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Basel Draw

Some good matches in Basel today:

Blake vs. Karlovic
Wawrinka vs. Berdych
Federer vs. Del Potro

:)

Well, after all of the eulogising over Nalbandian, he now manages to avoid a rematch with the Fedster by losing 7-6, 6-2 to Stan Warwinka... :rolleyes:

Presumably fatigued after his wins over the world numbers 2, 3 and 1, or perhaps an indication of his inconsistency throughout the year?

I'd say a mixture of the 2..

Hi petalp yes and no to be honest: Nalbi was still on fire during the first set against Stan yesterday evening..Both they were keeping quite easily their serve, few break opportunities..

I really believe that the match was a do it the first set and then you have the match because both of them they were playing their A game..

As a consequence, everything was decided by a mini break at the tie break: Stan took that mini break and was able to keep up his focus and win the first set..Then he shown to Nalbi that the music was not changing in the first 4 games of the second and Nalbi went down from his A game to a B+ one..

This was enough and the match was closed..

Connclusion: Stan played all the match at his A game, i.e. I never saw him playing so well, his erve was in fire during all the match -so mamy aces :yikes: :yikes: - his baseline shots gorgeous, the pace in his one hand BH ..Great performance from him really ..

Nalbi played well but it was not enough and might be there was a little bit of fatigue in the second set..Nevertheless, the man was great in the first set :D (in the first set his Tennis was the one of the second set in Madrid IMO)..

Results - Friday, October 26, 2007

Singles - Quarterfinals

[1] R Federer (SUI) d N Kiefer (GER) 63 62
J Nieminen (FIN) d [2] F Gonzalez (CHI) 63 75
I Karlovic (CRO) d [5] T Berdych (CZE) 67(5) 76(2) 76(13)
M Baghdatis (CYP) d [8][WC] P Mathieu (FRA) 62 76(5)

Well, it's a final betwenn Nieminem and the Fedster..

The semis seemed to be in marked contrast to each other.

Fed had a slugfest against Karlovic, winning in two tie breaks. Ivo does sound like a fearsome opponent on these fast indoor courts! Good win for Fed, played the tie breaks well, by all accounts.

I'm also thinking that this win guarantees year-end number one position for him, though I don't doubt that someone will correct me on this..

And Nieminem had a relatively straightforward win over Baggy, who played a very tired match, by all accounts.

The final: Head to Head comprehensively in favour of The Fedster: something like 7-0 or something.. so on that basis "should" win. However, this is Basel, and I recall him struggling to victory there last year, and being beaten there in the final by Henman there in the past, (though again could be wrong!) so who knows what may happen??

Results - Saturday, October 27, 2007

Singles - Semifinals

J Nieminen (FIN) d M Baghdatis (CYP) 76(4) 62
[1] R Federer (SUI) d I Karlovic (CRO) 76(6) 76(5)


Well done Roger --- petalp, according to the ATP site, he will clinch the YE#1 if he wins the title. I haven't checked the maths myself, but it sounds about right from what I remember. I don't think Nieminen has ever taken a set of Roger, so I'm hoping he'll be OK, even though this is Basel ... :pray:

If he wins here, do you think he will play Paris? I think he might. He has a mightily tough early draw there, though ...

MJT, I think that Fed seems to be up for playing Paris, if the post-match interview is anything to go by:

Details of match report and summary of post-match interviews as below :)

Federer Clinches ATP 2007 Race; Collects 52nd Title
© AFP/Getty Images
Roger Federer successfully defended his title at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Sunday to clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fourth consecutive year.

The Swiss superstar improved his perfect 8-0 record against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in 62 minutes. It was the pair's first meeting since the Bangkok semifinals in September 2005.

The 26-year-old Federer required one break of serve, in the second game, to wrap up the opening set in 27 minutes. Nieminen fought hard in the second set, but dropped serve in the ninth game. Federer won 21 of 29 service points and had four break point opportunities.

He now has a 63-7 season record and 1,291 points in the ATP 2007 Race.

Federer was making his eighth appearance in Basel. He defeated Fernando Gonzalez in last year's final and finished runner-up in 2000 (l. to Enqvist) and 2001 (l. to Henman).

He improves to 7-4 in finals this year, having collected silverware at the Australian Open (d. Gonzalez), Dubai (d. Youzhny), ATP Masters Series Hamburg (d. Nadal), Wimbledon (d. Nadal), ATP Masters Series Cincinnati (d. Blake) and the US Open (d. Djokovic) this season.

On the Bubble: Race to Tennis Masters Cup

Federer is the fifth man since the inception of the ATP Rankings in 1973 to be year-end No. 1 four times (after Connors, McEnroe, Lendl and Sampras) and the fourth to do it four or more years consecutively (after Connors, McEnroe and Sampras).

On Friday, Federer passed Carlos Moya (543) for most ATP singles match wins for an active player with his quarterfinal win over Nicolas Kiefer. He now has a 546-132 career record.

Nieminen drops to 0-6 lifetime against World No. 1-ranked players.

The 26-year-old Finn was appearing in his seventh ATP final (1-6). His lone singles title came at Auckland in January 2006 (d. Ancic).

This week, Nieminen saved one match point against Robby Ginepri in the first round and two match points against No. 6 seed Guillermo Canas in the second round.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Federer: "It’s always nice to win at home. Everyone who has achieved that in their life, winning a home title is always something special. Obviously for me it is the only Swiss tournament I play each year. To get the title here is great for the Swiss people and for me. A lot of emotions go through my body when I have the ceremony, as I used to be a ball boy standing in the exact same ceremony. I am very happy with my performance.

"Jarkko has had a great week; he has beaten some great players on the way to get to the final. I have a great record against him, so you always hope it isn’t going to turn against you. I played well and got off to a good start and never looked back after that."

[On his next event]: "Paris is a tough event. I have an incredibly tough draw, I hope I can get through the first one and find my form, get used to the new conditions. I haven’t played in Paris for a long time, so I am really excited to go back there because Bercy is a place where I don’t have a lot of great memories yet. I am still fighting to have a couple of good matches there. I think I have won a lot of fans over the years when playing at Roland Garros, so hopefully they will travel a few kilometres away and come and support me."

Nieminen: "I had a great feeling going into the match on his home court. I tried too much at the beginning and lost an early break. It was 0-3 in a few matches and it was tough to start the match after that. I managed to come back a little bit in the first set and got better in the second. I found myself more relaxed and tried to play my game. I made many unforced errors and had a tough opponent on the other side. I had some simple shots that I should not have missed in important situations and that cost me the match.

"It has been a good week, with two good comebacks in the first and second rounds that give me a lot of confidence. It is much nicer to finish in Paris and get ready for the next season on a high."

Niemenen said of Federer: "I've known him since he was 14 or 15. He's still the same person and he respects all the players and all the people.

"He's a great person off the court."

:D