I'll be missing the action at the Pacific Life Open today because, well, my vacation is over! But the tournament on the men's side managed to survive the early loss of Roger Federer because the charismatic and popular Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal both won their matches in straight sets yesterday and will meet in the men's semifinals on Saturday!
That is a dream match up and one that would be anyone's idea of a perfect final. Tonight, Tommy Haas will play Andy Murray and it's tough to call that one but I'm gonna say Haas wins because he has been on FIRE this week. The other semi is the very non-marquee match between David Ferrer and Novak Djokovic. Sorry I will be missing that. (I know, that didn't sound very sincere...because it wasn't!). And then there are today's women's semis: Na Li vs. Daniela Hantuchova and Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Sybille Bammer. Gee, it pains me to miss those. (lack of sincerity once again...)
But, you take what you get. I'd love to go to the night session to see Haas and Murray but will catch it on ESPN and Saturday should make for a terrific day of tennis just like yesterday was. Nadal and Roddick were both so purposeful and passionate in their wins against very talented and determined opponents and both want to take advantage of Federer's absence and win this great event which ranks only behind the four grand slams: Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and U.S. Open as well as the tournament next week in Miami which I think is still called the Erricson Open. It used to be the Lipton and that's what I still call it.