With Andy Roddick's unexpected early departure, much of the star power of this year's Legg Mason Classic went with him. At the semifinal matches on Saturday, fans had the chance to watch one of the two remaining seeded players eliminate the other, followed by a match between two relative unknowns.

At the afternoon semifinal match, Tommy Haas struggled to make any headway in ending the winning streak of Juan Martín del Potro, losing the first set, 6-2, and allowing the young Argentinian player to blank him at 4-0 in the second before winning a game. The crowd's support for the German veteran, cheering at every point he made and near-point he did not, was not enough to help him turn the tide. Afterward, Haas again dismissed questions about pain or tightness in his shoulder after a third surgery earlier this year. His shoulder feels fine, he said, but del Potro's reach and speed were too much for him on the court. That Haas did not even stage any spectacular arguments over judges' calls is a sign that his heart was just not in it.

Juan Martin del Potro won his fourth consecutive ATP tournament and his 19th match in a row. (Kyle Gustafson / www.photokyle.com)

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Del Potro, showing none of the fatigue or lack of confidence that plagued him in his previous match against Dudi Sela, advanced in a total time of little more than an hour, taking the second set, 6-1. After the match, del Potro said that Haas seemed more tired than usual on the court and he tried to play longer points and to keep him in motion to wear him down.

The second semifinal was also one-sided, with the Serbian surprise, Viktor Troicki, easily advancing over Igor Kunitsyn. Troicki, having unseated Andy Roddick the day before, took the first set, 6-4, in just 40 minutes, including blanking his opponent in the final game. With a full head of steam going into the second set, Troicki then broke Kunitsyn's first service, which seemed off for most of the match. Despite encouragement from the crowd, Kunitsyn seemed shaken and tired, managing to break Troicki once but giving up the second set, 6-2, in about half an hour.

Troicki came out fighting for his first final match in an ATP tournament on Sunday afternoon, breaking del Potro and looking like he could surge ahead of the hottest young player on the professional circuit. In the middle of the first game, however, the Serbian appeared to suffer from pain in his lower back. During one long break, Troicki lay down on the court to receive a massage and leg stretch, which was followed by further therapeutic attention at other intervals. Whether it was that or del Potro's determination reviving, the Argentinian broke back against Troicki, to take the first set decisively, 6-3.

Troicki fiercely contested del Potro's first service game, but the Serbian kept reaching for the lower left part of his back, as if having regular twinges of pain there. He soldiered ahead, fighting to hold on at 3-3. At that critical moment, Troicki squandered two break points against del Potro, in his best chance at stealing the second set. Instead, he had to scramble to hold his own service but lost it to go down, 5-3. All the press cameras swiveled to del Potro's end of the court, setting up the inevitable victory shot. Del Potro hit two aces to reach double match point but then hit two bad returns into the net, sparing Troicki for a moment and bringing the crowd to life for the underdog.

Eventually, del Potro put the hammer down and clinched his first Legg Mason Classic and its $85,000 purse, falling to his knees and then throwing his headband into the crowd. The win extends the 19-year-old's remarkable streak to 19 consecutive victories, which includes four back-to-back ATP title victories. Earlier in the day, the top-seeded pair of Soares and Ullyett was upset by Gicquel and Lindstedt in the doubles final.