Smoking the ball all first set, and taking it rather handily, and then serving for the match in the second set, two points away from victory… and Aravane goes to 30-40, the Ghost of Nando’s Past makes an appearance, and double fault on break point. Then she drops the set. Then she drops the match, despite breaking back twice in the third. Same old crap. Aravane seriously needs to figure out that second serve, it’s entering into A-Rad territory, and there’s no way she’s going to be able to compete with big time ball-bashers when they can just smoke that second serve all day long. And of course she knew it, so she often tried to make up for it by going for the second serve… and double faulting. Whatevs. First ever Sydney final for Serena.

Her opponent in the final will be defending champ Elena, who has looked pretty solid this week from the little I’ve seen. What’s up with Vika though? I didn’t see it, but not much of a scoreline at 6-3, 6-1. Love that the WTA home site is starting to call Serena/Lena a rivalry. Of course. It’s the new Federer/Nadal! Anyway, I saw a bit of Vika this week, and she did not look consistent at all. I was figuring, like Nando, she’d be able to come out of the gates flying just like last year. Remains to be the case, though obviously a semifinal berth is pretty solid.

If you’re curious, Lena leads the head to head 4-3. Might not be a bad final to catch. It will be at 7:30pm local time.