baselRoger Federer was coming into the finals having won three straight titles at Basel and hoping to win a fourth.  Compared to other years, Federer lacked the match practice he would normally have.  Federer hadn’t played a match since the Davis Cup tie a week after the US Open, resting and practicing and presumably handling fatherly duties (though I suspect he does less than most fathers because of his quest to be the best).

On the one hand, Federer had beaten Djokovic in their two previous meetings and Djokovic looked a bit tight in winning 2 three set matches including having to fend off 0-40 on his own serve, triple match point down.  On the other, Federer was light on matches.

Perhaps a key to this match was a marathon match when Djokovic attempted to serve out the first set at 5-4 up.  Federer saved 6 set points and Djokovic saved 5 break points before Djokovic approached the net and Roger missed the pass.

Things didn’t look good in the second set when Federer feel a break back but managed to come back and win the second set.  However, the third set started with Federer losing his serve twice and Djokovic went on to win that set, 6-2.

This is Djokovic’s fourth title of the year (Dubai, Belgrade, Beijing, Basel).  Djokovic has won the most matches of any player (71) this year.

Andy Murray had an easier time.  Had he played Nikolay Davydenko, he probably would have had a tougher match.  However, he faced a resurgent Mikhail Youzhny who upset Davydenko in the semifinals.  Although Murray appeared injured in the semifinals, it was Youzhny who called a trainer to rub him down during a break.

Murray rushed to a 5-1 lead using his array of slices and dinks to confound the Russian, but due to a series of misses, allowed Youzhny to break back and hold, before he served out the first set, 6-3.  The second set went about as smoothly with Murray taking that set, 6-2.  Perhaps a telling stat is the number of break points Youzhny saved (1) out of total break points (5).

Next week, the last Masters 1000 event will be played in Paris.  As usual, with every Masters 1000 tournament, the field is star-studded.  The top 8 seeds are: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, del Potro, Davydenko, Verdasco, and Tsonga.  Notably missing is American, Andy Roddick.  Recall that he complained about the length of the tour back in Shanghai and had to withdraw from the tournament.  del Potro also withdrew, but is still scheduled to play in Paris.  Andy would presumably play the year-end ATP World Tour Finals in London to be played in two weeks.