Doha had, for the most part, its dream semifinals.  On the one side was Rafa Nadal playing 5th seed, Viktor Troicki.  This was an easy match for Rafa, winning comfortably, 6-1, 6-3.

The other side pitted the number 1 and 3 seed, Roger Federer against Nikolay Davydenko.

At one point, Federer simply owned Davydenko.  He had beaten him 12 times in a row.  A fair number of these players that Federer dominated, however, have started winning against him.  In the ATP World Tour Finals, which was played at the end of November, Davydenko played Federer in the semifinals.  In a tight three set match, Davydenko managed to eke out a win, one where Federer his an impressive overhead passing shot off a smash.

Federer hasn’t had the start to his year that one had hoped.  Each year, Federer seems to come out struggling a bit, but then manages to make it to the Australian Open finals (as he has with numerous Slams).  This year was no different.  In a 6-man exhibition, Federer lost to Robin Soderling, a player he had never lost to.  To be fair, being an exhibition, that loss didn’t count in their head-to-head.

Davydenko once again beat Federer, this time, 6-4, 6-4.  Is it possible that Federer is avoiding Nadal, only wanting to face him in a potential final?  Of course, these days, Federer has more people that can give him trouble than merely Nadal.  This includes Djokovic, Murray, Davydenko, Soderling, and del Potro.

Meanwhile, the finals pits Davydenko against Nadal.  Davydenko has said that he’s fatigued and wonders if he can give it his all against Nadal.  Even so, he has beaten Nadal twice in the last few months, once in Shanghai, and once again in the round robin in the ATP World Tour Finals.

This will be a good gauge of where both players, in particular, Nadal, is.