Serena Williams vs. Ana Ivanovic

I watched Ana Ivanovic master Maria Sharapova by leading 6-2, 4-0, only to let her off the hook and fall behind, only to save 2 match points and win 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.  Serena Williams had to dig out of trouble as well in her semifinal match.  Ivanovic knocked Serena out of the Australian Open earlier this year.  In Stanford and Montreal, they had 3 set battles.  Serena Williams has done enough over the past three weeks to put some distance between herself and her early exits from Roland Garros and Wimbledon as well as her odd moment in the Wimbledon doubles draw.  Still, Serena lost the Cincinnati final to Victoria Azarenka last year and I expect her to be wanting to take home the big trophy this year.  Ivanovic had a much later finish and will have gotten less rest heading into the championship match.  Normally, less rest is offset by the cooler conditions of a night match, but Cincinnati’s traditional humidity was nowhere to be seen/felt this week.  All of that leads me to picking Serena Williams to win this match and enter the US Open with decent amount of momentum.

Prediction: Serena Williams d. Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-3