Earlier this week I watched the European ice skating championships and saw Irina Slutskaya win her record seventh title. “That’s strange,” I thought to myself, “isn’t Russia in Asia?”

Then today, as Maria Sharapova (RUS) and Elene Dementieva (RUS) stood with their trophies after Sharapova’s 6-1, 6-2, victory in today’s final at the Pacific Life Open, I noticed a ballgirl with a white, blue and red flag standing behind them. The writer next to me pointed out that it was the Russian flag. “Really,” I said, “it looks like they’ve neutered it. No symbols, no nothing.” I’m ignorant, I know, but I was looking for something to replace the hammer and sickle. It turns out that the flag was created by Czar Peter in the 1600’s for his fleet of ships. And although Russia is geographically in Asia, the area that is west of the Ural Mountains, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, is part of the quasi-continent called Eurasia.

Speaking of Federer, they should just let him cruise onto the court on a steamroller.

In the mens’ second semifinal between James Blake (USA) and Rafael Nadal (ESP), there was another geography lesson. It’s called home court advantage. Spectators started applauding on Nadal’s first unforced error. Nadal was gracious about it. “I understand perfect that, no?” he said, “When I play Madrid, …no one on the court wanted Ljubicic to win.” But he probably didn’t appreciate a call late in the second set.

Nadal was serving at 3-4 when Blake hit a high defensive lob to the baseline that looked long. Nadal put his hands up in the air in the middle of the shot as if to say, “What’s up with that, the ball is out!!”, then played the ball. A few strokes later he sent a forehand long to give Blake a break point. On the next point one of Blake’s balls landed deep and someone in the media room joked that it couldn’t have been out because Blake is the American. Blake broke Nadal and held his serve for the 7-5, 6-3, win.

Blake deserved the victory, he went for winners all night long and, unlike his fellow American who appears headed in the opposite direction in the rankings – Andy Roddick – played inside the court not three feet behind the baseline. He also approached the net much more than anyone else dares against Nadal, except, of course, Roger Federer, considering Nadal’s ability to hit passing shots.

Speaking of Federer, they should just let him cruise onto the court on a steamroller. Ljubicic went home from the quarterfinals at 6-3, 6-2, and Paradorn Srichaphan, Federer’s semifinal opponent today, went down by the same score.

the US now has three players in the top ten for the first time since February 2004

When Ljubicic was asked after his match what two things set Federer apart he said: “There are not two, there are many. But, return and movement.” Add the first serve, he has been serving exceptionally well in this tournament, and you have a big problem. Srichaphan has had a wonderful tournament considering that his last title was in 2004 and his ranking had dropped off the charts after reaching number 9 in 2003. But he was treading a thin line against Federer. You don’t want to get into a rally game with him so you end up going for winners earlier in the point than you’re used to. That means you’re not in the best position to hit them and balls ends up in the net. That’s exactly what happened to Srichaphan.

Last geography lesson of the day. James Blake is now number 9 in the rankings and could go to 7 if we wins the final tomorrow. Either way, that means the US now has three players in the top ten for the first time since February 200. Agassi is holding on at number 10 barely and, as I said above, Roddick is having problems but we can expect him to hang around the top ten for a while.

I didn’t mean to slight the women’s final, it’s just that it hasn’t been very interesting for the last few years and it wasn’t very interesting today. As painful as it can be – she’s averaged 14 double faults per match so far in this tournament – I love watching Dementieva play because she’s never out of a match. But three of her four matches this week went three sets – that’s the price you pay for being a slow starter – and Dementieva was tired.

The wind didn’t help. It was gusting at 16-20 mph so both players were concentrating on keeping the ball in the court rather than hitting out and the results showed it. There were not a lot of points to get excited about.

The match was billed as a Russian final and Sharapova is the first Russian woman to win the event. But she’s lived in the US since she was seven years old and she’s played in exactly one tournament on Russian soil. I think it’s like that Eurasian border, if you live in Moscow and want to call yourself European, you can. If you want to call yourself an Asian, you can do that too.

After Maria’s third round win in the 2003 Wimbledon, a reporter asked her, “Do you feel a bit American?” “When I’m in America, yes, definitely,” she said. “When I’m in Russia, I feel Russian.” See what I mean?