The women’s semifinal matches at the Pacific Life featured the battle of country persons. The first clash displayed Serbs Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. Ivanovic schooled her compatriot to make it to her first Pacific Life final. The other half of the draw saw two Russians duking it out with Svetlana Kuznetsova outlasting Maria Sharapova, putting an end to Sharapova’s perfect record in 2008. With the finals showcasing the number one and two seeds, respectively ranked number two and three in the world, in theory, it promised to be a good contest. Instead, it turned out to be a slaughter with Ivanovic in total control. Throughout the match, Ivanovic’s superb forehand was firing on all cylinders against Kuznetsova. With her spectacular play, Ivanovic was rewarded with her first Pacific Life title.

On the men’s side, the much anticipated semifinal between defending champion Rafael Nadal and last year’s runner up Serbian Novak Djokovic was an uninspiring duel with the latter easily subduing the world’s second best player in straight sets. American Mardy Fish was the unlikely finalist on the opposite end of the bracket with a startling win against the world’s number one, Roger Federer. In addition to Federer, Fish defeated world number 4 Nikolay Davydenko and number 7 David Nalbandian in the previous rounds to punch his ticket to this ultimate Sunday. In the finals, Fish was hoping to cast his rod and hook another top ten player, Djokovic. After losing the first set, Fish rebounded in the second set with the intelligent play that he had displayed during the fortnight, giving him the possibility at his first Masters’ trophy. Despite forcing a decisive third set, Fish could not reel in Djokovic who simply was, too good. The Serbian sensation dissected Fish’s game in the last set, breaking him twice to seal the victory capturing his first Pacific Life trophy.