Archie's Pick: Schiavone-Li

It's Schiavone-Li in the French Open women's singles final, and Archie's picking Schiavone for the repeat.

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For those of you who haven't been following along with Archie's picks, he's now gone 6 for 9 at picking matches at the French Open. He's also getting to eat two extra treats for each match that he picks (one for each player), so he's pretty happy about that. He's not quite Paul the Octopus, but he's he's getting better than half of the matches right, so let's please give him some props.

See Archie's Sharapova-Petkovic pick Here

See Archies Azarenka-Li pick Here

See Archie's Nadal-Soderling pick Here

See Archie's Schiavone-Bartoli pick Here

See Archie's Sharapova-Li pick Here

See Archie's Djokovic-Federer pick Here

See Archie's Murray-Nadal pick Here

***Archie also picked Murray over Chela and Djokovic over del Potro (no posts for those picks).

Without any further ado, here is Archie's pick for the women's final:

Li vs. Schiavone: H2H

Archie's Pick: Schiavone

Why: Archie loves the one-handed backhand. 'Nuff said.

My Pick: Li

Why: I'm pretty convinced that this match is going to be a very interesting study in contrast in which neither player holds the momentum for very long. I think that Li will take her pokes with her incredible groundies and I also think that Schiavone will construct some of those gorgeous rallies that we've come to expect from her on all surfaces, but especially the clay.

This is a hard match to call, and it's hard to pick a particular player to root for, because they both have compelling stories, possess a captivating story, and each has come such a long way to be playing a Grand Slam final at such an advanced stage of their career (Schiavone is 30 and Li is 29).

As far as I'm concerned, you can flip a coin to pick the winner of this one. The only reason I picked Li is becauseI had to pick somebody (or else this post might be lame) and I think she is on a date with destiny. I have this strange feeling that the whole match is going to come down to a let chord or a close call on one of the lines.

Either way, I just want to state for the record that the women's tournament has been incredible this year. If the casual fan doesn't want to turn on a match like this because it lacks the huge names that we've become accustomed to, thEn somebody is not doing their job in the marketing department. We have one of the cleverest and passionate clay courters in the game, matching up with an absolute phenom from the baseline who is vying to become the first Asian player in the history of tennis to ever win a Grand Slam.

Both have similar coming-of-age stories, and both have blossomed over the last few years into world-class and worthy talents.

Schiavone-Li may not have the cachet of Graf-Seles or Williams-Williams, but to focus on what it isn't would be completely missing the point.

Enjoy the final!