Australian Open Finals are Set

The women:  An up and down match between Kerber and Halep ended with a win by Halep.  It was hard to tell if Kerber was nervous or simply off her game, but she gave away the first set with some spotty play.  Halep did her usual thing, but played a bit more aggressively than usual and kept her emotions enough in check to win.  Wozniaki beat first time semifinalist Mertens in the second match.  Wozniaki dominated but blinked when serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set.  She recovered admirably in the tiebreak though, and dominated it to win in straights.  It will be difficult to predict the outcome of the final.  Wozniaki has a good record against Halep, but Halep has been playing better tennis up to now.   Halep must suppress memories of her finals loss to Ostapenko in last year’s French Open.

My pick:  Halep in straight sets.

The men:  Kyle Edmund hits the ball very hard, but one cannot do that consistently unless one has time to set up for shots.  Cilic denied him that opportunity with his hard, flat hitting.  Edmund had great tournament with a highlight win over Dimitrov, b3ut this match was no contest.  Federer then played Hyeon Chung, who has stunned the tennis community with big wins over Sasha Zverev and Djokovic.  Adding another win against Federer is asking a lot.  After losing the first set 6-1 in about 30 minutes, Chung retired early in the second set with a blister.  Federer was gracious as usual, pointing out how painful a blister can be.   But let’s face it – blisters hurt a lot more when you’re getting totally embarrassed on the world stage by Federer.  Cilic can speak to that from last year’s Wimbledon final, where he also sought treatment for a blister while being destroyed by Federer.  Cilic now has a chance to redeem himself in the Aussie final this year.  He showed good fight and composure against Nadal, who retired in the 5^th with a muscle strain, but he will be playing Federer on a surface that is much more to the liking of Roger than Rafa.

My Pick: Federer in 4