The final weekend of the Pacific Life Open dawned in the same way the tournament began for the women?s qualifying a week ago Monday, with cool temperatures and under cloudy skies. And a rarity -- we saw and felt raindrops in the desert today. Lots of raindrops. Enough to suspend the second match of the day, the Gustavo Kuerten - Rainer Schuettler semifinal, and postpone the men?s and women?s doubles finals.

As you can see, the volunteers who were pressed into service to dry the courts sometimes seemed more interested in aesthetics than effectiveness.

The tournament?s communications gurus told us that this was the first time since 1995 that rain has perturbed a final weekend in the California desert. Hopefully the weather forecasters are correct, and skies will clear tomorrow. The completion of the Kuerten-Schuettler semifinal will begin at 9:00 AM, followed by the women's final and the men's final. After that, the women?s doubles final (Clijsters/Sugiyama vs. Davenport/Raymond), and the men?s doubles final (Bryan/Bryan vs. Ferreira/Kafelnikov).

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Lleyton Hewitt (1) def. Vincent Spadea (Q), 7-6 (7-5), 6-1
Semifinal
Previous head-to-head: Hewitt leads 2-0

Vince Spadea had impressed us all week, going back to his second round qualifying match when he had to produce a top-drawer performance to defeat former world number two Magnus Norman, followed by another crisp display in his first round dismissal of 12th seed Paradorn Srichaphan. Since then the draw has worked out well for the 28-year-old Chicago native, and he picked his way past two qualifiers (Nicolas Kiefer and Brian Vahaly) and a lucky loser (Olivier Rochus) to re ach the final four. Today?s challenge, number one Lleyton Hewitt, proved to be too great.

Both players started cautiously in a swirling wind. ?Every second game I felt like it was changing direction out there,? observed Hewitt in his press conference. Spadea was more comfortable in the early going and raced to a surprising 4-1 lead after breaking the Aussie on what would be his only break point of the match. Hewitt began rushing the net the net (he won 24 of 33 net points today), and levelled the score at 4-4. The Aussie wasted two break points at 5-5; on the second chance a Spadea volley dribbled off the tape, and after Hewitt sprinted forward to track it down, he stumbled and fell, allowing an easy put-away volley for the American.

Two double faults were what brought down Vince in the first set tie-break. At 2-2 he double faulted. At 5-3 Hewitt went up a second mini-break, forcing an error with a strong forehand, accompanied by his loudest ?C?MON!? of the match so far. On his first set point at 6-3, the Aussie took to the net, and a low Spadea drive forced a tough half-volley that Spadea tracked down and returned for a winner. Hewitt gave away a second set point with a double fault of his own at 6-4, and they were back on serve, b ut still set point for Hewitt. The crowd began chanting for Vince, who responded with? a double fault! To the groans of the fans, Hewitt had taken the first set.

With the lead safely assured Hewitt could relax, and started to get in a better flow. ?After I won that, I felt like I was adapting to the conditions as well as his game a lot better.? Hewitt notched an early break, raising a clenched fist after nailing an inside-out forehand pass on his third break point of the opening game. After surviving a difficult two-deuce hold to lead 2-0, Lleyton was not troubled the rest of the way.

Spadea is perhaps best known for losing an ATP-record 22 straight matches in 1999 and 2000, a stretch of futility that sent his ranking careening from 19 to 229. Despite the loss today, he can still take immense satisfaction from a week that will send him into the top 50 for the first time since his glory years. ?I just want to make sure that I appreciate it the second time around,? said the reborn Spadea. ?Sometimes when you?re younger and you expect that to happen, you don?t really appreciate it as much.?

Hewitt, on a completely different tennis planet than Spadea, is so used to being number one that he said yesterday that he ?couldn?t care less? about ensuring, as he did by winning his quarterfinal, that he would remain on top in next week?s rankings. A champion in Scottsdale last week, Hewitt carries a 10-match win streak into the final. While the battling Aussie doesn?t seem as invulnerable as he was in his run to the title here last year, he?s been good enough so far. ?I think I?ve been getting bette r and better with every match,? Hewitt is convinced.

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Gustavo Kuerten leads Rainer Schuettler (15), 6-2, 0-1, 0-30
Semifinal
Previous head-to-head: Kuerten leads 2-0

We expected a fairly close battle between surprise Australian Open runner-up Schuettler and former number one Kuerten. We may still get one tomorrow, but Schuettler will have to improve his play considerably from his showing before the match was suspended.

Schuettler got off to a horrible start, double faulting twice in the opening game in which he was broken at love. Immediately thereafter, a light drizzle began to fall, delaying play for 30 minutes. When play resumed the players alternated breaks of serve until Kuerten snapped to life, holding at love to take a 3-1 lead. Guga kept his level high for the remainder of the set, while Rainer was doing some serious floundering (14 unforced errors and only 2 winners in the set). The aquamarine-clad Brazilia n breezed to a 6-2 lead.

Rain, heavier this time, disrupted the match again with Kuerten serving at 0-1, 0-30. The downpour continued for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Rendezvous bright and early tomorrow morning, at 9:00, for the resumption of play.