'Speedy' to face Federer
MELBOURNE, Australia — They call him "Speedy" Gonzalez, and he showed why.
Tenth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez put on another brilliant display of tennis today, sprinting all over the court to rip winners at will as he dominated Germany's Tommy Haas 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the Australian Open final.
It was a performance reminiscent of top-ranked Roger Federer's rout of Andy Roddick in the other semifinal a night earlier. Gonzalez was nearly flawless, leaving the capacity crowd gasping and the 12th-seeded Haas stunned and frustrated.
"It was a really good day for me," Gonzalez said. "I have been playing great tennis. I am enjoying it a lot."
Gonzalez had zero unforced errors in the first and third sets and only three for the match — "One was really stupid," he said — to go along with 42 winners that accounted for more than half of his 82 points.
For Haas, it was overwhelming.
"I played actually pretty good tennis," Haas said. "Every time I tried to do something differently, he came up with the answer."
Gonzalez, who had never reached a Grand Slam semifinal before, will face Federer on Sunday evening in the championship match.
The women's final on Saturday pits top-seeded Maria Sharapova, the reigning U.S. Open champion, against two-time champion Serena Williams.
