Indian Wells Final

Two upsets in the men's semifinals today! In fact, all four matches that were played today ended in upsets.

In the women's doubles final, Peschke and Srebotnik defeated the last seeds remaining, as they beat Petrova and Stosur in a match tiebreak. Good win for the Russian (I believe) pair, since I'm sure that nobody picked them to be holding the trophy today.

In the men's doubles final, another unseeded pair beat the last seeds still standing, but it was even more surprising. A wildcard team beat top seeds and top-ranked Nestor and Zimonjic. But of course, that can happen when half of that team is Rafael Nadal. And especially when Nadal is frustrated from just losing in the semifinals a few hours before. It's some comfort to take home the doubles title, at least, but I'm sure he would have rather defended his singles title.

Instead, he was beat in three sets by Ivan Ljubicic. Nadal looked to be in control, up a set and not giving Ljubicic a chance. At that point, he dropped serve out of nowhere and the Croat took advantage, winning the second set. The third set went to a tiebreak, eventually, even though Nadal had to claw his way back from a break down. The tiebreak was all Ljubicic, though, and the tall, big-serving former world-number three is into the final, after just celebrating his 31st birthday yesterday. A great week for him, but he has played some tough players when they were not at their best - wins over Djokovic and Nadal are always to be treasured, but particularly today, he didn't win thanks to his stellar play alone.

Of course, his opponent in the final, which turned out to be Andy Roddick, had an even easier road. He didn't really play anyone of consequence until the semis, where he faced a red-hot Robin Soderling. This was also not the greatest match, with neither player seemingly able to take the initiative. Roddick was up a set and a break before he gave it back, and he was up a break in the third set early on before giving it back again. It looked like Soderling couldn't lose the match if he tried, until he was broken once more and Roddick served it out. Third time's a charm, huh?

Roddick will face Ljubicic, and this really caps a week where everything that could have broken his way did so. Any opponent who looked like they might trouble him was taken out of commission by another, less threatening opponent. Soderling was the only opponent that Roddick has been generally troubled with in the past, and he did't show up with his best stuff. Roddick now takes a 7-3 advantage against Ljubicic into the final, as well as 4-3 record in MS finals compared to Ljube's 0-3.

Really, Roddick is never going to get a chance this good to win a Master's Series title ever again. It is basically a statistical impossibility. So many things have gone the way Roddick would have had them go, that if he doesn't win tomorrow, then there are no more Master's Series shields in the future for him. But if he does win tomorrow, this could be a good dose of momentum.

Every stat for this final is in Roddick's favor. The head-to-head, the record in finals, the performance so far this year, and this is not to mention the intangibles. As an American - the lone American at the top tier of the game - he will have the crowd's support against a relatively unknown and not particularly charismatic Ljubicic. If Roddick was playing Nadal, the Spaniard may have just as many - if not more - fans, but the Croatian contingent is going to be tough to make out in the crowd of red, white, and blue.