Federer, Gasquet in Hamburg Final; Sharapova Misses on No. 1

On Saturday, Federer had no problems putting the hammer down on Russian Nikolay Davydenko with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win. Gasquet faced even less competition posting a 6-1, 6-1 win over fellow qualifier Christophe Rochus to set up the interesting rematch in the final.

“It’s always nice to get a second chance to get him,” said Federer, already working his way into the head of Gasquet. “I thought I was doing pretty good in Monte Carlo. I played a good first set. After that he started to unleash some winners on me which wasn’t so pleasure, but still nice to see the shots (laughs), because they were good.

“But I hope it’s not going to happen again. I will try to avoid that. But he has proven not only in Monte Carlo that he can play well,” Federer added.

Offered Gasquet, who will be playing in the biggest match of his life: “I am so happy to be in the final in Hamburg. It’s incredible. For me to play a final against Federer it’s a dream. I won in Monte Carlo but it was an upset for me. He is the favorite tomorrow, but I will play a great match tomorrow. I will do my best and we will see. But I will be very happy to be in the final.”

Adding further problems for Gasquet is Federer’s insane record in finals. The Swiss has won 18 consecutive finals since a loss to Jiri Novak in the 2003 Gstaad title match. Federer is also 19-3 in Hamburg with three titles and 40-2 overall in 2005. It’s best-of-five on Sunday, and we’ll give Gasquet a total of 13 games.

In the doubles final, it’s (8)Llodra/Santoro vs (2)Bjorkman/Mirnyi.

Schnyder Ends No. 1 Hopes for Sharapova

Maria Sharapova's dreams to ascend to No.1 on Monday came crashing down as the top-seeded Russian was done in by wily vet Patty “Wagon” Schnyder 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals at Rome.

After being broken three times in the first set, Schnyder held her serve the rest of the way blasting five aces in the match without double faulting even once.

"It's one of my best wins," Schnyder said. "Once the rally went on, I was the dominant player. I move better on clay than she does. At the end that was the key, that I could play better rallies from the back."

Schnyder has won three of her nine career WTA Tour titles have come on clay, and she also reached the final at the Tier I clay court event in Charleston in 2002, where she took out Serena Williams and then-No.1 Jennifer Capriati before losing to Iva Majoli.

"I really believe in myself, especially on clay, and I know that I can beat the top players," she said. "I've beaten some No.1s and most of the players on tour. But, you have to do it every week and every day, and that's the challenge.

By winning the title in Rome, Sharapova would have climbed to No.1 in the WTA Rankings on Monday.

"I'm not disappointed," said the Cell Phone Mannequin, who followed up an impressive quarterfinal finish last week in Berlin with her first ever clay court semifinal finish here. "I feel like I've been getting better and better as the matches went on this week. So hopefully I'll take this experience and these last two tournaments that I've played and take it to Paris."

When asked about losing the chance to become No.1, the reigning Wimbledon champion stressed her result-oriented outlook.

"I'd rather play well at a Grand Slam and just learn the things I need to work on and keep working on them... I've said it before, there's no rush."

In the final Schyder will face Amelie Mauresmo, who kept her title defense hopes alive beating No.6 seed Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-4.

The third-ranked Mauresmo now has a 7-0 record against the 10th-ranked Zvonareva.

Mauresmo and Schnyder will resume an extensive rivalry in the Sunday's final. The two have played each other 14 times, with Mauresmo leading the head-to-head by 9-5. They are tied 2-2 on clay with half of their previous meetings have gone to three sets.

"I expect a great match," said Schnyder. "There's going to be some rallies. She moves really well. I'm just going to go out there and give it the best I can."

In Saturday's doubles semifinals, No.2 seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber avenged last week's title loss to No.3 seeds Zvonareva and Elena Likhovtseva while the unseeded pair of Maria Kirilenko and Anabel Medina Garrigues defeated No.4 seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy.

Safina, Benesova Set to Clash at WTA Prague

Top-seeded Russian teenager Dinara “Lil Sis” Safina will gun for her second title of the year on Sunday as she takes on unseeded “Oh” Zuzana Ondraskova in the final of the Prague Open.

In Saturday's first semifinal, the 34th-ranked Safina outlasted 123rd-ranked qualifier Laura Pous Tio of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to advance to her fifth career final.

In the title match, Safina will take on the 25-year-old Ondraskova, who bested countrywoman No.2 seed Klara “Kooky” Koukalova 6-2, 6-2 to reach her first Tour final on Sunday.

Head-to-head, the little-known Ondraskova won her only prior meeting with Safina, a 4-6, 6-2, 8-6 marathon at the Wimbledon qualies in 2002.

In Saturday's doubles final, No.2 seeds Emilie Loit and Nicole Pratt were tied at one set apiece with the unseeded team of Kostanic and Barbora Strycova before the match was suspended due to darkness. The final will resume on Sunday at 6-7(6), 6-4.

World Team Championship begins Sunday with Germany v. USA

The low-key World Team Championships begin on Sunday with a round-robin 8-nation format broken into two groups of four. In the “Red Group” (pronounced “Rowt”), it’s Chile, Argentina, France and the Czech Republic.

The “Blue Group” (pronounced “Blau”) features Germany, Sweden, Spain and the USA.

On Sunday, the event gets underway with the Red Group leading things off. Defending champion Chile (Gonzalez, Massu) will take on the Czech Republic (Novak, Berdych) for the second consecutive time on Opening Sunday while in the first Blue group meeting to follow Germany (Tommy Haas, Nicolas Kiefer) battles the U.S (Jeff Morrison, Vince Spadea).

Argentina (Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio), France (Sebastien Grosjean, Michael Llodra), Sweden (Joachim Johansson , Thomas Johansson) and Spain (Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer) will be in action on Monday.

Hamburg Semifinalists Davydenko, Rochus lead St. Poelten

Among those competeing in the 12th ATP event in St. Poelten, Austria this week include local favorite Jurgen “Tuna” Melzer, No. 1 seed Nikolay Davydenko, Igor Andreev, Luis “Me So” Horna, Sjeng Schalken, Mariano Puerta, Christophe Rochus and the clay-challenged Paradorn “Thai Fighter” Srichaphan.

Past champions include Thomas Muster, Andy Roddick, Marcelo “Blame it On” Rios and Filippo Volandri. We dare you to pick the guy that doesn’t fit among that bunch.

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
The last time a teen qualifier won in Hamburg was Spaniard Roberto Carretero in 1996. And the last time anyone heard from Carretero was when he won Hamburg in 1996. Albert Portas also won as a qualifier in 2001…Just a reminder, Roger Federer has won 18 straight finals in ATP play. Second best on that list are Borg and McEnroe with 12. Oh my…Richard Gasquet saved three match points in his Monte Carlo win over Federer…So much for Rafael Nadal getting within 10 points of Federer in the ATP Race…Gasquet is the first player to qualify and reach the semifinals in two Masters Series tournaments in the same year…Last year in the US Open qualies against Michael Russell, Gasquet was disqualified after flinging his racquet underarm and hitting a linesman. The racquet grazed the outside of the eye of a linesman, who reported the incident to the chair ump. Gasquet was then immediately disqualified Gasquet. The incident came following two reportedly lackluster first round losses at the Bronx Challenger (l. to Jeanpierre) and Long Island (l. to Gambill). What a difference six months makes…The last nine years at WTA Rome have featured nine different champions…Two of the last three losses suffered by Roger Federer have been to teenagers (18-year-old Gasquet in Monte Carlo, 18-year-old Berdych at Olympics)…Ivan Lendl’s hopes at competing in the US Open golf championships were dashed as the former tennis No. 1 shot a 78 in Palm Harbor, Fla., earlier this week to miss a qualifying playoff by six shots…Tour Good Guy James Blake captured his second straight challenger title with a 6-3, 6-4 win on Saturday over Dusan Vemic in Forest Hills. It was just a year ago when Blake injured his neck in a freak accident on the practice courts in Rome. "My health is 100 percent,” Blake told Tennis Week. “Winning two weeks in a row is great. The goal now is to get my ranking to where it was."…Okay, let’s talk hate. Why are people so against Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova? Is that a result of the hype they had before they won their Slam title? Or is it something else like the rumor that they are dating. Federer, who was targeted to do just what he is doing today, never quite had the hype of Roddick. Nadal, also never had the hype, though many picked him for greatness early on. But they haven’t polarized so many the way Andy and Maria have. Just something to ponder, and based on what we have seen, Donald Young would next fall into the “Love him/Hate him” category should he ever make it big. Guess that’s just how it works…A little snap back to reality. Neil Harmon of The Times writes of recent unrest in Uzbekistan where a group of Brits are playing an ITF Futures event: “Arvind Parmar, Jamie Delgado, David Sherwood, Richard Bloomfield, Jonny Marray and Dan Kiernan have been competing in the Andijan Futures caught up in the mass civil unrest in the city in the east of Uzbekistan that has, according to reports, inspired ‘mass panic’, left nine people dead and forced men, women and children to flee indiscriminate gunfire. … Confusion spread to the event itself when initial reports that the tournament was to be cancelled were overruled and Marray went out to play his semi-final yesterday morning. ‘There was a 90-minute delay, but then the tournament director told us to get on with it,’ Trotman said. ‘Jonny (Marray) lost, it was not a good performance, but I don’t think that was uppermost in any of our minds. We just want to get out of here as quickly and safely as we can.’”…Trivia reminder: Name the last male player to win a US Clay title and go on to win Roland Garros. Answer on Monday. Good luck!