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Gonzalez, Federer in final
26/01/2007 12:29 - (SA)
Melbourne, Australia - Tenth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez dominated Germany's Tommy Haas 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 on Friday to reach the Australian Open final.
In a performance reminiscent of top-ranked Roger Federer's rout of Andy Roddick in the other semi-final a night earlier, Gonzalez was nearly flawless, leaving the 12th-seeded Haas stunned and frustrated with a brilliant array of shots that had the capacity crowd gasping.
Gonzalez, once known for a weak backhand and a fragile psyche, has improved both significantly in recent months and has won over thousands of fans here with his powerful serve and forehand.
The Chilean ran off the first 11 points of the match and had 17 winners in the first set without committing a single unforced error. Haas won only 12 points in the seven games.
Gonzalez slipped only slightly in the second set with 12 winners and three unforced errors as Haas, his confidence shattered, spiked his racket once and came close to slamming it into the court on two other occasions.
Haas tried to pick on Gonzalez's backhand, but the Chilean just kept getting back slice after slice until he got a chance to wind up on a forehand and send zingers into the corners.
Gonzalez, who never faced a break point, finished it off with a backhand crosscourt winner for his seventh service break.
- AP
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