NASDAQ-100 Open Women's Final Preview

Svetlana Kuznetsova (12) vs. Maria Sharapova RUS (4). After winning a heart poundingly close battle with Martina Hingis in the Round of 16 (13-11 in the 3rd set!!) "Sveta" took out her doubles partner and new "best buddy" (ESPN2's Mary Joe Fernandez's innocuously sapphic term) Amélie Mauresmo 6-1, 6-4 by blasting dozens of winners past the World's #1 player. Sharapova had a much harder time (along with boos from the crowd) with hometown favourite Tatiana Golovin who saved four match point in the second set but completely rolled over her ankle in the 8th game of the final set down 3-4 and was forced to retire. After both Russian players defeated the French players in the semi-finals this sets up an all-Rusian final, reminiscent of 2004's French Open final (Myskina d. Dementieva) and Wimbledon final (Kuznetsova d. Dementieva). Recall that another Russian player won a major title in 2004: 17-year old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon over Serena Williams. The all-Russian finals are not usually very good matches and one would expect a nervy gutsy match to go to Sharapova. But if you saw the way Kuznetsova was blasting balls past Mauresmo on Thursday, no one could beat her. Hopefully, she will continue to remain in top form for Saturday's NASDAQ-100 final.

PREDICTION: Kuznetsova in 3 sets.