two break points in one game, and they reached 4-3, with Federer leading, on serve. He jumped to a 15-30 lead against Haas' serve, then unloaded a powerful backhand down-the-line winner to reach break point, and converted it when Haas made a rally-ending backhand error.

Federer served it out with ease, ending the match with an inside-in forehand winner.

Stat of the Match: The serve played a surprisingly large role for both men, both in terms of the points they won and those they lost. The outstanding stat was Federer’s 92 percent success rate on first serves in the decisive third set—compared to Haas’ 62 percent—a far cry from that ugly first set conversion rate.April 15, 2008

Italy's famous instability in government has been caused, in no small part, by the multiplicity of political parties competing for seats in the Parliament, as well as a Constitution that by design gives parties proportional representation based on their votes. In order to form a government, most political leaders there have been forced to incorporate the platforms of other parties into their own. But elections just wrapped up in Italy yesterday, and the results are remarkable. Silvio Berlusconi will be Prime Minister for a third time, and his new coalition of parties holds commanding leads in both houses of Italy's Parliament. Remarkably, also, the race was largely between two broad coalitions of political parties, and thus more closely resembled an election in the United States than