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Weve embarked on tennis offseason, but just to keep things in perspective, consider this: The time between the end of the 2016 Davis Cup competition and the start of ATP World Tour play on Jan. 4, 2017, is almost exactly the same as the length of Novak Djokovics break earlier this year between Wimbledon and his next tournament appearance.The new year in tennis is a fresh start in only one significant way: psychologically. It isnt even relevant rankings-wise because of the rolling system that refreshes every week over a 52-week period.But never discount the importance of mental factors, which is why everyone, including tennis players, tends to look at Jan. 1 as a time to make a new start, to do better, to adopt and keep resolutions. This helps explain why the Australian Open, Januarys Grand Slam event, so often serves up unexpected results.Here are five surprising performances we could see next month in Melbourne:Milos Raonic will win the tournament.Nobody is quite as ready for a Grand Slam breakthrough as this 25-year old Canadian. Now No. 3 in the rankings, Raonic won just one event in 2016 (Brisbane, an ATP 250 tuneup for the Australian Open). But he was a Wimbledon finalist and routinely lifts his game at the majors. Raonic gave Andy Murray all he could handle before bowing in five sets in the 2016 Australian Open semis.Unlike some of the other players on the best to never win a Slam list, Raonic isnt an older habitual also-ran, like a Tomas Berdych or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, nor subject to shrinking away from big opportunities, like a Kei Nishikori. Raonic has had bad luck with injuries and tough draws, and hes lost some very close key matches against the top players. After losing the Wimbledon final to Murray he said, This ones going to sting. He is primed.Neither Angelique Kerber nor Serena Williams will win.Kerber is in a unique position. She proved through 2016 that she can handle the pressure that goes with becoming the top player by finishing No. 1 for the year. The pressure is off -- so off that Kerber, whos always blown hot and cold, may be hard-pressed to find her motivation.Williams is 35 and just one Grand Slam away from breaking a tie with Steffi Graf to become the Open eras most prolific major singles titlist. Shes been having a great time since last September, expanding her social life, hobnobbing with celebrities, posting open letters on Facebook. What she has not done is hit a tennis ball under competitive conditions since she lost in the semifinals of the US Open.Williams was in the same situation in 2016 and still made the final in Melbourne. But its a year later at a time when the toll on her body is greater, the opponents are tougher and her aura of invulnerability has faded.Juan Martin del Potro will go deeper than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.Del Potro wrote one of the great feel-good stories of 2016. He mounted a spectacular comeback following a series of wrist injuries and surgeries that essentially ruined his career following his triumph at the 2009 US Open. At that tournament, he defeated Nadal and Federer back-to-back to win his lone major.Federer is now 35, and Nadal is 30. Ranked Nos. 16 and 9, respectively, both are coming back from long injury-induced layoffs. Wouldnt it be ironic if No. 38 del Potro met and defeated them in successive matches again -- preferably in the second week. Yikes!Madison Keys will challenge for the title if she can get past early-round jitters.The big opportunity may come in the form of a match point against Kerber, an upset of Williams or a draw that opens up like a superhighway to the final. If she can get some traction early, Keys could win her first Slam.Look for last years seeding bloodbath -- just nine WTA seeds, five of them top 10, limped into the round of 16 -- to be repeated. The game remains unsettled, and Keys gained a lot of valuable experience last year. Her ability to stay the course for a seven-match title drive remains in doubt, but keep in mind shes still just 21.Andy Murrays seven-year streak of reaching at least the quarterfinals will come to a grinding halt.One scripted storybook moment for Murray could have been a win over Melbourne nemesis Djokovic in the 2017 Australian Open final, bringing with it the No. 1 ranking. Instead, the crescendo occurred early and with an even greater prize: the prestigious year-end No. 1 ranking for 2016.Murray, 29, rode a 26-match winning streak into the offseason. His efforts must have been draining, physically and emotionally. Expect him to be vulnerable Down Under. Wholesale Football Jerseys Online .C. at the helm of the top team in the Eastern Conference. His tenure as the GM in Vancouver was all too brief. Though he led the Canucks to what was then a franchise record-shattering campaign in just his second season, Nonis was gone and replaced one year later. Wholesale Authentic Jerseys . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. http://www.cheapfootballjerseys.us.org/ . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Cheap Jerseys From China . Aduriz headed home Markel Susaetas cross in the sixth minute to open the scoring at San Mames Stadium. He bettered that with a long-range blast that went in off the goal frame in the 18th, and converted a penalty in the 72nd after Diego Mainz was sent off for fouling Aduriz with only the goalkeeper to beat. Discount Football Jerseys . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said. HOUSTON -- Their winning streak at Minute Maid Park stalled by two left-handed starters, the Houston Astros will encounter a third in succession when the Seattle Mariners visit Monday to open a key three-game series.The Astros (43-39) dropped consecutive home games for the first time since late May when White Sox lefties Chris Sale and Jose Quintana posted back-to-back wins on Saturday and Sunday. Houston fell to 9-15 against left-handed starters this season, with Mariners southpaw Wade Miley (6-4, 5.58 ERA) scheduled to start against the Astros next.Houston had won five consecutive series before dropping the rubber match on Sunday and had claimed 13 of 15 games at home before being bested by Sale in the middle game of the three-game set with Chicago.Weve got to continue to play our game, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. Thats five series before that we won. We lost this series; its unfortunate. We were in position to win yesterdays game; we were close today until they pulled away. So youve got to give credit to what they did.So for us we get a new series, a division opponent that we havent seen in a few weeks, but theyre right there with us. Itll be important for us to create those innings that weve done so well the last two months. Good opponent coming to our stadium (Monday) for a three-game series. One were really familiar with.Astros right-hander Lance McCullers (3-2, 3.91) will make his first starts against the Mariners this season. He went 2-1 with a 2.93 ERA in three starts against Seattle as a rookie in 2015.ddddddddddddMcCullers missed his previous turn in the rotation because of a blister on his right index finger, but Hinch acknowledged that the club took a measured, cautious approach with McCullers when they skipped him last week in Anaheim.Miley is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA in five career starts against the Astros. In a 6-3 Mariners win on May 5 at Minute Maid Park, he allowed two runs, five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six quality innings. He will make his second start since his recall from the 15-day disabled list on June 29 with a sore left shoulder.The Mariners (43-39) completed a four-game series sweep of the Orioles at home on Sunday with a 9-4 win. After losing six consecutive games between June 18-23 to drop behind the Astros in the American League West standings, Seattle has won seven of nine games to pull even with Houston for second place in the division, 8 1/2 games behind Texas.We didnt talk at all about wins and losses. It was just about how we were playing, Mariners manager Scott Servais said of a recent address to the team. We werent playing well and we needed to play better. Sometimes you think the wins and losses are in your control -- things happen in this game, you play so many games.But you can control how you play and how you prepare and thats what we wanted to see.Seattle leads the season series 4-3, but the teams havent played since May 8. ' ' '