2015 US OPEN: Fognini Upsets Nadal In Late Night Thriller!

I just arrived in NYC to attend the 2015 U.S. Open so I did not have time to blog about the huge surprise result that happened last night. Fabio Fognini beat Rafael Nadal for the third time this year, but this time was definitely not a charming experience for the 14-time major champ! It was the first time in a major tournament that Nadal had won the first two sets and not won the match (150-0).

Nadal was up two sets and a break before somehow Fognini turned the match around. (I saw the first set and a half and then went to pack and get ready for bed last night). Somehow the Italian leveled the match at 2-sets all (3-6 4-6 6-6 6-3) and then broke first to up 2-1 in the fifth set. Then there were an incredible SIX consecutive breaks of serve in a row, with Fognini finally holding at 5-4 to win the match well after 1am in New York City (I was long asleep--I turned off the coverage after Nadal broke back to even the match at 4-all.)

The amazing thing about this match is that Fognini won it, Nadal didn't lose it. The Italian hit 70 winners (to 57 unforced errors), more than twice Nadal's 30 winners (to only 18 unforced errors).
The loss means that for the first time since 2004 Nadal will not win a major. This was basically guaranteed when he did not win the French Open this year (only the second time in 11 years that has happened). So Nadal's streak of 10 consecutive years of major titles (2005-2014) surpasses Federer's streak of major titles from 2003-2010. (It should be noted, that in Federer's worst year, 2013, he at least reached a semifinal and a quarterfinal and he has reached finals in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015--winning only once.) The $80 million question is, now that he has stopped winning majors regularly, will Nadal come back to challenge and win another? (I think the answer is yes he will get to multiple finals, I'm not completely sure he will win multiple majors, however.)

Nadal has slipped to World #8 in the ATP rankings and his best Grand Slam results this year are Quarterfinals in Australia (l. Tomas Berdych) and Roland Garros (l. Novak Djokovic) with 2nd round losses at Wimbledon (l. Dustin Brown) and and now a 3rd round loss to Fognini at the U.S. Open.

Federer easily won his 3rd round match and still has not lost a set. He faces John Isner in the fourth round on Monday and I'll be there to see it!

TENNIS TUESDAY: Wimbledon Review, WTA Top 10 Reshuffled, Serena Has Huge Lead At #1

WIMBLEDON CHAMPS: SERENA, NOLE AND MARTINA (HINGIS)!
For the first time since 2006, the World #1 and #1 seeds won both the Men's and Women's single championships at Wimbledon, with Novak Djokovic defending his 2014 title and Serena Williams winning her 6th Wimbledon (and 21st major) title. 34-year-old Martina Hingis won two doubles titles: the women's doubles with Sania Mirza and the mixed doubles with Leander Paes.

WIMBLEDON STAND-OUTS: DUSTIN BROWN, VASEK POSPISIL, MADISON KEYS
There were several players who had stand-out performances at 2015 Wimbledon, starting with Dustin Brown who took out 2-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal in the second round. Other surprising results were Canadian Vasek Pospisil's run to the quarterfinals and Madison Keys' deep run while not playing her best tennis (but still having the average fastest groundstrokes in the women's draw). Honorable Mention of Jelena Jankovic's upset of defending champion Petra Kvitova.

NEW WTA TOP TEN MEMBERS: GARBINE MUGURUZA, AGGIE RADWANSKA
Fresh off their Wimbledon successes (Finalist and Semifinalist, respectively) Garbine Muguruza and Agnieska Radwanska are now in the WTA Top 10, at #9 and #7 respectively. Maria Sharapova returns to World #2. Madison Keys is now up to #18 and Venus Williams is up to #15.

AS SERENA APPROACHES CALENDAR GRAND SLAM, SHE IS LAPPING THE FIELD
Serena Williams now is the defending champion of all four major championships and is the #1 player in the world. But this is just one measure of her domination of women's tennis. Amazingly, she now has more than twice as many ranking points as any other player on the list, the largest gap that has ever existed in the history of the rankings. Another measure of her dominance is that with her 21 majors, she equals the number of major titles the rest of the active field possesses: Venus Williams (7), Maria Sharapova (5), Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2) and Francesca Schiavone, Samantha Stosur, and Ana Ivanovic (1).

2015 WIMBLEDON: Nadal(#10) Upset In 2nd Round By Dustin Brown(#102)

For the fourth consecutive year 2-time Wimbledon champ (2008 and 2010) Rafael Nadal lost to a player ranked outside the Top 100. Before that he had reached the finals for five consecutive times that he played (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011). Today Nadal lost to 102nd-ranked Dustin Brown 7-5 3-6 6-4 6-4 in the 2nd round. Last year he lost to Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round, in 2013 he lost in the first round to Steve Darcis in the first round and in 2012 he lost to Lukas Rosol in five sets.

Amazingly, Brown is now 2-0 lifetime against Nadal, one of the very few people on the ATP tour who have a lead in their head-to-head record with the 14-time major champion. (Both meetings have occurred on grass.) Brown, 30, was born in Germany and has a Jamaican father and German mother. He is listed as 6-foot-5 and 172 pounds.