Week 42 Finals

In each tournament taking place this week, we had easy semifinal and one extremely close one. Federer and Troicki were the easy winners, over Ljubicic and Cuevas, as expected. Ljubicic just couldn't do anything to hurt Federer, and once he lost the first set (a tight one, admittedly) in a tiebreak, it was essentially over. Troicki must have appreciated finding a clay-court specialist ranked around 50 in the world in the semifinals, and he took advantage of the opportunity, winning 6-3, 6-3.

The other pair of matches were much tighter. In Stockholm, Jarkko Nieminen and Florian Mayer were playing for the privilege of losing to Roger Federer in the final, and I must admit that I expected Nieminen to come out ahead in that one. I've seen Mayer play some great tennis for patches, but I haven't seen him put together a week as strong as this. He's no slouch - he was the ATP newcomer of the year in 2004, between Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils. Yeah, that award has about a 50% success ratio. And this is his third ATP final, but it is his first on hard courts, as the other two were on clay. And to be facing Roger Federer in the final? That's a big ask. The only thing he may have going for him is the fact that nobody - Federer included - gives him any chance of winning, so if he can come out in good form, he may be able to surprise the Swiss number one. But it does make sense that he's getting 10:1 odds to win the match.

In Moscow, Istomin had Baghdatis on the ropes. If I'm not mistaken, he was up a double break in the third and decisive set, only to stumble at the finish line and allow Baggy a chance to come back and take the match in a tiebreak. That's got to be disheartening for the top Uzbek player, but an impressive comeback from the Cypriot. That should make the final interesting - Troicki may be the underdog, but he's got to be fresher coming in, considering his easier semifinal match. That one could go either way - if you want to see a competitive match, rather than a pure display of skill, I suggest catching the final in Moscow, rather the Federer-Mayer final, which will be surprising if it turns out to be close.