Kim Clijsters and baby makes two. Two US Open titles, that is. Photo via d.yimg.com

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Women's Singles Final:

Kim Clijsters BEL def. Caroline Wozniacki DEN (9) 7-5, 6-3 -- The player who won the U.S. Open wasn't even playing professional tennis as of July.  That's pretty crazy.

In her first grand slam in two years (and only her third tournament of any kind), unranked, unseeded wild card Kim Clijsters was the last woman standing of the 128 players who entered this tournament.  On her way to this title she defeated Wozniacki, Stanford champion #14 Marion Bartoli, #2 Serena Williams, and #3 Venus Williams, all four of whom have won multiple tournaments this year.  She became the first player ever to beat both Venus and Serena Williams in the same tournament, and only the second to do so on her way to winning a grand slam, after her countrywoman Justine Henin completed the feat in the 2007 US Open.

The final itself was fairly scratchy, though always fairly competitive.  Clijsters came out firing, winning the first two games to jump out to an early lead.  But Wozniacki then reeled off the next three games, including two breaks to swing momentum her way.  Clijsters was dictating play easily, but was missing too many neutral balls to run away with the match the way she should have been able to.  Wozniacki served for the first set at 5-4 before Clijsters found her range and won the next three games to take the set 7-5.

Clijsters stayed moderately in control throughout the second set as well, breaking Wozniacki at 3-2 to go up a break, an advantage she held on to as she successfully served for the match on her first try, winning it 7-5, 6-3.

Wozniacki competed admirably, and in the end only won one fewer game than Serena Williams had against Clijsters.  But Wozniacki's game simply isn't in a place right now where she can beat a great player who is playing well.  She's not winning points on her own accord, but merely hanging around long enough to wait out an eventual mistake from her dictating opponent.  She made her way through this tournament by keeping the ball in play against the wildly inconsistent players she faced, only two of whom were seeded. Wozniacki frankly got lucky that Clijsters wasn't particularly sharp in this match and threw in an uncharacteristic number of errors, or it would have been a rout.

It will be interesting to see what kind of momentum Clijsters will take from this win, and what type of schedule she will play the rest of this season and into next year.  Clijsters is adored by fans in Australia, and probably goes into that tournament as the favorite based on her performance in New York.  I'd be surprised if she dragged her family to Asia, but she could presumably enter a few of the European indoor tournaments coming up this fall (likely Linz and Luxembourg).  She may nose her way into that bizarre lesser YEC being held in Bali, and should she choose to play that event she would be a huge favorite to win it.

There will be more time to discuss Clijsters, surely (unless she immediately goes and gets pregnant again), so let's turn to the other two big matches from Sunday in Flushing.

Men's Singles Semifinals:

Roger Federer SUI (1) def. Novak Djokovic SRB (4) 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-5 -- What doesn't get brought up enough when mentioning Federer's incredible streak of twenty-two grand slam semifinals is that he's no slouch when he gets to that round, either.

Federer improved his record in his last twenty-two grand slam semifinals to 19-3 with his straight sets win over Novak Djokovic, a match that featured some incredible, flashy shot-making and battles, with both players putting on a show for the New York crowd in the timeslot that was originally to contain the men's final.

Federer never looked out of control in this match, but Djokovic gave him plenty of scares.  Federer had characteristic moments of jaw-dropping brilliance, but also was left to watch Djokovic come up with some incredible winners at seemingly neutral points in rallies on several occasions.  Federer's experience and impeccability on the biggest points shone through in the end, as he advanced to his seventh consecutive major final, and his seventeenth of eighteen.

A lot of credit should go to Novak Djokovic for living up to his seeding for the first time in a year, which he accomplished by playing his best tennis of the year.  Djokovic is a player who feeds off the positive emotions of the crowd, and when he wasn't getting the crowd's support it showed in his results.  But he seems to have returned to the crowd's good graces now, by improving his on court temperament, keeping his parents away, and inviting John McEnroe on court for the occasional publicity stunt.  Djokovic's Q Score is definitely trending up, and that may be as big a victory for his chances as any match win could be.

And, lastly, if you haven't seen Federer's shot on the second to last point of this match, do yourself a favor and watch it.

Juan Martin del Potro ARG (6) def. Rafael Nadal ESP (3) 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 -- This match was a lot closer than the score.  Of course, when the total games count is 18-6, that's not saying a whole lot. But Nadal did make del Potro work for each and every point, stretching the rout out to 2 hours and 20 minutes.  The second set of this match lasted the same amount of time, 51 minutes, as did the second set of Federer-Djokovic, despite the fact that Federer and Djokovic's set was four games longer.  Each game in del Potro's win lasted an average of 7.3 points, meaning that the average game went to deuce--a rare stat in a match where 75% points are won by one player.

And though Nadal stretched it out, del Potro's dominance was never in doubt.  He is hitting his groundstrokes harder than anyone on the tour, not giving opponents any opportunity to play any type of defense or counter-punching.  The match-up in the final vs. Federer is an awesome one to be sure, and will be a battle of wills just as much as it will be power vs. finesse.