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NEW YORK -- The US Open -- and the 2016 Grand Slam season -- are history.Sure, there are 15 WTA events left on the calendar and 14 on the mens side, plus the Davis Cup semifinals and final, but it all feels a little anticlimactic.As a public service, only 127 days before the first ball at the Australian Open, were going to give you tomorrows news today.Here are 10 bold predictions for the 2017 season:Rafa wins the French Open: After taking nine titles in 10 years at Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal has come up painfully short the past two years. He got to the quarters in 2015, but withdrew from this years tournament after his second-round match with a wrist injury. Healthy again, he plows through the field like its 2005. This gives Rafa 10 French Open titles, making him the first (and last?) to hit double digits in a single Slam. It is an immensely popular victory, akin to Roger Federers sentimental win at Wimbledon in 2012.A match made in ... Mercurial Australian Nick Kyrgios, in need of a coach, turns to equally mercurial American John McEnroe. Madness, fireworks -- and wonder of wonders -- great tennis ensues. Its such a crazy combination it actually works. But they part ways after Wimbledon, and McEnroe joins the camp of ... mercurial Frenchman Gael Monfils, another player he criticized here at the US Open.Serenas over-under: She won the first three Slams of 2015, but Williams has gone 1-for-5 since. After taking off the fall Asian swing, the 35-year-old resurfaces in 2017 and plays decently into the summer. Just as she did this year, Serena wins at Wimbledon -- the only major she will win -- giving her a stellar eight titles at the All England Club. Jay Z and Beyonce watch from the Royal Box.Noles over-under: Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, is still in his prime, even though he turns 30 before the French Open. He wins in Melbourne (for the seventh time, when the other 127 players in the draw abruptly withdraw), then takes the title at Wimbledon for his fourth. That pushes his Grand Slam singles total to 14, one behind Nadal -- who had just won the French a few weeks earlier -- and only three behind Federers all-time total.Halep and Raonic break through: Congratulations to your first-time Grand Slam winners. Simona Halep, who reached the final of Roland Garros in 2014, finally locks it down in Paris. Milos Raonic, a finalist at Wimbledon in 2016, finds a way to win in New York.Federer returns in style: No, he doesnt actually add to his Grand Slam singles titles, but just seeing Federer hovering effortlessly around on the worlds greatest courts is deeply comforting. He gets to the semis at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but thats as far as it goes.Vika makes a splash: After giving birth at the end of 2016, Victoria Azarenka, the 28-year-old mother, steps on the court in Cincinnati, where she was a champion four years earlier. This sets her up for a euphoric return to the Grand Slam stage in New York.Delpo stays healthy: Gangly Argentine?Juan Martin del Potro, survivor of four wrist surgeries, continues to progress. His confidence increases, and by the French Open, hes hitting those nasty, two-handed backhands that helped him win the 2009 US Open. Del Potro makes the final in New York again, but loses to Raonic.Surprise! Sharapovas back: Speaking of returns, Maria Sharapova gets her two-year sentence reduced via appeal. After serving one full year, she comes back for the spring clay campaign and is part of the draw in Paris, the only Slam where she is a two-time champion.Venus bids farewell: Venus Williams, at the age of 37, dominates the fall Asian circuit, winning three titles in China, then announces her retirement. She says shes done as a player, but will immediately begin coaching ... Nick Kyrgios. Stefen Wisniewski Jersey . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net. Neil Smith Jersey . Burke is expected to miss two to three months after breaking a finger in the teams third preseason game. Tinsley, a 10-year veteran, spent the last two seasons in Utah, where the point guard averaged 3. http://www.customchiefsjersey.com/custom-jim-lynch-jersey-large-716n.html . LeBron James and Chris Bosh didnt need any more. Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. Jackson Barton Jersey . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. Fred Arbanas Jersey . Then the Pacers gave Oladipo and his Orlando teammates the cold shoulder. Paul Georges buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter spurred a 21-4 run, finally sending Indiana past the Magic 97-87 in a tougher-than-expected opening night matchup. I am Australian. And I love cricket. So it is probably going to seem strange that the player I hate to love is Steve Waugh.But Australia is a complex nation, made up of six states and two territories and, as I sit here typing on the afternoon of the first match of the 2016 State of Origin series, I need to explain the depth of the rivalry between tonights combatants, Queensland and New South Wales, and hence why Steve Waugh and many of his Blues brethren have been hard to accept, if not love.Each Australian state has its own characteristics, its own culture, its own way of life, and Queensland is… well, Queensland is Queensland. With its beaches and its surfing and its fishing and its grand timber homes on stilts and its laid-back way of life and its XXXX beer and its cane-cutters cordial (or Bundaberg Rum) and its maverick politicians like Joh (for decades) and Bob Katter (more recently) and its great sporting heroes like Wally The King Lewis and Heals and Haydos and AB (who has morphed into a Queenslander to become one of our own), it is beautifully, distinctively, cavalierly, unashamedly Queensland.And to live in Queensland is to believe in Queensland. To believe in its way of life, and to have serious doubts about life beyond its borders.When sportsman, punter and (acclaimed) educator Matt OHanlon was growing up in the 70s, one of eight kids in a classic Catholic family from Rockhampton in central Queensland, his father would drive them to Sydney to visit relatives for the holidays. As they were crossing the border from Coolangatta to Tweed Heads he would turn to his flock in the back and yell, Suck in the big ones, kids. Youll be breathing New South air for the next fortnight.The OHanlons were a progressive family. Many Queenslanders wouldnt consider leaving Queensland. What for? theyd ask - and mean it.Queenslanders love their own, but they are consumed by suspicion when it comes to anyone from Down South. Sydney is no good - their clubs pinch all the good Queensland rugby league players. Melbourne is no good - its full of Victorians. And Canberra is the absolute pits. Queenslanders just want to govern themselves. Secession is not out of the question.When it came to cricket, Queenslanders were consumed with two deep frustrations in the 1970s and 80s: our cricket team couldnt win the Sheffield Shield, and our best players were consistently overlooked for Test selection. It was a miracle for a Queenslander to don the baggy green.And we were always stiff in the Shield. Wed be a game or two clear each Christmas and then the summer wet would set in. Washout after washout would force us down the Shield table. Not even Viv Richards could arrest the tropical lows that would sit in Moreton Bay and bucket down on the Gabba.In the 1980s we had the imports Greg Chappell and Thommo and AB. But they played alongside a squad of local talent, brought up on mangoes and seaming couch-grass pitches. Batsmen had to develop outstanding technique to survive if not prosper. But could these master craftsmen get a run in the Australian side? Robbie Kerr. Andrew Courtice. Trevor Barsby. Brett Henschell. They could all play.But as they were putting together a string of masterful knocks, another teenager would be picked for New South Wales and you just knew hed be anointed as the next great thing and would be playing for Australia by the end of the ssummer.ddddddddddddIn December 1984, Stephen Rodger Waugh made his first-class debut for the Blues against Queensland. His bowling figures were 23-12-34-0. He batted at No. 9.This Waugh, they said in the public bar of the Pineapple Hotel just up the road from the Gabba, hes modelled himself on Ewen Chatfield.Hes okay, they said, but hes no Glenn Trimble.People took more notice of SR Waugh in the Shield final against Queensland that season. He made an important 71 and 21 in a match where the Blues snuck home by a wicket.Hes a slogger, they said.Queensland had been denied again.The following season ME Waugh made his Shield debut, along with MA Taylor, and we all sat in the pub.You watch, they said. These clowns will all play for Australia.Kerr and Courtice are the best since Hobbs and Sutcliffe, they said. But will they get a look in?Steve Waugh made a couple of Shield hundreds. But he was cruising.Setting himself up for a 20-year career, they said at the Pineapple. Bowling within himself. Not chasing too hard. Self-preservation.Whats Steve Waugh got that Greg Ritchie hasnt? they asked.And sure as theres corruption and vice in Sin City, Steve Waugh got picked for Australia for the Boxing Day Test. He made 13 and 5.The next summer he made a duck in the first Test, at the Gabba. Hes cemented his spot, they said, sipping on their XXXX.Is he a bowler? we asked. Is he a batsman? we wondered.Is he a No. 3? Is he a No. 7? we speculated.Or is he just the Bob Cunis of Australian cricket?Hes no good, that Steve Waugh, they said when he was selected to tour England in what was regarded as an ordinary squad. Hell never make a Test hundred.SR Waugh wasnt dismissed until Edgbaston, the third Test, by which time hed made 393 runs and Australia led 2-0.But the antipathy did not subside. As the years rolled by and they made Taylor the skipper and the best cricketers in Australia were never given an opportunity, the voices grew louder.What about Stuey Law and Martin Love? What about Jimmy Maher? What about Kasper and Andy Bichel? they said. Its a bloody conspiracy, they said. Not only do they not play Kasper, they make him 12th man. Thats so he cant play for Queensland.Steve Waughs standing didnt improve Up North. Red ink, mate, they said. Its about keeping that average above 50. Look how he bats with the tail.Of course he had a long and successful career. He made a lot of runs, he played in many Test victories. I had mixed feelings about it all. He wasnt my sort of cricketer. I was a fun-of-the-game man, a joy-of-sport man. He was too hard for me. But, I came to realise, thats what sport is about for a lot of Australians. Fierce competition. And pushing yourself to get the best from your ability.I respected him; I respected his determination and the demands he placed firstly on himself, and then on others. I came to acknowledge that it was just plain silly of me to expect everyone to be like Lord Lindsay in Chariots of Fire or Roger Federer or John Eales. But I also knew there was Fortune in top sport and Steve Waugh kept some mighty fine players out of the Australian side.And after he retired, and the Australians struggled, and I realised we missed him, I even forgot he was from New South Wales. But only for a moment. ' ' '