Djokovic Wins 9th Title; Serena Wins 2nd Consecutive

As I predicted yesterday, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams won their final matches to win their respective Canadian hardcourt titles this weekend. Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the final and Serena dispatched Victoria Azarenka.

Serena defeated Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2 to win her 39th career title and her 2nd in 3 weeks following her 49-week absence from the sport following her 13th major title win at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. She was unseeded in Toronto because she was ranked #80 in the world, and is projected to be World #31 on Monday. The US Open, the last major of the year, begins in two weeks.

Djokovic is having a season for the ages. He won his 9th title by beating Mardy Fish 6-2 3-6 6-4 and has lost only once (to Roger Federer) in 54 matches, an incredible record of 53-1 for the year (and he should really get credit for a walk-over versus Fabio Fognini in Paris). Fish did well to win a set off of the Serbian, which just goes to show well the American is playing, having reached his 3rd consecutive final in the North American hardcourt summer season.

2 Great Semis: Serena v Azarenka, Djokovic v Tsonga

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The US Open Series continues in Canada this week with the men playing in Montreal and the women in Toronto (the two tournaments alternate between the two major cities every year). In Toronto, Serena Williams is the last big name standing (after Sharapova, Li Na, Clijsters and Bartoli all lost early); she survived a scare from go-for-broke Lucie Safarova to win 4-6 6-3 6-2 in 2 hours 4 minutes to book a place in the semifinals against Victoria Azarenka. The other semifinal will be Aggie Radwanska versus 2010 French Open finalist Sam Stosur.

On the men's side, World #1 Novak Djokovic continues to play at a different, superior level from the rest of the field, demolishing an in-form Gael Monfils 6-1 6-2 to set up a semifinal with one of the few players on the tour who own a head-to-head advantage over him, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Earlier in the week, Murray, Nadal, Federer and Del Potro all lost. Djokovic and Tsonga last met in the Wimbledon semifinals, where they played the most entertaining match of the tournament before Djokovic won in 4 sets. Curiously, both in that tournament and in this one, Tsonga had beaten Roger Federer in an earlier round. Tsonga leads the head-to-head 5-3 but lost their most important match-up, the 2008 Australian Open final.

They should both be two excellent matches, but I predict Serena and Djokovic will be left standing and will probably win their respective tournaments on the way to the 2011 US Open (which I just got tickets to for 3rd and 4th round action!)

Celebrity Friday: Serena Returns To Tour With 6-0 6-0 Win

Serena Williams returned to the WTA Tour this week after her 4th round loss at Wimbledon to Marion Bartoli to defeat Anastasia Rodionova 6-0 6-0  (ouch) at the Bank of the West tournament in Palo Alto, CA. It was her first hard court match on U.S. soil since the 2009 U.S. Open semifinal where the defending champion was eliminated from the tournament by a point penalty on match point after verbally berating an official who inexplicably had called a foot fault on a second serve at 4-5, deuce.

Bartoli won this tournament by defeating Venus Williams last year, so we shall see if she has to go through another Williams sister to defend her title.