Stepanek, the 32 year old veteran from the Czech Republic, has made it to the finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.  It might not have happened.  In the second round, Stepanek should have faced top seed, Mardy Fish, but Fish had a heel injury in Los Angeles and opted to stay in L.A. a few more days (he did drop by DC to do some promotional work since K-Swiss is a big sponsor for the event).  Wayne Odesnik, who had lost to Rajeev Ram in qualifying, was the lucky loser taking Fish’s spot.

Thus came one of the more improbable runs for Radek Stepanek.  It’s not that he’s not good enough to win tournaments.  The oddity was how many lefties he played en route.  In the second round, he played Odesnik, who is a lefty.  In the third round, it was Jarkko Nieminen, another lefty.  In the quarterfinals, Stepanek beat Verdasco, a lefty, and finally, he beat Donald Young, another lefty.

In the finals, he’s guaranteed to play a righty, either John Isner or Gael Monfils.  Stepanek is also playing doubles, and so he has a chance to make it a win in singles and doubles.

Young didn’t have a lot of answers for Stepanek.  Stepanek observed that Young liked to hit his forehand inside out, so he wanted to attack his forehand so he would open up his backhand.  Stepanek was also hitting most returns near the baseline to nullify Young’s swinging wide serve.  Young, meanwhile, was making a few too many errors.  Stepanek was also doing a good job of winning point on Young’s second serve, and also doing a good job protecting his own second serve.

This is Young’s best result since he turned pro in his teens.  Young has been on the tour quite a while, but is just getting around to playing better by not going after such huge serves.

Tonight, Isner takes on Monfils.  Isner has a 3-2 head-to-head.

Robin Haase wins a tournament in Kitzbuhel over Albert Montanes.  This is a clay event.

Next week, the sixth Master 1000 starts in Montreal.  All the top pros are expected to play including Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and Murray.  Murray is the two-time defending champ.