Wozno.1ki

Rafael Nadal is clearly on fire, having saved two match points against Viktor Troicki to reach the Japan Open final, where he will meet Gael Monfils. I have one question though. How many more photos do we need to see of Nadal doing that celebratory upper-cut? I mean, I get it. The guy is a warrior. He's like a prize-fighter. There's no quit in the guy. Sheeesh. . . How about some quit in the visual cliche?

You'll notice that Rafa throws that particular punch with his left hand, but Nadal is naturally right-handed. I think there's a Nike commercial somewhere in there. . .

Seriously, though, with Nadal in the Tokyo final and Roger Federer having declared that he's been working his butt off and now stands fully prepared to sprint to London, things are apt to get pretty interesting. And don't forget Novak Djokovic, newly towering as the third leg of this contender's tripod. He did a great job pulling out the first set tiebreaker in his China Open semifinal clash with Long John Isner (who got just one point in the 'breaker), and now he gets either David Ferrer or Ivan Ljubicic. Tournament wins by Nadal and Djokovic will put a major stamp of credibility on the fall schedule.

On the WTA side, Caroline Wozno.1ki got over an interesting if sometimes unremarked hump when she won her China Open semi, the second match she's played as the newly crowned, first-time WTA no. 1. There's a certain amount of pressure that comes with that ranking, and a player can be forgiven for having stage fright the first few times she sets foot on a court to defend her exalted position. Wozniacki had little trouble with Shahar Peer, though, surviving a tight first set to wrap it up 7-5, 6-2.  Wozniacki will meet Vera Zvonareva for the China Open title, although I would have preferred to see Na Li as the championship opponent. It's always nice to see a representative of the host nation in a final, especially in an emerging tennis market.

But there was bad news yesterday, too, especially for fans of Dinara Safina. Physically, she's a wreck; her bad back just won't get better. So she decided to pull the plug on her season, following the example of Venus Williams (sprained left knee) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (recent, undescribed illness, but you get the feeling that there might be a little general disgust mixed into that decision). Safina said of her own decision:

"My back injury is acting up again and I've decided not to play any more tournaments the rest of the season," announced Safina on her website. "It has been the worst year of my career mainly because of my injury that has kept me away from several tournaments and kept me from playing my game of tennis."

You hate to see a young person laid low by injury. For Safina, "the fall" is not a season, it's an experience. You can use this post for discussion of the weekend's matches.

- Pete