 

The other incredible match was 2016 champion Angelique Kerber versus No. 88 Hsieh Su-wei, who upset Garbiñe Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwańska en route to the round of 16. Kerber was the obvious favorite after dismantling Maria Sharapova in the third round -- are we sure meldonium isn't a performance-enhancing drug? -- but had her hands full with the clever Taiwanese, who played like the love child of Fabrice Santoro and Monica Seles, slicing and dicing the ball and inventing new angles until Kerber nearly broke down.. (Hearing that she was from Taiwan gave me flashbacks to Hu Na!) Somehow the 30-year-old German recovered from a set down to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, but everyone was in awe of the "zone"-like performance Su-wei put on for about 90 minutes. 

Chris Fowler, Chris Evert and Pam Shriver were dying as much as Damian and I were -- it was truly unbelievable! 

Kerber is the remaining Grand Slam champion in the women's singles draw. She will play American 17th seed Madison Keys in the final eight, who looked unbeatable in her match against Caroline Garcia. 

Congrats to Brit Kyle Edmund, who defeated Andreas Seppi 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 to advance to his first major quarterfinal. His post-match interview sounded so much like Andy Murray I was downright spooked.

Weekend Tennis Roundup

The real news from this year's Hopman Cup was how great Roger Federer, Belinda Bencic, Alex Zverev and Angelique Kerber looked at the New Year's Eve Ball ... 

All dressed up with somewhere to go

 ... completed match results HERE.

Grigor Dimitrov, Garbine Muguruza, Elina Svitolina and Nick Kyrios weren't the only superheroes at Brisbane's Kids' Day event!

The Argentinians are ready for 2018!

American Frances Tiafoe looked in better form playing football in Brisbane than he did in his first-round loss to Matt Ebden ...

who looks good winning or losing ...

Speaking of which, Ryan Harrison has a hot new coach and beat Leonardo Mayer in three last night. He will now face Andy Murray in his first official match of the year.

Dominic Thiem says his five-set defeat to Juan Martin del Potro at the U.S. Open triggered a crisis of confidence that he is only just getting over.  Fortunately for his fans, he took a "huge step forward" winning an exhibition match this weekend in Abu Dhabi, defeating Pablo Carreno Busta, 6-3, 6-4, and won his first "real" match of the year in Doha, over Evgeny Donskoy.

(U.S. Open finalist Kevin Anderson won the event, beating Roberto Bautista Agut (who defeated a comeback-trail Andy Murray). Novak Djokovic withdrew because of wrist worries.

Beware, Margaret Court: Serena Williams is rusty but she's back

Angelique Kerber Meets President Obama

Love seeing this! Read what else the world number one has been up to since that embarrassing loss in the WTA Finals HERE.

Angie!

I'm not gonna lie -- this one made me smile. 

The game's new No. 1 player seems very happy, too! Read HERE.

Czech Mates

I'm rooting for Angie on the court and for Karolina's box ...

Vive La Graf!

Congrats to Angelique Kerber for her impressive victory over Serena Williams to win the Australian Open! What a way to capture your first Grand Slam title -- she's now ranked No. 2 in the world -- and to help a German sister out.