Washington Final

Well, while I've been busy with other things, the Legg Mason tennis tournament has gone absolutely bonkers. The final, set for tomorrow, is between wildcard David Nalbandian and eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis. If you had them picked to play for the title a week ago, then you deserve a prize.

Nalbandian's performance has been absolutely spectacular - he has been in dominant form through most of his matches, losing only a single set to Gilles Simon, who was playing his best tennis in years. Every other set he's played, he's won, and also were never closer than 6-4. It's been brutal - and this is how well the Argentine can play, he just hasn't done it for a few years. It's good to see him back, though.

This has just been a weird tournament, after a day of tennis was almost canceled due to rain, they stuffed a bunch of matches in all at once, and it was a brutal day for Americans. Every American left lost in the round of 16, some pretty badly. Roddick's performance was extremely lackluster, and his reward for not being into it is dropping out of the top ten. This is bad news for Andy, who looked to be having a great year around March, but then he took a long clay-court layoff, got sick, and hasn't been the same player since. If he doesn't put up two good performances at the two upcoming Masters series events, he's going to be seeded outside the top eight, and could potentially hit a top four seed in the fourth round.

It's also worth noting that with Roddick dropping to (a projected) number 12, there are suddenly no Americans in the top ten for the first time since the ranking system began. An odd thing to happen at the same time that we were talking about an American renaissance - but it is worth looking at further, just not right now.

Nalbandian's opponent will be another recent underachiever, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who started the year winning a title and then hasn't gone on to do much since. He was fairly lucky to get a tired Xavier Malisse in the semis instead of a fussy and uppity Tomas Berdych, who doesn't plan on coming back to the tournament next year, because of their unusual scheduling decisions and his feeling that he wasn't being treated well as the top seed. Baghdatis also may have rolled his ankle in the semis, which won't help him in the final.

Really, the final is probably going to be a cakewalk for Nalbandian, who had the tougher road, and was playing better tennis along the way. Baghdatis had a really nice win over Verdasco, but other than that, the quality of his opposition wasn't as much to write home about. Unless Nalbandian is exhausted or forgets how to play so well, I don't see Baghdatis posing a lot of a threat. It's good to see two interesting characters (who I pegged for big things this year on their respective comeback trails) in the final of the Legg Mason tournament.