Week 29 Semifinals

The exodus of seeds in continuing at the International German Open in Hamburg. Tomaz Bellucci lost in an amazingly tight three set match to Andreas Seppi, 6-7, 7-5, 5-7. Seppi ran away with the first set tiebreak, 7-0 and that was a big decider in the match. Bellucci fought hard, though. Juan Carlos Ferrero also lost today, but he mostly ran out of steam. He won the first set in a tiebreak, but he appeared to be having trouble with injuries by the end of the match, and German Florian Mayer took up the German cause with a great deal of elan. He has an unorthodox style of play, but when he's on, he's a lot of fun to watch. I like that jumping two-handed backhand - you may have seen Marat Safin or Gilles Simon do it, but Mayer does it as well. He got a bit of help from an either exhausted or hobbled Ferrero, but he played strong tennis to get the win.

In the semis, Mayer faces Andrey Golubev, who played unbelievable tennis again in his victory over friend Denis Istomin. Golubev has been on tour for a while and hasn't really done much of consequence, but watching him play this week has been something of a revelation. There's no reason this guy couldn't be in the top 20, if he could maintain this level of play. He displayed really spectacular hitting from every part of the court in his wins over Davydenko and again today. I'd like to see him keep playing this way for a longer stretch of time.

Seppi gets to play the last seed in the draw - Wimbledon doubles champion and French Open singles semifinalist Jurgen Melzer, who would be the new tournament favorite, if it were for the fact that some sort of curse had descended on every other seeded player this tournament. Seppi will be more exhausted than Starace was, but Seppi also has the potential to be more dangerous. I'm expecting a Melzer-Golubev final, but anything can happen, really.

In Atlanta, Americans are continuing to do well. John Isner just blitzed Michael Russell today, a complete contrast to their match earlier in their, where Isner needed to take two tiebreaks to win. Today, he was absolutely on fire, while Russell couldn't quite get his game to work. If Isner plays that way tomorrow, Kevin Anderson is in trouble - Anderson is another tall, big-serving guy, but I think that Isner has shown he's more than just a serve in recent weeks. I see him through to the final.

The other semifinal is much more interesting, as it features Mardy Fish against Andy Roddick. Roddick has a dominant record over Fish, winning 9 of their 10 matches, and Fish's only victory came from a Roddick retirement, way back in 2003. However, Fish is on an absolute roll. He made the final at Queens, won the tournament in Newport, and has blitzed through his first three rounds in Atlanta. He's won a set by 6-1 or better in each match. On the other hand, Roddick has struggled in both of his matches, losing a tiebreak to Rajeev Ram and losing the first set to Xavier Malisse today. Is current form going to trump history, here? This is probably Fish's best chance to get a legitimate win over the U.S. number one in years, so that should be a fascinating match. I think either one could meet Isner in the final.

It should be a fun day of tennis.