Sunday’s final in Linz will pit Ana Ivanovic against Patty Schnyder. On paper, all signs are pointing to a easy victory for the Serb. The pair have faced each other a grand total of 8 times, and while Patty dominated a young Ivanovic in their first four encounters, Ana replied by sweeping through the most recent four.

That said, the match is most certainly not a foregone conclusion. In fact, Patty’s game actually matches up well to Ana’s. If she can use her swinging lefty serve and left-hook forehand well, she will be able to jam Ana on the backhand side. The considerably fast surface here will also aid her cause, as it will rob Ana of the time to skip around the backhand side to produce those trademark forehands. I watched Patty’s match against Petkovic in the semis yesterday, and that was exactly what she was doing. Though she favours her backhand, Petkovic was still visibly struggling with having to hit every backhand from arounf shoulder height. Ana will struggle even more.

Regardless of the score and winner, here’s hoping that the final is a high quality and gripping affair to cap off what has been a great week of tennis here in Linz.

Seven words that have probably never been spoken, no? But it’s true. The crowds have been great all week and today, on saturday, the stadium really is packed to the brim. All week I’ve been sitting in different places around the stadium, trying to get a feel for the different viewpoints, but now it’s almost impossible.

That’s why I’m still so annoyed at the WTA ‘s move to cut the European Indoor Season. It’s the one period of the tour that was consistently well-attended, and though it may not bring in as much money as the lucrative Asian events, it more than makes up for the lost bucks in exposure. If anything, they should move the events to the beginning of the season. But no, that’s just far too straightforward for the WTA Tour.

It’s always interesting to watch two contrasting types of players face off against each other, and today was no different. In one corner stood the fiesty Italian Sara Errani. Measuring a mere 5ft 4, she relies on her court coverage and unique topspin-heavy forehand to grind down opponents, before injecting random spurts of pace into her groundstokes and winning the point. In complete contrast, her fellow Italian and friend, Roberta Vinci compensates for her lesser agility by playing a more old skool gamestyle, built on variety and a natural feel for the game. She slices, volleys, dropshots - everything, putting opponents into compromising positions and then moving into the forecourt to pounce on a volley.

Throughout their match today the pair gave polished exhibitions of their talents. Both were pretty impressive as Errani moved the ball left-to-right and back again, wearing out Vinci with every shot, while Roberta attempted to counter Errani by slicing, dicing and doing everything in her power to keep the ball low. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. But it always made for interesting viewing

Eventually the pair found themselves at 1 set all. By this point Vinci was looking increasingly tired as Errani was on top of her (not literally, get your minds out of the gutter). It looked all but over, but then BOOM, Vinci began to tee off on her forehand, and eventually reeled off four straight games to snatch the third set 6-4.

The bad news for Vinci? She awaits the winner of Goerges vs Ivanovic. Regardless of who wins that match, I can’t see Roberta Vinci progressing any further this week.