Week 30 Finals

There was a lot of interesting action today. The semifinals definitely lived up to their billing, in almost all of the tournaments taking place today. At least one match at each event went three sets, and only the women's tournament in Stanford didn't feature a tiebreak. It's always nice when things fall in such a way that these later stages of a tournament are as exciting as they really ought to be.

In Umag, two Italians had a chance at making it to the final, but only one of them was up to the task. Juan Ignacio Chela apparently was unable to follow up the win over Nikolay Davydenko, and he fell to Potito Starace. Andreas Seppi couldn't muster his compatriots form, and he was essentially blitzed by an on-fire Juan Carlos Ferrero in the other semi. I expect that Ferrero will be too strong for Starace tomorrow. This is probably the least exciting final going on tomorrow, in my estimation, but as it is a meeting between two very talented and accomplished clay-courters. Unfortunately, Ferrero has a 5-1 record against the Italian, and is the prohibitive favorite to win the match.

The other clay-court final taking place tomorrow is between Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro, and this may just be the match on offer. They've played once already this year, where Almagro won 9-7 in a third set tiebreak. That's a tough standard to live up to, but the match has the potential to be a barn-burner. Gasquet has more talent than his Spanish opponent, but he hasn't been playing as well this past year - Almagro is nearing his career high ranking, while Gasquet, is well outside the realm of being seeded for the U.S. Open. Since he peaked in the top ten, that's quite a drop. Gasquet has the touch, but Almagro has the power. This will really depend on who is on tomorrow - if Gasquet can make the tough shots that he likes to go for, then he has to be the favorite. If Almagro can hit through the ball the way he likes to and still find the court, it will be tough for Gasquet to do anything. If they're both on, then it will be a lot of fun. Here's hoping for a good match, in this one.

Strangely enough, Los Angeles is the only place where the top seed made it to the final. Even though a Murray-Querrey match-up looks like a walk in the park for the Brit, it may not be. Both players have seen significant lapses in their levels of play during their last few matches, with Querrey on the brink of elimination in both his semi and quarterfinal matches. He even saved a match point today against Tipsarevic. Querrey has yet to beat his opponent in tomorrow's final, losing all four of their previous matches. But their match at this year's Wimbledon was closer than the scoreline indicates. It's also interesting to note their difference in form this year - since reaching the Aussie Open final, Murray hadn't even made another final until this week, while Sam Querrey has won three titles this year on three different surfaces. If Sam manages to win this match, it will be a big indication that he's ready to rise to the next step and really challenge the game's top players. Really, everyone expects Murray to win this match - last year in the final, Sam barely squeaked by against Carsten Ball. His opposition this year is significantly tougher. Murray will hopefully be encouraged if he can finally get over the hump and win his first title of the year - if he doesn't win, then it could be an indication of some trouble ahead, for his position in the top five.

It's also worth noting that the women's semifinals today were both excellent, with Victoria Azarenka demolishing Sam Stosur (and on her 21st birthday, no less!) while Maria Sharapova followed up a big win over Elena Dementieva in the quarters to beat third-seeded Aggie Radwanska, despite a sluggish start. By the end of it, Sharapova was brutally slugging the ball from all over the court, and there wasn't much for Radwanska to do. Both matches were very high quality affairs, and tomorrow's final could be a thriller. Sharapova leads their head to head 2-1, but Azarenka put on the stronger performance in her semifinal.

Basically, if you're a tennis fan, there's a lot to be excited about tomorrow. And this is with the majority of the game's top players out of action for a while, yet! Imagine how things will be going once we get into the more intense parts of the U.S. Open warm-ups.