More Grass wins for Fed

      Roger Federer had no problems disposing of Kiefer en route to the finals at the Gerry Weber, extending his grass court winning streak to 58 matches.  Roger proved at Roland Garros that he can still storm through Grand Slam brackets, despite losing to Rafael Nadal in the finals.  Deep down I really wasn't expecting Roger to make the French Open finals without one or two 5 set grinds, granted Monfils pushed him to the limit, but ultimately it was pretty routine.  Federer is now on a more favorable surface (grass) and will most likely roll through most of his matches at Wimbledon.  The prediction still stands, if Roger doesn't win Wimbledon this year, Sampras' record is looking A LOT safer than originally expected.

      How about James Blake losing to Kohlschreiber?!  Just yesterday I was thinking to myself, "man, James is finally getting things together, and could be okay for the summer grass and hard court events!"...apparently he still has a few things to prefect before Wimbledon; Blake NEEDS to make a run there, it's been a long time coming, no excuses.

      And at Stella Artois, Rafa took down Roddick in straight sets!...wow....how does he do this on grass?!  Andy seems to be ready for Wimbledon which is a good sign for American tennis.  Tomorrow it's a match up between Novak Djokovic and Nadal, very interesting to see who pulls through, Novak has a deceivingly strong grass court game.

     On the ladies side, Bethanie Mattek made the semifinals in Birmingham.  The young American went three sets with Sharapova at the French and could be a solid darkhorse at the All England Club.  Bethanie's career is turning out to be a younger version of Jill Craybas': an American who can hang with anyone and is a solid "journey woman" so to speak.

RESULTS - SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2008
   
Singles - Semifinals
[1] R Federer (SUI) d N Kiefer (GER) 61 64
P Kohlschreiber (GER) d [2] J Blake (USA) 63 75

 Doubles - Semifinals
M Youzhny (RUS) / M Zverev (GER) d [WC] C Kas (GER) / P Petzschner (GER) 57 64 10-7

ORDER OF PLAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 2008

 STADIUM start 12:45 pm
[4] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) vs M Youzhny (RUS) / M Zverev (GER)
Not Before 3:00 PM
[1] R Federer (SUI) vs P Kohlschreiber (GER)

RESULTS - SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2008

 Singles - Semifinals
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d [3] A Roddick (USA) 75 64
[2] N Djokovic (SRB) d [4] D Nalbandian (ARG) 61 60