Federer Wins 85th Career Title in Istanbul

World #2 Roger Federer won his 85th career title in Istanbul by defeating Pablo Cuevas 6-3 7-6(11). It was Federer's 3rd title of 2015 (d. Milos Raonic in Brisbane and d. Novak Djokovic in Dubai) and he improved to 85-43 in ATP tour finals.

The ATP Master Series 1000 tournament in Madrid starts this week.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Serena Ends 2013 Season 78-4, With 11 Titles, $12.3M

Serena Williams ended her 2013 season with her 78th win, the first time in her illustrious career she has won more than 62 matches in the same year. Compared to only four losses (to Victoria Azarenka in Doha and Cincinnati, Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon and Sloane Stephens in Melbourne), that gives her a winning percentage of .951, 9th on the all-time list.

Serena defeated the new World #3 player in the world, Li Na in a tough 3-set final where she was outplayed for the first 30 minutes but ended it in complete control, winning the last 9 consecutive games, 2-6 6-3 6-0. By winning, Serena won her 11th WTA tour title of the year and amassed over $12.3 million in prize money, the 3rd largest annual haul by any player, shattering by more than $4 million the previous record set by Azarenka. It is also Serena's 57th career title and 632nd career win (10th all-time).

2013 WTA YEC: Serena vs Li Na In Final

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.

WTA YEC 2013: Serena Goes 3-0 To Reach Semis

World #1 Serena Williams has defeated Angelique Kerber, Agnieska Radwanska and Petra Kvitova in straight sets at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. This was her 76th win of the year (to only four losses). In the other half of the draw Li Na and Jelena Jankovic qualified for the semifinals, with the Chinese player going undefeated 3-0 against Victoria Azarenka, Sara Errani and Jankovic. Li eliminated World #2 from the field with a 6-2 6-1 win against the curiously unmotivated Belarussian.

The last final semifinal slot is being fought over between the two remaining lefties: Kvitova and Kerber.  Serena will face Jankovic in the semifinals, a replay of the China Open final won by the World #1 a few weeks ago. Interestingly, the match-up between the lefty K's is a reprise of the final

of the Tokyo Open final where Kvitova emerged victorious despite dropping a bagel middle set. Li Na will face either Kvitova or Kerber and will simply need to win that match to reach the Year-End Championships final to reach World #3 in the world for the first time.

WTA YEC 2013: Serena, Aga, Petra and Angie in Tough Group

(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.

WTA TOUR FINALS: Serena Wins 3rd YEC, 58-4 in 2012

As expected, Serena Williams continued her domination of the top of women's tennis by dismissing World #2 Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-3 to win her 3rd WTA Tour year-end championships. This was Serena's 7th title of 2012 and her 58th tour win for the year (balanced with an awe-inspiring low total of only 4 losses).

Serena again re-affirmed her domination of Sharapova, winning her 10th match in 12 meetings (the only losses to the Russian coming in two huge matches, the 2004 Wimbledon final and the 2004 WTA Tour year-end championship match, when Sharapova was a teenage phenom). You read that right, Serena has not lost to the 4-time major champion for 8 long years, and they both know it every time they step on to court together. Playing Sharapova concentrates Serena's mind so that her unforced errors drop precipitously while her deadly accuracy and power remain, a lethal combination which resulted in 40 winners (to a mere 14 errors) in the 89 minute championship match, while never even facing a break point.

But really 2012 was the year the now-31 year old Serena played an entire tour season completely healthy and committed to the game in a long time and the results are clear and convincing. Serena ended up winning 47 of her last 49 matches in 2012 and went on an 11-0 run against the Top 2 players in the world. During that time she won 2 majors and 2 Olympic gold medals.

However, by winning the year-end championships for the 3rd time at age 31, Serena became the oldest player to ever win the tournament and joined Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Kim Clijsters and Chris Evert as 3-time winners. She joined Victoria Azarenka as the only other player to win $7 million in a season.

As long as she remains healthy there is no reason to think that Serena will not continue her domination of women's tennis for at least the next year or two, which should allow her to reach (and possibly even surpass) the 18 majors that Evert and Navratilova share. Graf's total of 22 should be safe. Probably.