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The $63 million USTA National Campus features an indoor facility and 100 outdoor tennis courts with a variety of playing surfaces. It The Lake Nona campus, located just south east of Orlando, will be home to every level of tennis from youth to collegiate players to elite international players.

”For players from every age and every ability, the USTA National Campus will raise the bar on how we deliver tennis with the goal of making our great sport more accessible to more people than ever before,” USTA chairman and president Katrina Adams said Thursday at the 64-acres facility that officially opened to the public on Monday. ”This is nirvana, tennis heaven. This is truly the home of American tennis.”

Billed as the biggest and most innovative facility of its kind in the world, the USTA National Campus is designed to develop tennis players beginning at a young age in hopes of attracting more people to the sport.

The number of American players consistently having success at the highest level has dwindled of late. Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open championship was the last Grand Slam won by an American man. Serena Williams has been virtually unchallenged on the women’s side, but at 35 she won’t play forever.

In addition to traditional training methods, athletes at the campus will be exposed to cutting edge technology. Coaches and teachers and event organizers from around the country will also be able to come to the campus and take information they gather back to their communities.

Since my last post, Djokovic and Murray won their next two matches to make the semi-finals stage in Doha and will play against Verdasco and Berdych in the semis respectively.

Interestingly, Djokovic has been the one who has been looking more comfortable since that slow start in his first round match which was understandable as it was his first match of the year.

Since then he defeated Zeballos 6-3, 6-4 and Stepanek 6-3, 6-3 today. The match against Stepanek was played in windy conditions and he did well against the oldest player at 38 years of age to make the quarterfinals of an event since Connors in 1995.

Djokovic seems to be carrying on where he left off last year before he lost to Murray at the World Tour Finals. Obviously, he was not very pleased with that loss and has been training his ass off in the offseason.

Had a great warm up with @andy_murray today ª» pic.twitter.com/hM2sV06iSR

The 44th-ranked Almagro dogged the No. 1, making Murray work overtime to secure a semifinal berth.

Almagro finally surrendered after 2 hours, 9 minutes, when he shipped a backhand crosscourt wide on a second match point for Murray in the final game.

Murray trailed 3-1 in the first set, and squandered a 2-1 advantage with a service break in the second set.

The difference for Murray was in the second serve points won percentage in which he was at 61 and Almagro was at only 47.

“It was a very tough match,” Murray said. “Nico was playing very aggressive and going for his shots. It was hard conditions tonight, very windy, so tough to get into much of a rhythm.”

Nadal,who cut his 2016 season short due to knee and wrist injuries, had no trouble defeating Mischa Zverev in a one-sided match, taking it 6-1 6-1 in just 55.

The Spaniard faces top seed Raonic, who he beat last week in an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi, in the quaterfinals.

“He had a fantastic year last year and I know tomorrow will be a very hard match,” said Nadal. “I know I will have to play my best.”

Raonic defeated Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2 earlier.

Fifth-seeded Nadal has a 6-1 edge over Raonic in their head-to-head

The United States had already qualified for Saturday’s final with wins in its opening two matches at the ITF invitational event, which offers no ranking points but has prize money.

Sock earlier beat Nick Kyrgios 6-2, 6-2 and Gavrilova defeated Vandeweghe 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in singles play.

Kyrgios, who said he has some left knee soreness but expects to be ready for the Australian Open, was replaced by Ebden in the mixed doubles.

“It’s not terrible, but it’s not great,” Kyrgios said. “I just need to rest now and a couple of days without the load and I should be back to normal. A thing like this won’t take too long.”

Earlier, the Spanish pair of Lara Arruabarrena and Feliciano Lopez beat Lucie Hradecka and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic 4-2, 4-1 in mixed doubles to give Spain a 2-1 win. Lopez had earlier beaten Pavlasek 7-6 (5), 6-4 while Hradecka gave the Czechs the lead with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Arruabarrena.

Djokovic holds a 13-1 career record over the 38-year-old Stepanek, and has won their last 12 meetings.

Djokovic took a 4-2 lead in the first set before Stepanek broke his serve when the second seed netted a backhand on a third break point in the game.

Djokovic won the next two games, winning the set on an overhead smash to an open court.

In the second set, Djokovic established a 3-1 lead and held on to the advantage.

He will play Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals. Verdasco defeated sixth-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-2, 7-5.

(Photo credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

The third-seeded Radwanska was broken three times in both the first and third sets, winning less than a third of the points on her first serve.

Third-seeded Johanna Konta fared better in her quarterfinal match against Kristyna Pliskova, withstanding 15 aces from her Czech opponent to win 6-4, 6-7 (11), 6-3.

Konta will next face another Czech player, Katerina Siniakova, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Nina Stojanovic. The eighth-seeded Riske will play Camila Giorgi of Italy. Giorgi beat Wang Qiang 6-0, 6-2.

The tournament had boasted the strongest field in its history when four former No. 1s – Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Serena and Venus Williams – made it their principal lead-up to the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, the Australian Open.

But Ivanovic withdrew before the tournament began and subsequently retired, and the Williams sisters both bowed out Wednesday: an error-strewn Serena beaten by American compatriot Madison Brengle and Venus withdrawing with an arm injury.

Wozniacki, who was the highest-ranked player remaining, led 6-1, 3-0 before Goerges began to found the range on her big first serve and swung the match in her favor; she served out the second and third sets with aces.

”I just tried to hang in there somehow,” Goerges said. ”I just missed everything I could miss and she didn’t miss one ball.”

Goerges will play eighth-seeded Ana Konjuh in Friday’s semifinal after Konjuh’s quarterfinal opponent, Naomi Osaka of Japan, retired at 3-0 in the first set.

The top-seeded Raonic, who had a first-round bye, fired 12 aces in the 70-minute, second-round match and had four service breaks, including three in the second set. He dropped his own serve during an exchange of breaks to start the second set.

He will next meet either Rafael Nadal or Mischa Zverev, who were playing a night match.

Nadal beat Raonic in an exhibition match last week in Abu Dhabi and has a 6-1 lead in career head-to-head meetings, but the Canadian was still looking forward to facing the Spaniard.

”It’s a great task,” Raonic said. ”I feel like I’m doing a lot of things well and, hopefully, I can match up and play some good tennis.”

Fourth-seeded Dominic Thiem had a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Australian wild-card entry Sam Groth to move into a quarterfinal against No. 7-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Nicolas Mahut.

It certainly started differently, with the top-ranked German losing to sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the Brisbane International quarterfinals on Thursday.

Kerber reached the final here last year and fine-tuned to precision for the Australian Open, where she beat Serena Williams to claim her first Grand Slam title. She went on to reach the finals at Wimbledon and the Olympics before collecting a second major title by winning the U.S. Open. She overhauled Williams for the top ranking and finished the year at No. 1.

After a first-round bye, Kerber struggled with her serve and had nine double-faults in a three-set win over Australian wild-card entry Ash Barty in the second round. Against the No. 14-ranked Svitolina, the German left-hander cut her double-faults down to five, and had a break in the third set after winning the second. But she quickly surrendered the break and wasn’t consistent enough, finishing with 48 unforced errors against 39 winners.

“Of course I’m disappointed that I lost here in the quarters (but) I think I’m happy about my start,” Kerber said. “I’m not worried about my serve. I know I can improve it, but, I mean, that’s the second match of the year, the first tournament.

“It was not a bad match. I think we both play on the really high level tonight …so, yeah, next.”

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

The Frenchwoman, who had never made it to the quarterfinals in Brisbane, defeated the 2016 WTA Finals champion in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.

“What a start of the year! It’s the first week and I think my game is not so bad.

“Beating a player like Dominika takes an amazing performance, everybody knows how much she fights and hits hard the ball. I’m just very, very, very happy,” said Cornet.

The 35-year-old Federer was playing his second match since returning from a six-month layoff because of a left knee injury. He led 5-2 in the first set, but ran into an opponent whose first-serve percentage exceeded 80 percent midway through the final set of the 2½-hour match.

But it turned out to be a winning evening for Federer and Swiss partner Belinda Bencic. Bencic beat Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-4 in their singles match, and then Federer and Bencic combined in mixed doubles to beat Zverev and Petkovic 4-1, 4-2 in the Fast4 format.

“She (Bencic) carried us to victory, the player of the singles, the player of the doubles,” Federer said.

Earlier Wednesday, Kristina Mladenovic and Richard Gasquet won their Group A singles matches to give France victory over Britain. Mladenovic beat Heather Watson 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 before Gasquet defeated Dan Evans 6-4, 6-2.

Gasquet and Mladenovic later defeated Evans and Watson 4-3, 4-3 in mixed doubles to complete a sweep.

The 12-time Grand Slam champion cheerfully obliged.

”I just have to mention that making a selfie after the match was over, that was the first time that I ever had this kind of experience in my career,” Djokovic said on court after beating Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday. ”So, Horacio, well done. Very original.”

Djokovic managed to break the Argentine once in each set while never facing a break point on the other side.

”Credit to Zeballos for playing some fearless tennis,” said Djokovic, the defending champion. ”He was stepping in and trying to go for his shots. He wasn’t backing up to the baseline.”

With the win, the second-seeded Djokovic advanced to the quarterfinals and will next face Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic.

(Photo credit: ARUN SANKAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Kovalik will next face Daniil Medvedev of Russia in quarterfinals. Medvedev advanced by beating eighth-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-4, 6-3.

Third-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas also reached the quarterfinals, beating Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-2, 6-0.

(Photo credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Halep, the 2015 champion, was broken four times in the final set. Altogether, the two players combined for 15 breaks of serve in the match.

Also, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan, and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Kvitova’s spokesman, Karel Tejkal, says the two-time Wimbledon champion has gradually started doing exercises with her injured fingers and ”all have been going according to the plans and expectations.”

Kvitova has surgery on Dec. 20 following injuries on her left hand in the attack at her home in the town of Prostejov the same day.

She is expected to out for up to six months.

Kvitova’s fellow players from the Prostejov tennis club have offered a reward of $3,850 for information leading to the arrest of the attacker, who still remains at large.

Despite spending his 27th birthday on Dec. 29 in transit in order to get in good preparation for the Brisbane International, Nishikori was still a little rusty in his season-opening match against Jared Donaldson before holding off the American qualifier 4-6, 6-4 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Nishikori, a three-time semifinalist in Brisbane, had a first-round bye and started the second round confidently by racing to a 4-0 lead. But Donaldson responded and won the next six games to take the opening set in less than an hour, breaking Nishikori three times.

After jumping to a 3-0 lead in the second, Nishikori dropped another service game but this time was able to limit the damge and used his experience in pressure situations to calmly hold on and win the second and third sets. He will next play either eighth-seeded David Ferrer or Jordan Thompson.

Nishikori went almost immediately back out to join Dominic Thiem in a doubles quarterfinal match against Gilles Muller and Sam Querrey.

Sixth-seeded Lucas Pouille was trailing Kyle Edmund 6-3, 3-1 when he retired from their second-round match. Pouille had treatment for blisters on his feet after winning the first game of the second set, then lost three games before signaling to the umpire that he could not go on.

(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Top-seeded Serena was frustrated by a swirling wind, her inability to find her A-game, and a tenacious opponent as she went down 6-4, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4 to 72nd-ranked American compatriot Madison Brengle.

Older sister Venus withdrew from the tournament with an arm injury ahead of her scheduled second-round match.

The Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, begins on Jan. 16.

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Williams beat New Zealand wildcard Jade Lewis in a first-round match and was due to play Japan’s Naomi Osaka in the second round later Wednesday but withdrew before the match.

The former No.1 and seven-time grand slam winner struggled early against Lewis and had to save a set point in the first set.

Tournament director Karl Budge told reporters Williams “wasn’t able to serve as she would like to and at the level that we have come to expect from Venus and unfortunately that has taken her away from the tournament this year.”