INDIAN WELLS '12: Improbable Federer-Isner Final!

In a day of shocking upsets, John Isner won the biggest match of his life to become the first American male player in four years to defeat a  reigning #1 player in the world (Novak Djokovic) in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells 7-6(7) 3-6 7-6(5). With his win, Isner cemented his entry into the ATP Tour Top 10 for the first time, and also secured that he will receive the biggest paycheck of his tennis career on Sunday, where the finalist receives $500,000 and the Champion gets a cool $1 million.

Isner now has a win over World #1 Djokovic and World #3 Roger Federer (on clay in Switzerland in Davis Cup) for 2012 and will be playing in his very first ATP Masters Series final. Last year, Djokovic did not lose a second match until August 21 when he retired with a shoulder injury against Andy Murray in the Cincinnati Masters Final.

Semifinals Review
Djokovic did not play badly on Saturday but was clearly not at his best; his groundstrokes did not have the usual penetrating  pop (or accuracy) and he became uncharacteristically tentative at crucial moments in the match. After breaking Isner in the very first game, Djokovic served for the first set at 5-4 and opened the game with a momentum-sapping double fault which eventually resulted in dropping his serve and evening the opening set at 5-all. This gave Isner confidence and he was able to get to the tie-break where he served a string of 140-plus mph serves, including an ace on set point at 8-7 in the tiebreak. Djokovic, on the other hand, repeatedly refused to be aggressive from the ground late in the tension-filled tiebreak and paid the ultimate price. Djokovic was able to win the 2nd set when he broke Isner late in the set but he never looked completely comfortable and Isner was able to basically hold his own from the ground, even when he was not serving bombs (although the American did end with 21 aces on the day). So, it was not that big of a surprise when Isner finished his biggest win of his career to date with another ace in another tiebreak on his very first match point.

And that was just the warm-up match for Federer-Nadal XXVIII! Since Nadal owns an 18-9 advantage over Federer and a 5-1 in outdoor hard courts, not very many people expected this match to be competitive, predicting an easy win for the higher ranked player. The match ended up being postponed for 3 hours due to rain and when it started the wind was incredible, with gusts up to 25 mph. One would have thought the conditions would have made it even tougher for the play with the one-handed backhand, but for some reason Federer came out firing and quickly raced out to a 3-0 lead. Nadal fought back and evened up things at 3-all, but then Federer held serve and broke the Spaniard and served out the first set 6-3. In the second set, Federer broke early and nursed his serve to scores of 3-1 and 4-2 and then broke Nadal to go up 5-2 and serve for the match. Nadal promptly broke back and drizzle started to fall. However, Nadal was able to hold and so Federer served for the match for a second time at 5-4, rushing to finish the match before the deluge came. However, at 30-all, a long point ensued which was won by Federer to set up a match point when the skies opened up and play was stopped on match point for Federer (6-3, 5-4, 40-30). After 4 minutes the players resumed play and Federer served a 120-plus mph ace out wide to seal his first outdoor hard-court victory since the very first time he played Nadal in 2005. Federer improved to 10 wins out of 28 matches played, and nosed ahead in their hard-court head-to-head, getting a modicum of revenge for his 2012 Australian Open semifinal loss to his arch-nemesis.

Final Preview
Federer and Isner are two very improbable finalists at the 2012 BNP Paribas Masters at Indian Wells, since last year World #1 and World #2 played in the final and most people expected that would happen again, especially the organizers. I'm sure they are not disappointed the soon-to-be top ranked American is playing in his first Masters Series final at their tournament but again, probably very few people give him a chance to win.

Head-to-head, Federer and Isner have only played 3 times (2007, 2010 and 2012) in their career with the 30-year-old Swiss leading his 26-year-old American opponent 2-1, having won both the hard-court matches and inexplicably lost their indoor clay court match. Federer has been playing excellent tennis for quite awhile, and has won 5 of the last 7 tournaments he has played in. Federer has also shown that he is able to dismantle the game of hard-serving Americans before (*cough*Andy Roddick *cough*) but Isner is probably a smarter and more effective server now than Roddick was at his peak but he is a MUCH less agile mover, both characteristics attributable to his 6'9", 245-pound frame. If Isner has an incredible serving day, he could totally take the winning decision completely out of Federer's hands (similar to Federer's shocking loss at Wimbledon last year to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga). It definitely helps Isner that he knows he CAN beat Federer, since he did it a little less than a month ago.

As a 16-time major champion Federer is playing for history (as usual); if he wins this match he will win his 4th Indian Wells Masters title, and tie Nadal at the top of the record books with 19 ATP Masters shields apiece. Federer has a very good record of 72 wins and 30 losses in ATP Tour finals compared to Isner's 3 wins and 5 losses. I just doubt whether Isner has the instinct to really dig deep and do what he needs to do to beat Federer in the biggest match of his life, one day after he just played and won the biggest match of his life, where regardless of what happens he will earn more money in one day (he is also playing in the doubles final!) then he won all year in several of his years on tour.

MadProfessah's Prediction: Federer.

INDIAN WELLS 2012: Azarenka-Sharapova Final Set

In a rematch of the first grand slam final of the year, World #1 Victoria Azarenka will face World #2 Maria Sharapova in the championship match of the 2012 Indian Wells tournament on Sunday. Azarenka won her first major final in that Australian Open final over Sharapova 6-3 6-0 and in fact has not lost a match all year long, she is 22-0 so far, netting 3 titles (Sydney, Melbourne and Doha). Azarenka has been playing excellent tennis after her first match in the desert, and nearly double-bageled World #5 Agnieska Radwanska two rounds ago, in the quarterfinal, eventually winning 6-0 6-2. In the semifinals, Azarenka dispatched red-hot Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-3. Sharapova advanced when a back-to-form Ana Ivanovic was forced to retire at the beginning of the second set after having lost the first set to the Russian.

Sharapova will almost certainly be gunning for revenge against the player who forced her to eat a bagel in a grand slam championship match just 6 weeks ago. Azarenka leads their career head-to-head 4-3 and has won both of their championship final matches (Miami 2011 and Melbourne 2012).

I had previously predicted that Sharapova would beat Azarenka in the Australian Open, mostly because I didn't think Azarenka would win her first major final and clinch #1 so quickly. However, Azarenka showed her mental toughness to the whole world, and coupled with her impressive physical prowess she has begun to optimize her tennis results.

MadProfessah's Prediction: Azarenka (in 3 sets).

Saturday Politics: Closeted L.A. Congressman Retires

David Dreier, has been in the U.S. House since 1981

David Dreier has represented the 26th Congressional District of California as a Republican since 1981. He has also been repeatedly outed in the media as a closeted gay man. Due to redistricting in California, Dreier's district was carved into thirds and section of it moved into other districts which were heavily Democratic, leaving the longtime incumbent with no U.S. House district in which to seek re-election, so he announced his retirement from Congress this week.

Dreier is the sixth California House member to announce plans to retire when his term ends, shaking up a delegation that has built up clout on Capitol Hill because of its stability over the years.

[...]

Dreier's announcement was not a surprise. The California Citizens Redistricting Commission's new map collapsed his district into three new ones.

Two of the newly drawn districts — both based in the San Gabriel Valley — are solidly Democratic with large ethnic voter populations.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) is running in one with a strong concentration of Asian voters, and Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) has moved into the other, which includes Dreier's San Dimas home and where Latinos make up 46% of registered voters.

The 59-year-old, unmarried Congressman has long been  rumored to gay. It will be interesting to see how long it takes him to come out of the closet officially after retires.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God.

Two Teenaged Killers Sentenced To Decades In Prison

The Los Angeles Times reports that Brandon McInerney was sentenced yesterday by a judge to 21 years in prison (without the possibility of early release due to the terms of the plea agreement with prosecutors) for the brutal killing of his middle-school classmate on February 12, 2008 so that he will be almost 39 years old when he leaves prison, having spent more than half his life behind bars.

Lawrence King's father Greg King read a statement in court before the sentencing in which he lambasted various groups and entities:

Though he holds McInerney responsible for shooting his son, King said the school's response since the shooting has been despicable.

District leaders have made no changes in policy or procedures, saying they are unnecessary because the school's staff followed the law in allowing Larry to augment his school uniform with women's accessories. To date, no formal changes have been made, although the school district paid $25,000 toward a $255,000 civil lawsuit settlement for King's family.

"It is obvious the school did something wrong," King spat out at the hearing. "Rather than learning from it and striving to make a safer environment for our children, they hid behind lawyers."

McInerney's neck grew flushed as King spoke. The teenager, whose feet were shackled and who wore a white T-shirt and baggy blue pants, declined to make a statement. But his attorney, Scott Wippert, said his client was remorseful.

"He has stated repeatedly that if he could go back and take back his act, he would do it in a heartbeat,'' Wippert said as his client sat silently. "He lives with this every day, every night."

The attorney said McInerney also apologized to the King family, to his own family and to classmates in the computer lab where he pulled a .22-caliber handgun out of a backpack and shot King at point-blank range. Some of his former classmates were in court Monday, wiping tears from their eyes.

Greg King also addressed his son's killer directly, saying: “You took upon yourself to be a bully and to hate a smaller kid, wanting to be a big man on campus,” Greg King told McInerney. “You have left a hole in my heart where Larry was and it can never be filled.”


Bizarrely, today, just one day after the McInerney sentencing, another teenage killer, Tom Lore Vinson was sentenced to 155(!) years for the accidental killing of 16-year-old high school honor student Melody Ross while shooting at two rival gang members October 31, 2009.

Is what Vinson did 7 time worse than what Brandon McInerney did? Why is his sentence 7 times longer then?

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm!

Prosecutor Decides To Retry Brandon McInerney (As An Adult)

Lawrence King (left) and the person who shot him to death, Brandon McInerney 

Well, this is interesting news. Last month a mistrial was declared in the first trial of Brandon McInerney for the murder of Lawrence King. MadProfessah was ashamed at the result and implored prosecutors to retry McInerney for the point blank shooting of his middle school classmate in February 2008.

Today comes word that prosecutors will again try McInerney as an adult for the crime, but will drop the hate crime charge, basically making the wrong choice TWICE. Many LGBT activists like myself insist that the murder was a hate crime, because it is clear that McInerney targeted King for death because of his gender identity. However, since both boys were under 18 years old (McInerney had barely turned 14 at the time of the crime) there are also many LGBT activists who disagree with the decision to try him as an adult.

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

Prosecutors on Wednesday announced their intention to pursue a murder charge in adult court against 17-year-old Brandon McInerney. However, a hate crime charge will be dropped, Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said.

Last month, a judge declared a mistrial after a nine-woman, three-man panel couldn't reach a unanimous decision on the degree of McInerney's guilt for killing 15-year-old Larry King. After a series of votes, seven jurors were in favor of a voluntary manslaughter conviction, while five others supported either first-degree or second-degree murder.

Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell set a Nov. 21 trial date, according to Fox, but it's unclear if it will be held in Ventura County. The first trial was moved to Los Angeles County due to pretrial publicity.

McInerney was 14 in February 2008, when he is accused of killing King at E.O. Green Junior High School during a computer lab class.

Prosecutors contend McInerney embraced a white supremacist philosophy that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Police found Nazi-inspired drawings and artifacts at his house, and a white supremacist expert testified at trial the hate-filled ideology was the reason for the killing.

Authorities maintained the shooting was premeditated and deserving of a murder conviction. During the trial, Fox noted at least six people heard McInerney make threats against King in the days leading to the shooting.

Defense attorneys acknowledged that McInerney was the shooter but explained that he had reached an emotional breaking point after King made repeated, unwanted sexual advances. They also have argued that juvenile court would be the best venue to try their client.

The reactions from the LGBT community to this news will not be good.

WATCH: Local TV Coverage of Anti-Gay Mistrial

The suspected mistrial in the McInerney trial from last night is confirmed. Apparently 7 jurors wanted voluntary manslaughter and 5 wanted murder and neither side was willing to budge to come to a unanimous verdict. Prosecutors have to decide whether to go through the cost and effort of a new trial or to offer a slightly less severe plea bargain. It does look like McInerney will spend at least several years in jail, at least. I personally would be happy with a sentence of 10-25 years.

I disagree with those who say that both young men were victims of bad circumstances. Bullsh*t! One of them is dead, killed at the hands of another, in a purely premeditated fashion. He needs to pay a severe price for such heinous actions.

SHAME: Hung Jury In Trial Of Gay Teen's Killer

Madness! Apparently the jury in the trial of Brandon McInerney for the killing of teen age Lawrence King who was widely perceived as gay (even though he was probably transgender) is unlikely to reach a verdict even though they have only been deliberating since last Friday.

The defense has released all sorts of information to paint the confessed killer in as a favorable a light as possible with the jury, including the fact that the fellow teenager was abused by his alcoholic and violent father (who is now dead). The defense has also put the onus on King, claiming that he was the aggressor in the relationship with McInerney, a "gay panic defense" which has sent LGBT blogs hissing with anger, and may be illegal under California law.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Jurors weighing the fate of an Oxnard teenager accused of killing a gay classmate indicated Thursday that it is unlikely they will be able to reach a verdict in the high-profile case.

But the judge hearing the case indicated it is likely he will ask jurors to continue their deliberations, even though they have already taken votes – two of which were 8 to 4 and a third was 9 to 3. Jurors did not indicate whether they were leaning toward guilt or acquittal.

Jurors in the case, in which Brandon McInerney fatally shot 15-year-old Larry King in a junior high school computer lab, were ordered earlier Thursday to continue deliberating despite the failed votes.

If there’s a mistrial, it would bring to a close a trial that has been followed closely by gay-rights groups that have fought hard to protect gay and transgendered students from campus bullying.

But as the weeks of testimony continued and a more nuanced portrait emerged of what was happening at E.O. Green Junior High before the shooting, it also raised a host of thorny questions.

The prosecution says it was a calculated murder carried out in part because McInerney was exploring white supremacist ideology and didn't like homosexuals.

Defense attorneys painted a different picture, that of a bright but abused 14-year-old who snappedafter being sexually harassed by King.

Asked Thursday by Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell when it was possible the jury could reach a decision with more time, the forewoman of the panel said “I suppose it’s possible.”

She indicated, though, that it was seemed “unlikely” jurors would come to an agreement in the case.

Jurors also asked for a clarification in jury instructions pertaining to “what is a person of average disposition” and “what does it mean to act rashly.”

The jury began deliberating Friday, weighing eight weeks of testimony in a trial that included nearly 100 witnesses. Many of those testifying were students and teachers at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard who saw tensions on campus rising after King began coming to school dressed in makeup and girl's boots.

If it is true that the jury is unable to reach a verdict and McInerney will not face any criminal sanctions that will be a devastating loss for LGBT youth in California and around the country.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

Jury Deliberating Anti-Gay Hate Crime Verdict

The trial of Brandon McInerney for the point-blank shooting (twice!) of fellow teenager Lawrence King has now reached the jury deliberation stage.

Towleroad posts the AP report:

"Jurors began their discussions on Friday to determine whether 17-year-old Brandon McInerney is guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard. The panel is expected to deliberate for only a couple of hours because a juror has a prior commitment...McInerney has pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder and a hate crime. If convicted, he faces more than 50 years in prison. Jurors also can consider a conviction of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 21-year term."

MadProfesssah has been following the story of this case very carefully, from the reports of the shooting, to the debate over whether the death penalty should be a factor and jury selection and now the trial itself.