US Open: Women's final

Yup, still no surprises. Henin routed Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3. *yawn* Now, on one hand, JH has been pretty amazing the whole tournament. She did not lose a set in two weeks, and went through two Williams sisters (although only tested to the limit by one of them). But she has admitted to not being a huge fan of playing in NY, where it is loud and raucous. While serving for the match, some jerk in the audience shouted out during her toss. She caught it, with an annoyed look on her face, and then was so unnerved that she threw in two double faults in a row. To the crowd's credit, they were so silent for the next few points that is was eerie. And I'm sure the idiot who called out was probably hung and quartered by his fellow fans nearby (or at least he should have been). I'm all for cheering and stuff, but like I said, this was loud, disruptive, and during her toss. Not cool.

I actually think the players are a bit too uptight about the fans...they are, after all, the ones who paid the money to watch. The players should be good enough to serve if a few people are moving around. Sometimes 90 seconds isn't enough time to find your seat along with a few hundred other people.

But I digress.

Yes, all credit to Henin for staying focused when she very well could have come unglued. Speaking of unglued...Sveta pretty much played like crap. I think, by the end of the first set, she had something like five times the UE on her FH than winners. That is poor. She just didn't have anything to hurt Justine with, and then couldn't stop the Henin ball from steamrolling her. Everything Kuztie does, Justine does better. Kind of like Roddick and Federer. Roddick is good, but just not on the same level. Sveta was not on the same level as JH. You could see the visible disappointment on her face afterward...she looked crushed. Well, she had been crushed. She will rise to #2 in the rankings on Monday, but last night the gulf between #1 and the future #2 looked like way more than just one spot in the rankings.

Our champion:



Today we will see Fed and Nole square off. I think anyone with half a brain is picking Fed, though hopefully Nole will make it a match. Yeah, Nole beat him in Montreal, but that was not a GS and not a best of five. Plus, Nole has been a bit twitchy in his last few matches. I think he will do well, but for now, he will still be relegated to runner-up. But hey, if you're Roger's runner-up, things aren't that bad, are they?

A cool picture of Fed that I found, just as a teaser: