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The only event where Djokovic and Nadal were not in the same half this season was Doha where Nadal did not play. That is seven consecutive events in the same half which have a probability of 1/128 of happening.

Congrats to Zverev on his first Masters title today in Rome when he defeated Djokovic 6-4, 6-3. I always thought Zverev was the real deal but Djokovic was a disaster today. Since yesterday he moved from one extreme to the other.

Just no confidence or mojo whatsoever. He dropped serve in the first game of the match and never recovered as he got broken two more times in the second set. It has to go down as one of the worst matches he’s ever played.

Not that I’m complaining. Djokovic improved with every clay court event this season and went a round further in each. If he continues in this fashion he will defend his French Open title. The match against Thiem was also unexpected and cause for optimism.

History’s just been made in Rome! #Zverev wins the #ibi17 Final vs @DjokerNole 64 63 and breaks into the Top 10 of the #ATP ranking! † pic.twitter.com/Miaw8LURjJ

— Internazionali Bnl (@InteBNLdItalia) May 21, 2017

In my last post, I said Djokovic was showing signs of returning to his best when he defeated Agut 6-4, 6-4. Since then he defeated Del Potro 6-1, 6-4 and Thiem 6-1, 6-0. The display against Thiem was especially impressive.

I started noticing an improvement in Djokovic’s game against Lopez in Madrid, especially in his backhand. It could be the greatest backhand of all time and it is a key shot for him. When he hits it will full confidence it is an absolutely devastating shot like it was today against Thiem.

Djokovic’s return of serve is another contender for greatest of all time shot and that is another thing that he is hitting with confidence again. When his backhand and return of serve is on song then look out. Those two things alone inflicts immense damage.

Thiem defeated Nadal 6-4, 6-3 in a masterful display himself but Djokovic made Thiem look like an amateur. His return of serve is especially troubling to Thiem because it rushes him and Thiem doesn’t cope very well with being rushed at all.

Who will play Sascha Zverev in the Rome final?”

It’s quarterfinal time in Rome and Djokovic and Nadal is one match away from playing each other in consecutive clay Masters semis. But they both have tough quarterfinal matches coming up. Djokovic faces Del Potro and Nadal faces Thiem who he also faced in the Barcelona and Madrid finals.

Djokovic has shown some signs of returning to his best level this week so far with straight-set wins over Bedene and Agut. Today he defeated Agut 6-4, 6-4 which is a good scoreline against a tough competitor.

This was Djokovic’s third straight-set victory in about a week which bodes well for his confidence. His next opponent Del Potro will be another test. Del Potro is a very talented player who already beat Dimitrov, Edmund, and Nishikori in Rome.

And that after playing only one other clay court match during the season in Estoril. Today he defeated 7th seed Nishikori 7-6(4), 6-3. Djokovic defeated him in Acapulco and Indian Wells but Del Potro is always a danger.

Just a classic @DjokerNole point #ibi17 pic.twitter.com/ByByU1kJpb

So the 'big' match is over and as expected Nadal won, 6-2, 6-4. I don't think anyone actually thought Djokovic was the favorite who looked at it objectively.

Not only is Djokovic heavily undercooked in matches and wins this season, but in an almost inexplicable turn of events, Nishikori withdrew from his quarterfinal match with Djokovic explaining afterward: "If you push too much you have more chances to get injured and it can be a big problem. That's why I chose not to play today."

Let's be clear, Nishikori was not injured. He withdrew as a precaution and why this is even allowed is beyond me. If he is not fit he shouldn't enter events. Otherwise, he is just being selfish and filling a spot someone else could take who will actually continue to play if he wins.

I'm not the conspiracy theorist type but I'm honestly starting to wonder after all the strange events I've witnessed this season. Anyway, the last thing Djokovic needed before facing Nadal was Nishikori's withdrawal. Not only was Djokovic severely undercooked but Nadal was as well prepared as it was possible to be.

His quarterfinal match against Goffin was ideal. I'd much rather Djokovic play Nishikori and lose than face Nadal undercooked. But it is likely that Djokovic would have defeated Nishikori and we could actually have had a proper Djokodal match.

Happy mother day to all the mothers out there. I haven’t been able to make posts this week due to exams and sickness but as you know I make updates to Facebook. Nadal continued his clean sweep of the clay court season today with a 7-6(8), 6-4 win over Thiem.

So congrats to him and to Thiem as well for another good week where he made his first Masters semi-final and final. He did very well in the final where he broke Nadal in the third game and came back from 3-5 in the tiebreak where he had two set points but in the end, Nadal had the edge.

This is Nadal’s 5th Madrid title. On his way to the title, he also won his first match against Djokovic after losing 15 consecutive sets and 7 matches to his nemesis, 6-2, 6-4. Unfortunately for Djokovic, Nishikori’s withdrawal in the quarterfinals didn’t help him at all.

After a promising 6-4, 7-5 victory over Lopez Djokovic was scheduled to play Nishikori in the quarterfinals who withdrew due to physical problems like so many times before. This meant an already heavily undercooked Djokovic had to sit the day out while Nadal could get into prime shape against Goffin.

Not that he needed to. He’d already won Monte Carlo and Barcelona as well as many more matches earlier this year. So the result was no surprise at all. It was not the conditions I hoped for as far as their first clay court meeting went.

“I want to continue raising the level of my game and stamina and this is a continuous process. I enjoy this journey, it feels like I am starting something new again and I love this challenge. I am a hunter and my biggest goal is to find the winning spark on the court again”, said Novak.

“I feel like this is a new chapter in my life. My career was always on the upward path and this time I’m experiencing how it is when the path takes you in a different direction. I want to find a way to come back to the top stronger and more resilient. I have so much faith in this process and that’s why I will take time to find the right person who I can connect with professionally. I have been on the tour long enough to know how to manage daily routines and I don’t want to rush my decision. I will be on the tour alone for a while with support of my family and management. I will inform the public when I find the right person, but for now I thank you for your support and understanding”, concluded Djokovic.

After splitting up with Becker at the end of last year Djokovic is now also ditching the team who seems to have been with him since the beginning. I think it makes sense given that he has struggled more recently since when he first rose to the top of men’s tennis.

There is plenty of surprise and dissatisfaction among tennis fans but I think Djokovic has deserved the right to make decisions without people questioning it since he won the personal slam and became one of the all-time greats.

Why should you be predictable and care what others think anyway? Successful people don’t do what others expect of them and they don’t play it safe. If they did what others do or what is expected they wouldn’t be any different from the rest, would they?

A while ago I made a post to Facebook concerning a very useful table a Nole fan on Twitter made about the competition faced by the big four at Masters and slam level over their careers. Here it is:

Click image to enlarge

As you can see Djokovic had by far the toughest competition while Federer had the easiest competition. Now the same Nole fan has come up with an even more telling table:

Congrats to Goffin who scored his first win over a top-three player today when he defeated Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in a very entertaining match in Monte Carlo. Both players looked like they would win at different stages of the match which I always think is a prerequisite for a high-quality match.

Goffin took the early initiative with a pretty flawless first set. Then the third game of the second set was a big game where Djokovic was 15-40 down on his serve facing two breaks points. He did very well to hold on to his serve after which he was a transformed player.

Playing like the Djokovic of old, he won the second set and went a break up in the third. At this stage, you felt like Djokovic would be hard to stop which makes Goffin’s come back so good. He broke back at 3-4 with one of those perfectly placed backhand down-the-line winners which is a trademark shot for Goffin.

With Djokovic serving at 5-6, he was clutch as usual by saving five match points and Goffin had to paint the baseline with a groundstroke to eventually force Djokovic into error and get the win.

MAJOR UPSET ALERT ¨ @David__Goffin & his new Limited Edition Blade racket just defeated Djokovic to advance to the semifinals in Monte Carlo pic.twitter.com/3dEe6fQ1iC

I’m currently preparing for exams but I’m trying to keep up with posting. Today was an interesting day in Monte Carlo with Murray and Wawrinka both losing while Nadal and Djokovic continued to progress.

Murray lost 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 to Ramos-Vinolas and not only lost from a set up but from 4-0 in the third set as well. Clearly, all Murray’s effort went into reaching the number one ranking at the end of last year and he now has nothing left.

There is no way he should be losing from 4-0 up in the third against Ramos and this is now his third early exit in a big tournament since the beginning of the year. He still has a sizeable lead in the rankings thanks to Djokovic’s slump but it’s been a very disappointing run for him as the world number one.

Djokovic, on the other hand, is not going to go down that easily. He toughed out another 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Carreno-Busta despite struggling again with his form. His lack of finishing power at the net, and in particular his overhead, is giving him nightmares but he is still finding a way around it.

Click image to enlarge 

In many ways, the clay court season is a new beginning to the tennis season. For whoever have failed to make an impression in 2017 it is not too late. The bulk of the tennis season still remains and although Federer dominated the first few months of 2017 there is still plenty of time for someone else to dominate. Especially since Federer will be missing three Masters events during the clay court season.

In Monte Carlo, the top four seeds are also the top four favorites for the French Open. Djokovic and Nadal fell in the same half which means Murray and Wawrinka are drawn to play in the semis.

Nadal got Zverev in his section of the draw which can get tricky but Djokovic got recent Indian Wells semi-finalist Busta in his section and Thiem or Goffin in the quarters. He seems to be getting one tough draw after the other these days but it’s time he started winning too.

and now it’s sure: Roger #Federer WD from #MMOPEN and #IBI17 entry lists

see you in Roland Garros pic.twitter.com/DDthxZqTTm

— Michele Galoppini (@MikGaloppini) April 7, 2017

Apparently, this means Federer is not eligible for a wild card at these events since he withdrew from the entry list. Federer said he probably won’t play any clay events before the French Open and I guess this makes it official.

This is somewhat surprising. I thought Federer might take a wild card at Rome and make a serious run at a second French Open title now that he finally seems to have the better of Nadal while Djokovic has been struggling.

Maybe playing Davis Cup was not such a bad idea for Djokovic after all. On Friday he won his singles match against Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and had a good serving day. Ramos-Vinolas is currently at a career high ranking of 24 after having some good results on the South-American clay court swing this year.

The match was played on indoor hard which doesn’t suit the Spaniard’s game but the fact that it was Davis Cup will give Djokovic a boost I think. I didn’t think it made much sense for him to play this weekend with his chronic elbow problem especially since it was on hard courts just before the clay court season.

But since Troicki won his singles match against Carreno Busta and his doubles match with Zimonjic today as well it means Serbia won the rubber 3-0 and Djokovic doesn’t have to play another singles match tomorrow.

He is written in to play the second singles on the Davis Cup website but according to his own website, his next match will be in Monte Carlo. And according to a Nole fan on Twitter, his personal website is always up to date so I’m gonna assume he made the right decision.

We will only know for sure whether the risk was worth taking if Djokovic stays injury free for at least the clay and grass court season but historically Djokovic has had some good results after winning in Davis Cup.

Federer’s resurrection since the beginning of 2017 has been nothing short of remarkable. After suffering three grand slam final losses to Djokovic since 2014, another semi-final loss at the Australian Open last year, and finally a Wimbledon semi-final to Raonic, he pulled out of the rest of 2016 with an injury.

At that point, I think most people thought he had missed his chance to win the elusive 18th slam. I for one did. I knew he would always be a threat as long as he played but the last thing I expected was for him to win the first slam he competed in after a six-month break.

Granted, the change is court speed in Melbourne played a key role in him winning the title but it was still a remarkable turn of events. It seemed too good to be true almost, especially with him defeating his nemesis from a break down in the fifth set.

You couldn’t make it up. But it happened and now Federer continued in the same remarkable fashion by winning the Indian Wells/Miami double. All of this at the age of 35, an age at which most tennis players are either heavily declined or retired.

What gives? Some have attributed his run to doping. Unfortunately, with the poor doping controls and the capitalist culture where corruption is rampant one can’t just dismiss these allegations off the bat if one is objective and honest.

In this situation, I usually like to congratulate the winner regardless of who it was but after the unsavory incident that occurred yesterday in the semis between Federer and Kyrgios I find that hard to do.

Yes, Federer is playing very well right now but that is nothing new. He’s been playing very well since 2015.  The only difference is the slump of Djokovic. But it is hard to give credit when you feel like Federer should not have been in the final, to begin with.

In my last post, I said I wanted Federer to win the title but after I saw that incident at 5-4 in the final set tiebreak again I had a change of mind. After my blog went online again yesterday I had a lot of catching up to do and it was late.

I didn’t have time to digest everything that happened. But that incident in the third set tiebreak, the crowd’s behavior in general, and Mirka’s behavior on top of that left a bad taste in my mouth. After Kyrgios lost the first set in a heartbreaking fashion he did incredibly well to win the second set on a tiebreak and get into the position to close the door on Federer at 5-4 in the final set tiebreak.

We can’t say with 100% certainty that Kyrgios would have won the match but that is beside the point anyway. Even though I believe the momentum had changed and Kyrgios would have won the match, it was criminal for the crowd to get involved there.

First of all, apologies for my blog going offline. If you were frustrated just know that no one was probably more frustrated than me given that I contacted my host weeks in advance of my domain expiring, trying to avoid the situation of my blog going offline.

So I am disappointed with my host Hostgator but in this situation, I will always keep making updates on Facebook. My new domain name ultimatetennisblog.com is not working yet but my host told me it should go live soon in which case my old domain name will become a redirect.

Since my blog was offline and I couldn’t make any posts I will take a quick look at what transpired in the last week or so. With both Djokovic and Murray absent from Miami this was yet another chance for Federer and Nadal to continue their 2017 resurrections.

And unlike Indian Wells, they were at opposite sides of the draw. The top two seeds were Wawrinka and Nishikori, though. There was also Raonic who withdrew after winning one match. As for Wawrinka and Nishikori, they lost to Zverev and Fognini respectively.

Zverev then ran into Kyrgios like he did in Indian Wells but this time he put up a much better fight as Kyrgios edged it 6-4, 6-7(9), 6-3 in a brilliant match between the two most promising young stars on the ATP tour.

Congrats to Federer on equalling Djokovic on 5 Indian Wells titles after defeating Wawrinka 6-4, 7-5 in the final yesterday. This was his second big title of the year which is a bit of a scandal for Murray and Djokovic.

Then again, the speeding up of the courts in Melbourne was a huge break for Federer and it didn’t hurt that Kyrgios took out Djokovic in Indian Wells and subsequently withdrew from the tournament.

But one should give credit where it’s due, unlike Fedfans who didn’t want to give credit to Djokovic for defeating Federer time after time from 2014-2016. Even they are now willing to admit that Federer is still playing at a very high level.

Stan Wawrinka cries, jokingly calls Roger Federer an “a—hole” after beating him at Indian Wells pic.twitter.com/1bBgEscDDj

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 20, 2017

The record 19-match winning streak had to end eventually. It’s just a shame it didn’t happen against someone likable. Like Del Potro. Then again, beating Del Potro in consecutive events was important for Djokovic.

A lot is being made of Djokovic losing in consecutive events to Kyrgios but no one seemed to notice that Del Potro, another great player, lost even earlier than Djokovic in consecutive events, against Djokovic.

It’s all about what you focus on. The media will focus on the losses to Kyrgios but Djokovic will focus on defeating Del Potro consecutively and doing so more convincingly the second time around.

He can go to Miami with plenty of confidence where he holds the record with Agassi of 6 titles. And surely this time he will get a better draw. Or else we will know for sure they rig the draws. With a good result in Miami, he can go into the clay court season on a high and start dominating again on a slow surface.

As for the match against Kyrgios, I needed some time to digest it. Djokovic dropped serve in the opening game and hit a couple of reverse backhands in the next game which I have never seen from him.

So far in Indian Wells, things have gone as expected in the ‘quarter of death’ with Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, and Kyrgios all making the fourth round. Murray who had the easiest draw of them all, however, lost his first match against Pospisil.

Yesterday there were two big matches in the stacked quarter between Kyrgios vs Zverev and Djokovic vs Del Potro which Kyrgios won 6-3, 6-4 while Djokovic won 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

They both played incredibly well and the result of the rematch is impossible to predict. Djokovic played better than he did in Acapulco but so did Kyrgios. Kyrgios was basically toying with Zverev putting his unlimited talent on full display and getting the double break to win the opening set.

One shot he hit through his legs surprised Zverev to such an extent that Zverev missed a sitter volley into the open court. That point pretty much summed up the match. Kyrgios was making Zverev look like an amateur.

The guy truly has unlimited talent. The only thing standing between him and multiple slams is his mind. I have gained some respect for him since his last meeting with Djokovic after he called Djokovic ‘the most complete player I have ever played‘.

The 2017 Indian Wells draw is all about the bottom quarter which has been stacked with Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Kyrgios, Zverev, and Del Potro. I think it will make things more interesting in the early rounds but I have to wonder how Djokovic can get this difficult a draw after what happened in Acapulco.

After getting Del Potro in his second match in Acapulco he gets him again in his second match in Indian Wells. The odds of that happening must have been very slim but then he also gets Kyrgios in his next match like in Acapulco.

It seems suspicious, especially with the following in mind: