Friday at the 48^th Copa del Café was semifinal day. Connor Farren of USA seeded 5 and ranked 61 bested Christian Garin of Chile, unseeded and ranked 180, in two sets 6-4, 6-2. The Chilean played well throughout the tournament and at 16 years may be back next year. Farren will “graduate” next year out of the juniors.

In the other half of the draw unseeded 16 year old Noah Rubin of USA, ranked 160, defeated the bigger Markos Kaleovelonis of Greece, seeded 4 and ranked 60, also in two sets 6-4, 6-4. As with Garin, Rubin´s age will permit future visits to the Copa but this is Kalovelonis´ farewell.

On the girls´side Sachia Vickery of the USA, seeded 5 and ranked 80, got a pass into the final as her semifinal opponent Rebecca Peterson of Sweden, seeded 8, was forced to withdraw due to injury. This is Sachia´s third visit to the Copa and may yet visit us again in 2013. Sachia is a strong player and will be a formidable opponent in the final.

The other finalist will be Christina Makarova also from USA. Christina, seeded 3 and ranked 50, defeated Jennifer Brady (seeded 6) in two sets 6-4, 6-3. Brady had strong groundstrokes deep into the corners but sprayed some shots to enable Makarova to dominate with a strong all around game . Both Brady at 17 years and Makarova at 15 may repeat their visits to the Coffee Bowl next year.

With the semifinals behind us, the Copa del Café this year will sport all USA finals in both boys and girls. This has not happened before.