#4 Novak Djokovic

You didn't think we were going to forget the jocks, did you? At #4 on this year's list is current world #1 tennis star, Novak Djokovic. Although definitely physically attractive, Djokovic doesn't make our list for his good looks or hot body, we like this guy for the incredible year he had in 2011.

After years of trailing behind the world's best tennis players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Djokovic finally found a way to beat his two closest rivals in 2011, and not just once or twice, but several times. Djokovic not only dominated the two best players in the world, but also won three of the four Grand Slam titles, and only lost five matches all year long. That's a record that's not only one of the best of all time in tennis, but in all of sports.

Oh, and we also love Djokovic's funny personality; he's famous for imitating Maria Sharapova and the eccentricities of other players. Djokovic has that kind of charismatic personality that draws everyone in; you either want to bed him or be his best friend... or both.

Saturday Sports

We've said many times before, it's the "story" that makes sports so exciting. Watching a perfect throw, or perfect tennis stroke, or perfect run is awe-inspiring, no doubt, but what elevates sports to levels of drama worthy of winning an Oscar is the "human story" behind the athletic endeavor. And one of those great stories is unfolding this weekend at the U.S. Open Golf Championship.

Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy held a huge lead this past April at the Master's Golf Championship, but shockingly, he imploded on the last nine holes, and ended up in 15th place. His meltdown was so incredible, it was actually hard to watch. But he held his head up high, he didn't complain or whine, and now, just a few weeks later, he is dominating the second of the four major golf tournaments of the year. With only one day left in the tournament, McIlroy is at 14-under, with his closest competitor at 6-under. He's also just set the all-time record for three rounds with a score of 199. Everyone is rooting for McIlroy to win his first major, but what adds tension to the story is the fear in everyone's minds that he might experience another Masters-like meltdown on the final day, and once again, blow his chances for a win. Let's hope not. McIlroy is also electrifying the golf world because he's proving that there is, indeed, life after Tiger.

Wimbledon starts on Monday, but before we preview this year's championship, we want to first take a moment to recognize a bit of history. 2011 is the 50th anniversary of the first Wimbledon win for one of the game's greatest players, Billie Jean King. The 17 year-old King, who then went by her maiden name, Billie Jean Moffitt, won the Women's Doubles Championship in 1961 with partner Karen Susman. King would go on to win her first singles championship at Wimbledon in 1966.



Now for the present Wimbledon. It's rare to have more than one, or maybe two, men who have a real chance to win at Wimbledon, and this year we have four. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray all have a real chance to take the trophy, which makes this one of the most anticipated Wimbledon's in a long time. There's always a chance that someone else could slip in and play the role of "spoiler", but the way that the top four men are playing right now, that looks doubtful. Sadly, for America, we still don't have anyone on the men's side who has a real chance to make the finals; Roddick, Isner and Fish are all expected to flame out early. And the two best up-and-comer Americans won't be in the tournament this year: Bjorn Fratangelo, who just won the French Open Juniors Championship, opted not to play Wimbledon this year, and Ryan Harrison was just defeated today in the final round of the qualifying tournament, so he won't be in the main bracket unless someone else pulls out with an injury.

It's okay, though, as much as we'd like to see another great American tennis champion come along, we are practically drooling for the second week of Wimbledon to see what epic match-ups will take place between the current top four players, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, who all very much want to win. The great story-lines are all in place: Federer very much wants to take his seventh Wimbledon title to prove to all the doubters that his era of greatness is not yet over; Nadal wants to take his third Wimbledon and eleventh Grand Slam title, despite the fact that he claims he has no interest in being called one of the "greatest ever", trust us, he does. Andy Murray is desperate to take his first Wimbledon, providing Great Britain with their first hometown champion since the 1930's, and Djokovic is still smarting from losing at the French Open and having his perfect 2011 match record ended. Look for a very exciting second week on the grass. We can't wait.

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

London's The Sunday Times writer Lynn Barber is most famous for being played by Carey Mulligan in the 2009 movie, "An Education", for which Mulligan received an Oscar nomination, but that's not what got Barber death threats last week. No, Barber's famous tales of sleeping with lots and lots of men didn't raise the world's ire, but her recent interview with Rafael Nadal did. The most controversial item in the interview was Barber's hint that Nadal might be gay, but the main jist of the piece was that Nadal is "over-handled" and is leading a bizarro, strangled life of all work and no play. And by no "play", Barber is talking about a sex life. Barber pondered many times in the article how a young, vital 25 year-old can survive without sex, but of course, Barber is only speculating that Nadal is nookie-free. Nadal supposedly has a girlfriend, but no one outside of his very tight inner-circle knows the truth. Anyway, the world-wide fans of Nadal, who just won his sixth French Open title, went beserk, threatening Barber's life and coming to a quick and spirited defense of their idol.

It's funny that Barber's article was published when it was, because after watching Nadal's French Open win last week, we caught ourselves thinking, "Why can't we get more excited about this guy?". We're certainly not about to go down the ill-advised path that Sports Illustrated Magazine trod back in the 1980's with its famous piece on Ivan Lendl, (click here), but we can't help but see the similarities between Nadal and Lendl. Back in the 1980's, the Connors/McEnroe tennis era, which electrified American sports fans and helped to make tennis incredibly popular in the U.S., was coming to an end, and in its place came a new champion, Czechoslovakian Ivan Lendl. Lendl was a great champion, but to say that he played with no emotion and no fireworks is an understatement. He was the embodiment of the stereotype of the robotic Soviet-bloc athlete who wins his games, but in the process wins no fans. To Americans, who like their sports heroes to wear their hearts on their sleeves, Lendl was the anti-Christ.

And now comes Nadal, who plays with a similar machine-like attitude with little emotion. Yes, he jumps in the air and pumps his fists, but other than that, he has absolutely no personality. Unlike other sports stars like Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, Nadal appears in no American t.v. commercials, and he barely speaks to the press. Part of the reason for Nadal's silence is the fact that he struggles to speak English, but even when he does, he has very little of interest to say. Now we're not about to say that only bright, shiny objects catch our attention; we don't need our sports stars to rant and rave, ala John McEnroe, for us to love them. We were big fans of Ivan Lendl back in the day, and he barely even smiled. But an athlete has to do something to endear himself to us, and so we're sorry to say this, but for all of Nadal's success, he just bores us. In fact, there are times when we don't even like him.

Maybe Nadal's lack of popularity in America has something to do with the era in which he's playing. When Lendl played, he proved to be the perfect antithesis for the much fierier McEnroe; in other words, for all those people who wanted to see the spoiled-brat McEnroe get his come-uppance, Lendl was our savior. But when Nadal wins, he more often than not ruins the storyline that most people want to see. Among the top four men in tennis, everyone wants to see Federer win to see how many more Grand Slams he can win; they want to see Andy Murray win to become Great Britain's first tennis champion in eighty years, and they want to see Novak Djokovic win because he's just so darn funny and likable. So when Nadal defeats these guys, instead of receiving the love, he instead earns scorn for ruining the storybook ending we would rather have seen.



It's a shame, because Nadal himself is very likable. He might be a little OCD, and the butt-picking is more than we can take, but the way that he shows concern for his opponents right after he crushes their dreams is genuinely touching. And the fact that he modestly refuses to believe that he is better than Roger Federer, even though he routinely beats him, is a sign of inspiring maturity. But for some reason, it just doesn't work. We just can't work ourselves up to love Nadal, or to cheer for him to win. Maybe one day it will all change; maybe the storyline will shift, and Nadal will become the underdog for whom we'll cheer. But it's going to take a lot for that to happen, and at this point, we wouldn't count on it.

Same Story, Different Day

Well, we thought we were going to see something different at this year's French Open. Novak Djokovic was having the tennis year of his life, even beating Rafael Nadal twice in the finals of clay court tournaments, Nadal was a little shaky on clay for the first time in his career, and Federer was safely out of play in the rare, (for him), #3 position. So the dream story was being written; everyone was hoping for a Djokovic/Nadal French Open final where Djokovic might just do the unthinkable: beat Nadal in the finals.

But it was not to be, and in the end, we reverted back to the same old script of the past few years, with unfortunately, the same sad, disappointing result. Federer defeated Djokovic in the semi-finals, and then met Nadal in the finals today where Federer did what he always does, he just folded under the pressure and just went away. Federer started off the first set like a man possessed, totally controlling the match, racing out to a 5-2 lead. But then, as he always does against Nadal on clay, he just disappeared before our very eyes. Fucker! Nadal won the next eight games in a row, and went on to win the match in four sets. With his victory, Nadal won his sixth French Open, tying the great Bjorn Borg with the most all-time wins at Roland Garros.

We'll never understand how the greatest player in the sport, Federer, can just completely fold against only one player, Nadal, on only one surface, clay. And Federer disappointed us twice this week, first by interrupting the better story which would have been a Djokovic/Nadal final, and then, second, by losing so quickly, once again, in the final. But now that we've gotten our anger out at Roger, we can give him a little credit. He has made the finals of the French Open four times, which would arguably make him currently the second best player on clay, and certainly in the top ten of all time, and he's not the only great player in the sport to have an career achilles heel. McEnroe, Connors and Sampras never won the French, Borg never won the U.S. Open, and Lendl never won Wimbledon. Federer did win the French in 2009, just not against Nadal in the final. So even though Roger definitely disappointed us in the past couple of days, he's still probably the greatest player of all time, and nothing will ever take that away from him. Okay, now, everyone feel better? Right, now, on to Wimbledon!

A Different Kind of History

Well, history is indeed being made at this year's French Open, but not the kind we expected. We really thought Novak Djokovic would extend his unbeaten win streak for 2011, not only breaking John McEnroe's 1984 record of a 42-0 start to a year, but would also win his first French Open title. Wrong.

Unfortunately for Djokovic, it seems that Roger Federer didn't like the fact that he's been considered an afterthought for most of this year, and he took out all his frustrations yesterday in the semi-finals on Novak. Federer beat Djokovic in four sets, ending Novak's win streak at 41 straight matches, and set up another Federer/Nadal Grand Slam final.

What was unusual about the match was the emotion with which Federer played. Always stoic, always one to keep his emotions bottled up on the court, Federer was in rare form yesterday, screaming and yelling at times, leaving no doubt to the thousands of crazed, screaming French fans that this match meant a lot to him. And when he won, Federer held up a "#1" finger, wagging it in the air, almost to say to the tennis world, "Now who's the best player in the world?" If you missed the match, we're sorry, because John McEnroe and many others commented that it was one of the best matches Federer had ever played; and for a storied career like his, that's saying a lot.

There's a lot on the line tomorrow in the Federer/Nadal final. If Nadal wins, he'll tie Bjorn Borg's record of six French titles, and if Federer wins, it will be his second French, and 19th Grand Slam title overall. But it'll be a tough one for Federer, he's never beaten Nadal at the French Open.

History was made today over on the women's side when Li Na defeated Italy's Francesca Schiavone to become the first Chinese player, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament. Something like 50 million Chinese people were watching the match on t.v. today; something tells us that in about five years, there will be a whole pack of young Chinese girls coming up through the ranks of the tennis world.

One last note on Novak Djokovic's win streak. As we said before, he only needed one more win to tie McEnroe's 27 year-old record, and if Fabio Fognini hadn't pulled out of the quarterfinals with an injury, we're almost certain Djokovic would have had it. It's a shame that he lost the record on a fluke.

The Vampire Sharapova Rises... Where's a Wooden Stake When You Need One?

We're down to the semi-finals at The 2011 French Open, and the men and women seemed to have switched places in the tennis world in the past few years. All through the 1980's and 90's, in the four Grand Slam tournaments of the year, you could almost always count on the top four seeded women making the semi-finals, while the men were all over the place, the top seeds losing in the early rounds, putting some strange, unexpected players in the semis. Now it's flipped; while the top four men in the sport, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Murray almost always seem to find their places in the semi-finals, this year's French no exception, on the women's side it's a free-for-all. Today's semifinalists on the women's side of The French Open are the 11th seed playing the 5th seed, (Bartoli vs. Schiavone), and the 6th seed playing the 7th seed, (Li vs. Sharapova). The women's tour is definitely going through a transition period, with the past decade's top players, Serena, Venus, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin leaving the game, with no younger players yet ready to dominate the next era of the sport.

When it comes to Novak Djokovic breaking John McEnroe's 1984 record of a 42-0 win streak to start the year, it just got a little trickier. When Djokovic won his 4th Round match, his record for the year stood at 41-0. His unseeded, almost unknown opponent in the quarterfinals, Fabio Fognini, looked to be an easy win for Djokovic, which would give Djokovic a tie with McEnroe's twenty-seven year-old record. But then Fognini pulled out of the tournament, which put Djokovic in the semi-finals, but Djokovic wasn't given credit for the win, keeping his record for the year at 41-0. So now to tie McEnroe's record, Djokovic has to defeat Roger Federer in the semi-finals, ouch!, and to break the record he'll have to beat, (probably), Rafael Nadal in the finals. Double ouch. It's a tough haul, but something tells us that Djokovic will do it.

And speaking of the women's side of tennis, would someone, please, for the love of god defeat Maria Sharapova? Watching this woman's game is painful; watching her play actually makes us hurt. Sharapova, who already holds three Grand Slam titles, is experiencing a career resurgence after being away from the game for awhile due to injuries. But she has to be the single most obnoxious player in the sport of tennis. It's not the fact that she loudly barks like a seal everytime she strikes the ball that's so annoying, although that is very annoying, no, it's Maria's
"gamesmanship" which is so torturous. Sharapova is determined to slow the game down, (she plays better when the pace of the game is slow), and so after every single point she takes the maximum amount of time allowed before serving. It makes watching her play even less exciting than watching paint dry. But where Maria deserves a slap on the wrist is when she subtly breaks one of the first rules of tennis, which states that the receiver must play at the speed of the server. In other words, when you're receiving, it's your responsiblity to be on the line, ready to receive the serve when the server is ready to serve. Instead, Maria turns her back on the server after every point, pretending to adjust her racket strings, forcing the server to wait. She's not technically breaking a rule, but the tactic is rude and obnoxious. We're hoping that at some point in their semi-final match that Li Na will go ahead and serve the ball to a back-turned Sharapova and whack her right in the back of the head. It might not correct Sharapova's unsportsmanlike behavior, but it would certainly make us feel better. Come on, Li, we're begging you!

The Greatest "Trivalry" in Sports

Novak Djokovic beat Richard Gasquet in straight sets today at The French Open, putting him at 41-0 for the year, and just one win away from tying John McEnroe's record of starting the 1984 year with a 42-0 win streak.

But Djokovic isn't the only man making tennis history this week. There's still another player in the tournament you might have heard of named Roger Federer. Federer defeated his Swiss countrymen, Stanislas Wawrinka today, putting him in the quarterfinals, and remarkably, he has now made at least the quarterfinals of 28 straight Grand Slam tournaments. That's an incredible record. If not for Federer's two losses last year in the quarterfinals of the French and Wimbledon, Federer would have made 28 straight Major semi-finals.

But Federer's 28 quarterfinals pales in comparison to the all-time record, held by Chris Evert. Evert, in a stretch from 1971 to 1983, made at least the semi-finals of all 34 Grand Slam tournaments she entered. That's a stunning achievement in sport.

(chris evert)

With Djokovic now finally beating Federer and Nadal consistently, we have a three-way domination of the sport of tennis. Mary Carillo, commenting today at The French Open for NBC, coined a new term for the Federer/Nadal/Djokovic stranglehold on tennis; she said that "we no longer have a rivalry in tennis, we have a 'trivalry'." Clever.

Only Three Wins Away

It looks like tennis history is about to be made. All eyes were on the Novak Djokovic/Juan Martin del Potro match yesterday, (and today), at the French Open. Why was their match so hyped? Because since 2005, only two players other than Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal have won Grand Slam tournaments, those two players being Djokovic and del Potro. Djokovic won this year's Australian Open, as well as the one in 2008, and del Potro won last year's U.S. Open. So if anybody had a chance to end Djokovic's unbeaten season, everyone guessed it might be the Argentine star. But it was not to be. Djokovic is playing like a man obsessed, and he took out del Potrol in four sets. Djokovic is now at 40-0 for the year, only three wins away from breaking John McEnroe's 1984 record.

John McEnroe stated last week that he thought Djokovic's win streak was already better than his in 1984 because the depth of competition in tennis is so much greater now. McEnroe also said today, while commenting on the tennis match on NBC, that he wasn't even aware that he held the all-time record for best starts to a year, but in vintage McEnroe style, he stated he was happy for the publicity.

Next up for Djokovic is the French player, Richard Gasquet, who is enjoying a career resurgence after being banned from the sport for two years for cocaine use. But as good as Gasquet is, (he has one of the most beautiful backhands in tennis), we don't think he'll beat Djokovic. We'll soon see, they play tomorrow.

It's All or Nothing This Week

It's all or nothing this week for Novak Djokovic. Almost everyone now knows about his quest to break John McEnroe's 27 year-old record of a best start to a tennis year. McEnroe's record from 1984 is 42-0.

The French Open started yesterday, the second Grand Slam of the year, and just minutes ago Djokovic won his first round match of the tournament, upping his win streak for the year to 38-0. McEnroe's streak ended in 1984 in the finals of the French Open.

With no American tennis stars currently in the sport, Americans don't follow tennis closely anymore, and most Americans have never heard of Novak Djokovic. But a lot of sports writers have recently mentioned that when it comes to sports, Americans do love their statistics, and so even though they don't know Djokovic, they've now heard of his unbelievable "win streak". A lot of people will be watching Djokovic's every match this week to see if he can break McEnroe's record.



On a much sadder sports note, last night CBS's "60 Minutes" aired their much-hyped interview with Tyler Hamilton, Lance Armstrong's former cycling teammate. Hamilton leveled new charges that Armstrong had, indeed, "doped" while winning his seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong wasted no time this morning in denying the charges, but many have suspected for years that the sport of cycling has been rife with "doping" for some time. All we can say is that if Armstrong is found guilty of doping, not only will he spend some time in prison, but he will destroy his image as one of America's greatest sports heroes. Hamilton also admitted to doping, and last week he surrendered the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal that he won in Athens.

Djokovic: King of the World

When your career as a pro athlete is on a red hot high, and the whole world is watching your every move, doors open. And what do you do when those doors open? If you're Novak Djokovic, you walk through them. Just this week alone, Djokovic has shown up at The Cannes Film Festival with his gorgeous girlfriend on his arm, and he's now appearing in Vogue Magazine, shot by the famous fashion photographer Norman Jean Roy. It's all very glamorous, but in just a few days, Djokovic has go to work at The French Open, where he'll try to break John McEnroe's 27 year old record of a 42-0 start to a tennis year. Djokovic is currently at 37-0 for the year, but something tells us he might gladly give up the record if he could only win The French Open, where he's never been beyond the semi-finals.

On a related note, we were alerted to Novak's Vogue Magazine appearance while reading one of our favorite websites, Tennis.com, where an associate editor for Tennis Magazine, Sarah Thurmond, wrote what has to be one of the dumbest articles we've ever read. We're not sure how Miss Thurmond got her job as a writer, but having an enlightened world view is not one of the reasons. She cranks on about how Norman Jean Roy shot Djokovic and fellow Serbian tennis star, Ana Ivanovic, (we're guessing she doesn't even know who Norman Jean Roy is), and she complains about the swimsuits the two are wearing, even describing Djokovic's bikini as a "stereotypical Eurotrash swimsuit". Wow. Someone might want to tell Miss Thurmond that Europeans don't really like being called "Eurotrash" any better than she would like to be called a "dumb, white redneck", and someone might want to tell her there's a big ol' world out there, beyond the boundaries of her Wal-Mart parking lot, and incredibly, all those people in "them other counties" aren't beholden to our naive and sometimes backward American views of sexuality and prudishness about our bodies. She might be shocked to find out that someone like Novak Djokovic, (a European), might, not only wear a Speedo in the pages of Vogue, but also might actually wear one on a real beach while swimming, and no one, other than Miss Thurmond would give it a second thought. Put down that strawberry douche and can of "Viennie" sausages you found on sale at your local Wal-Mart, Miss Thurmond, and get your head out of your ass.

Can He Do It?

The remarkable sports story of Novak Djokovic just gets better and better.

Here's the deal, for all of you who don't follow tennis. For the past decade, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have dominated the men's game, with everyone else playing the roles of "afterthoughts", or just slightly annoying people who Federer and Nadal had to beat to make it to the finals of another tournament. First Federer was unbeatable for two or three years, then Nadal finally, slowly figured out how to beat Federer, first on clay, then on every other surface. And so for the past two years, Federer and Nadal have jockeyed back and forth for the #1 ranking. And even though Novak Djokovic was in third place in the rankings behind Federer and Nadal, he was always a very distant third, not really a contender to ever consistently beat the top two players.

And then something happened this year, Djokovic is unbeaten for the year, and has now defeated Federer and Nadal three and four times, respectively. How did this happen, you might ask. Well, Federer got a little older and his invincibility began to wain, and while Nadal had spent so much time figuring out how to take down Federer, he evidently didn't pay much attention to the games of others, namely, Djokovic, coming up behind him. But Djokovic also played a part in gaining his new status as the best player in the game. He matured; he stopped throwing his shirt into the stands after matches, and he stopped imitating the other players to laughs from the crowds. And with his new mental and emotional maturity seemed to come a new maturity in his game.

One week ago, at the Madrid Open, Djokovic did the unthinkable, he beat Nadal on his unbeatable surface of clay, in Nadal's home country, no less. But it was even more unthinkable that Djokovic could beat in today's Italian Open final, which would mean that he would defeat Nadal, the best clay court player in the world, in two clay tournaments, back to back. But he did it. And not only did he do it, but today, he made Nadal look like a struggling amateur.

And, of course, as we've been saying for the past few days, at stake today was Djokovic's unbeaten win streak for 2011, which after today's win, now stands at 37 straight matches. He's only five matches away from tying John McEnroe's record of 42 straight matches to start the 1984 season.

Next up for Djokovic is The French Open, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, which starts one week from today. All eyes will be on Novak next week in Paris, not only to see if he can break McEnroe's record, but also to see if can win his first French Open. But also going for the win in Paris will be Rafael Nadal, which would be his sixth championship at Roland Garros Stadium and would tie him with the great Bjorn Borg for winning the most French Opens. So guess which two players we want to see in the finals? Oh yeah, let's pray for tennis heaven next week.

The Streak Continues, Part II

Yes, Novak Djokovic looks as crazy as a Glenn Beck fan who just listened to Fox News call Obama a socialist in this shot from today's Italian Open in Rome, but it's fitting, he's on one, very crazy win streak. Djokovic narrowly defeated Andy Murray in the semifinals just a few minutes ago, after being two points from defeat at one point in the third set, and now his win streak for the year stands at 36-0. He's just six wins away from tying John McEnroe's all-time year-opening win streak of 42-0 in 1984. The only bad news is that now, Djokovic, has to play Rafael Nadal, the best clay court player in the world, in the finals of the tournament less than 24 hours from now.

Going For The Record

We're nearing the end of the Italian Open Tennis Championship, and Novak Djokovic is, as we write this, in the quarterfinals, and his win streak for the year now stands at 34-0. Djokovic now trails only John McEnroe for having the best all-time start to a tennis year; McEnroe started the 1984 year with a 42-0 record. To overtake McEnroe's record, Djokovic will have to win this week's Italian Open, which probably means he'll have to play Nadal in the finals, and he'll have to make it to the quarterfinals of next week's biggie, The French Open. We're rooting for the very likable Djokovic; he spent all those years in the shadows of Federer and Nadal, so it's satisfying to see him finally break through and take the spotlight for himself, not to mention a possible #1 world ranking.





There's a little jinx danger, though, in comparing Djokovic to McEnroe's fabled year of 1984 and his run of 42 straight matches, primarily because of what happened in McEnroe's 43rd match of that year. McEnroe had never won the French Open, and in his 43rd match of the year, he found himself in the finals of the Grand Slam tournament, with a 2-0 sets lead over Ivan Lendl, who had yet to win his first Grand Slam tournament. It looked like a done deal, McEnroe would win the French, and combined with his later wins that year at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, would have given McEnroe one of the greatest years of all time in tennis. (He wouldn't have won the Grand Slam because he didn't compete that year in the Australian Open). But suddenly the wheels came off. Lendl came back from two sets down to steal the championship match away from McEnroe, dashing McEnroe's dreams of a French Open title, which no American man had won since 1955, and ended his win streak that year at 42 straight matches. After that French loss, McEnroe won his next 21 matches, which coupled with a win at the French, would have given him a stunning win streak of 64 matches, a record which probably never would have been broken.

UPDATE: Make that 35-0. Djokovic won his match today against Robin Soderling. Djokovic is now only seven matches away from tying McEnroe's record.

The Streak Continues

While most of America's sports fans this week are focused on the NBA play-offs, there's an even bigger sports story brewing in the world of tennis. Tennis has fallen out of favor with American sports fans in the past few years, mainly because there are no longer any American stars in the sport. This week it was announced that no American man or woman would be in the Top Ten of the world rankings next week, the first time this has happened since the pro rankings began in the sport in the early 1970's.

But thanks to players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the sport of tennis is still thriving, regardless of whether Americans pay attention or not. Federer is slowly beginning to slip from the top of the game, but that's not the big story this week. The big news this week is coming from Novak Djokovic, who yesterday beat Rafael Nadal in the finals of the Madrid Open, Nadal's "home court". All the big Spanish sports stars, former #1 Carlos Moya, soccer pin-up boy Ronaldo Cristiano, and former Wimbledon, U.S. Open and French champion Manolo Santana, were there to watch their hometown boy, but their support for Nadal was in vain. Djokovic's win was an important milestone in his career; it was the first time, in ten tries, that he defeated Nadal on Nadal's strongest surface of clay. But that's still not the big story. The real news is that Djokovic is currently 32-0 for 2011. That's right, no one has defeated Djokovic this year, which means he's won every tournament he's entered, including the Australian Open, Indian Wells and the Sony Ericsson Open. Djokovic's win streak is no fluke, either; he's defeated the other top two players, Federer and Nadal, three times each, (an unbelievable accomplishment), in the course of winning five tournaments. His win yesterday enabled Djokovic to surpass Bjorn Borg on the all-time record of "best starts" for the year; Borg started the 1980 season with 31 straight wins. But Djokovic still trails the all-time record holder, John McEnroe, who started the 1984 season with 42 straight wins. Next up for Djokovic is this week's Italian Open in Rome, where all eyes will be on the Serbian star week to see if he can extend his record-breaking win streak.

T.V. Round-Up

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Over the past few days, it was hard to keep an eye on our regular t.v. viewing, as March Madness was in full swing. And is it just us, or are there more really close games in the first week of the NCAA Tournament than there used to be? Many basketball experts have been saying that there's more parity in college basketball than ever before, and we believe it. In past years of the NCAA tournament, the buzzer beaters didn't occur until the later rounds, now they're happening in the games with the #1 vs. the #16 seeds. And that finish of the Butler-Pittsburgh game was the most bizarre we've ever seen.
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Lost in the madness of college basketball was another sports milestone that took place on Sunday. Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in the finals of the Indian Wells championship, which clearly cemented Djokovic's claim as the top player of 2011 and puts him in a great place to challenge for the upcoming French Open. He's already won the Australian Open this season and currently stands at 18-0 for the year. Also, Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in the semi-finals, which allowed Djokovic to overtake Federer in the point standings for the #2 world ranking.
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But let's get back to real t.v. We were greatly anticipating Kathy Griffin's new Bravo stand-up special, "Kathy Griffin: 50 and Not Pregnant", which premiered last week. But as much as we hate to say it, it was a disappointment. Griffin's delivery is still razor-sharp, but the material in this special was mostly stuff retread from previous specials, and so the jokes sounded stale. At this point, Kathy Griffin bringing up Sarah Palin and Whitney Houston just doesn't have the same punch that it did a few years ago. We love ya, Kathy, but you gotta find some new celebrity targets and some new material.
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The comedy that definitely did not disappoint was HBO's broadcast of Pee Wee Herman's broadway show, "The Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway". The broadway show is basically a revisiting of his old Saturday morning show from many years ago, which itself was based on a stage show he performed for many years in L.A. Some have said his material was as stale as Kathy Griffin's, but unlike Griffin's stuff, it's been twenty years since we've seen the Herman man-child in his playhouse. So his material seems fresh again, plus in this most recent show, there seemed to be a few more adult double entendres we don't remember from the past. The show was clever and witty, and we loved it. Our favorite moments included Miss Yvonne's pining for Cowboy Curtis as she applied her make-up, and the death of Sham-Wow. So funny. Looks like we can pull out that Pee Wee Herman Fan Club Membership Card we ordered out of the back of Rolling Stone Magazine in 1982. We're not kidding on that one.
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But maybe the best t.v. moment of the past few days was on last night's "Celebrity Apprentice" in which Star Jones said she "wasn't going to be the boss any longer", to which Nene told her, "Yes, you will." Nene secretly told the camera that Star is not happy unless she's the boss and telling everyone else what to do. Only moments later, Star was back in front of the ladies being bossy and telling everyone else what to do. Nene was off-camera, laughing her ass off.

Djokivic Finally Wins

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The Australian Open came to an end earlier today with a stunning smackdown of Andy Murray by Novak Djokovic in straight sets. Murray looked mentally absent for most of the match, and in the end, it wasn't even close.
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This is Djokovic's second Grand Slam win; he won his first in 2008, also at The Aussie Open.
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Djokovic is hoping to finally shake-off that long-time #3 World Ranking and move into the Top Two, but it's going to be tough. So dominant have Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal been in tennis in the past decade that this final today marked only the seventh Grand Slam final since 2002, (33 championships), that had neither Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal as a competitor. And Djokovic is now only the first man since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002, other than Federer or Nadal, to win more than one Grand Slam title.

The Changing of the Guard... For Real This Time

Ever since Roger Federer began to dominate men's tennis a few years back, there was the question of how long his reign would last. We might have finally seen the end of it this summer.
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(rafael nadal holds the u.s. open trophy yesterday)
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Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic yesterday in the finals of the U.S. Open, giving Nadal his first U.S. Open title and his ninth grand slam title overall. With his win, Nadal also became only the seventh tennis player in history to win all four Grand Slam tournaments. The only question, now, for Nadal, is how far will he go?
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Roger Federer first won the #1 ranking in Feb. 2004, and until this summer, had never fallen lower than #2. But with his semi-final loss to Djokovic a few days ago, Federer slipped to #3. And at age 29, Roger's dominant reign might be finally coming to an end. Can he still win another Grand Slam? Absolutely; in fact, he could still win several more. But this is about Nadal. How many more Grand Slams can Rafael Nadal win?
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(federer and djokovic, the winner and runner-up at the 2007 u.s. open)
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At age 24, Nadal already has three more Grand Slams than Federer did at 24, but this is why we think Rafael won't break Federer's record of 16 Slams. Nadal plays a very physically demanding game which is incredibly fatiguing and taxing on his body; he's already had a stomach tear and knee problems. Federer's game is much more smooth; at the end of some matches he looked like he had barely perspired, the result being that Federer has enjoyed a longevity in the game that we don't think Nadal will. In other words, we think Nadal's body will give out long before he can threaten Federer's record. But only time will tell.