Wk.44- Another Four years for Barack, and a Star is Born

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

I'm really sorry this is so late, but I'm so busy and then the election came (well done Obama!!!!) and then I had to plan a lengthy trip out to Australia. So I'm still ultra-busy and so this is going to be a shorter article, I'm afraid. It appears the force is with Jerzy Janowicz. He is the chosen one, the one foretold to bring balance to the ATP. And unlike poor star-crossed Anakin, perhaps it won't take him six movies and 35 years to do so. He smashed through Paris like Chuck Norris smashes through Titanium. He swept the awards this week.

But, anyways, I must quickly move on. I watched my favorite favorite movie of all time (narrowly ahead of "Shawshank Redemption" and "Pulp Fiction"), "The Shining." I watch it at Halloween because it is the film you have to see at Halloween. It's amazing. Jack Nicholson gave one of the best acting performances by any actor in any role I've ever seen, if that makes sense. Oooh, and also I listened to my first Christmas songs because I found a Christmas CD and listened to it and then I decided to go on a quest to find a non-trashy Christmas song -- yes, I love "Last Christmas" (who doesnt?), but it's still trash -- to share with y'all as it's the last week I have left really of the normal season. Here's famous actress/singer/Catwoman Eartha Kitt with "Santa Baby::



Ok, WTF Picks. First of all, though, a trivia question. What do the years 1986, 2009 and 2012 have in common? (I'll give you a bit to think on it...answer at the bottom of the WTF picks.)

Group A
Djokovic d Tsonga in 2, Murray,Berdych in 3
Murray d Berdych in 3, lose to Djokovic in 3, d Tsonga 3
Tsonga, lose to Djokovic in 2, beat Berdych in 3,lose to Murray in 3
Berdych loses all in three sets
Group B
Federer beats Ferrer,Delpo in 3, Tipsarevic in 2
Ferrer loses to federer in 2,beats Delpo in 3 and Tipsarevic in 2
Delpo beats Tipsarevic in 2,loses rest in 3
Tipsarevic doesnt get a set.

SEMIFINALS
Djokovic def Ferrer in a tight three setter
Indoors Federer has slight advantage over Murray wins in three

FINAL
Federer beats Djokovic in three without dropping serve (maybe ,just maybe, he drops it once)

=Patricks Picks=
...I managed to get Patrick back and he made some picks.

A: 1. Murray 2. Berdych 3. Djokovic 4. Tsonga
B: 1. Federer 2. Del Potro=Ferrer 4. Tipsarevic

Final: Murray d. Federer

1986, 2009 and 2012 are all the years since its inception that there have been no Americans at the WTF.



*Wk.44 CHAMPIONS*
PARIS, FRANCE
S: David Ferrer/ESP d. Jerzy Janowicz/POL 6-4/6-3
D: Bhupathi/Bopanna d. Qureshi/Rojer


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jerzy Janowicz, POL
...The first qualifier to make the final of a Masters since Canas at the 2007 Miami Masters. The first Pole ever to make the final of a Masters in singles and he beat 5 top twenty players, too. I'm going to jump on his bandwagon like everyone else is. I'm now a lifelong fan regardless of how well he does. He was incredible. More to come, because he's down for many, many awards.
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RISER: David Ferrer, ESP
..Just too consistent in the end and he's now on a 12-match win streak, at least. He deserves a Masters. Even though this is traditionally the Masters where someone surprising usually takes it, Ferrer will be rightfully chuffed to bits to have won it. He was too consistent for the surprise package of Janowicz in the end. After losing twice on clay to Nadal, and once to Murray on hard courts in Masters finals, he has finally done it and it means the world to him. So congratulations to Ferrer....
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SURPRISE: Jerzy Janowicz, POL
...He has a cool name! When he upset Kohl, Patrick and I thought not much of it because upsets like that are fairly commonplace on the ATP and especially at the bigger events. Then he beat Cilic and we thought, OK, well played nice job...6-2 6-1 Murray, surely. But no! He put up an amazing fight before Murray finally got to Match Point at 5-4 in the second. Serving at 5-4 30- then 5-4 40-30, Murray had the match wrapped up. But no! Jerzy came back and triumphed in the breaker by mixing enormous power with deft dropshots and a colossal serve. Then Tipsarevic retired due to fatigue and he played steady Simon. Surely Simon would be too good, have too much consistency. Surely Jerzy's amazing run was over. But no! He confused Simon. He befuddled him and confuddled him. He made Simon step back in order to defend the big forehand then executed the dropper with perfection. He made him look ordinary. He frustrated Simon. And he won 7-5 6-4. More to come....
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VETERAN: The Bryans, USA/USA
...Theyve had a marvelous career and sealed the number one once more, but perhaps they've reached the peak of their careers and are just about to start the downhill butt of the hill. Just maybe. They still have 3 or 4 good years ahead of them and good luck to them.
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COMEBACK: Qureshi/Rojer, PAK/CUW
...After losing the first set to love, they came back against Cilic/Melo to win in three, winning 11-9 in the final tiebreak. That's pretty impressive. no?
Also, QUERREY came back to beat the world number one elect in three epic sets. He lost the first to love and then was 2-0 down in the second set. He just told himself he had to get two games in this set...and he surpassed that to win in an amazing upset.
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NEW FACE: Jerzy Janowicz, POL
...What's really impressive is that to get into qualifying he had to beat Tursunov and Serra. That's good going by anyone's standards. This is a guy who couldn't afford to go to the Aussie Open. He wins seven matches in a row at a Masters. Seven in a row. That's the equivalent of a slam when you look at who he's faced. First two rounds, no seed. Then Kohl, (26 seed, for example), Cilic (15th seed), Murray (third seed), Tipsarevic (8th seed), and, OK, so Simon in the semifinal is a stretch but you get the picture. He had an amazing week and to run out of gas against Ferrer is understandable.
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DOWN: Big Four,SUI,SRB,GBR,ESP
...Fedal has traditionally shown indifference when it comes to Paris for a variety of reasons. Both pulled out this year and Murrovic was upset early on by opponents they should really beat. It's not good from the top four.
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Challanger: Daniel Brands, GER
....He had a tough week, involving many tiebreaks at the Bauer Watertechnology Cup but finally got through it , beating Gulbis 7-6 6-3 in the final.
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1. Paris Rd.3 - Janowicz d. Murray
...5-7/7-6/6-2. Amazing. Brilliant. Fabulous. Poland. Upset. Future Star. Future Slam Champion. Dropshots. Match Points. Aces. It had everything except a production of "Romeo and Juliet." It was a truly incredible match. And now Janowicz is no longer a who?
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2. Paris Rd. 2 - Querrey d. Djokovic
...0-6/7-6/6-4. Impressive victory from Sam -- one of my faves -- and it shows he's truly back for good now.
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3. Paris SF - Ferrer d. Llodra 7-5/6-3
Paris Final - Ferrer d. Janowicz 6-4/6-3
...If you want to learn how to receive, just watch Ferru in these two matches. Llodra had held serve for about 50 service games in a row before Ferrer broke him serving at 5-6. I mean he broke down the serves of two huge servers, indoors, back-to-back, and that takes tremendous skills. He was too consistent for them. He slowly took their serves away from them and then ground them out on the baseline. If they came in to the net they were toast. It was a smooth, impressive performance from Ferru.
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*ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS; LONDON*

...My picks are up there as you saw before. So just a few loose ends to tie up. First, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and Happy Thanksgiving. I had a love affair with the epic game and playing style of Amelie Mauresmo. I fell in love with it, sadly, after she retired, but I still think her 2006 year was one of the most impressive in recent years. She did terribly in France -- to nobody's surprise, as she has that thing Sam Stosur has in Australia -- but she had a great year apart from that. Even as a Sharapova fan, I loved her run to the 2006 Wimbledon title. She thrashed Abramovic without losing a game, dispatched Stosur (her again), Pratt, came through against Ivanovic in two hard fought sets, beat the Russian Myskina in three...

and then beat Sharapova in three, too,



before coming back against Henin to deny her the Wimbledon crown 2-6 6-3 6-4.



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