Roger Federer has a sense of history, doesn’t he?  He chose to play Stockholm, a tournament he hasn’t played since 2000, because he knew it would be a relatively easy draw.  He could always point to Peter Lundgren, one of his earliest coaches, who was from Sweden as one reason he played the tournament.

Winning that title was the third title of the year for Roger Federer.  More importantly, he also won his 50th match of the year, and his 900th career match.  Furthermore, he’d reach 64 titles and tie Pete Sampras.  Federer still has a few Sampras records he’d like to break, including total number of Wimbledons, total weeks at number 1.  Roger Federer is one week short of tying Sampras on that record and two weeks short of winning.  Had he, say, reached the semis of the French, he would have broken that record as well, but alas no.

And if Roger could win Basel, he would break Sampras’s titles and move into 4th place for total titles won behind Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, and John McEnroe.  The next number Roger has to look forward to is 77, the number of titles McEnroe won in his career.

Federer got an early break in the first set and rode that to a first set win.  Then, his play started to get a bit erratic, with Novak Djokovic breaking in the middle of the second set, and holding to the end of that set.  Neither player was playing spectacular.  They have played up and down.

Federer was up 2-1 when Djokovic was serving to tie the third set.  Djokovic was playing reasonably well, but got down 30-40 on his serve.  A Swiss fan then called “Game, Federer”.  Mohamed Lahyani told the crowd to be quiet.  Djokovic shook his head at the interruption, then proceeded to double-fault and give Federer the break.

Federer would get to break point again against Djokovic on his next serve.  Djokovic volleyed a short ball, and Federer gunned the ball at Djokovic only to see the ball hit the net.  However, Federer would get to break point again, and in a relatively short rally, Djokovic would hit the ball slightly wide and give Federer the second break.  Up 5-1, Djokovic tried to hit as hard as he could on every shot, but either missed, or, as on match point, watch Federer block the shot up the line and win the third set comfortably, 6-1.

This makes Basel Federer’s fourth title of the year, all the more impressive considering he won his second title at Cincinnati, two weeks before the US Open.  This matches the number of wins he had last year with Paris upcoming.

On a quick note, David Ferrer, who won the Valencia title in 2008 and has part-ownership of the tournament with Juan Carlos Ferrero, is on the verge of winning this title.  Ferrer played a close first set against lowly ranked Marcel Granollers, but took the first set, 7-5 and seems poised to close out the second set as well.

So who’s in good form for Paris?  Nadal has already pulled out of Paris citing shoulder issues.  Federer is playing pretty good, though, as usual, not as good as a few years ago.  Djokovic is also playing well, but had an inconsistent day.  Andy Murray played lackluster in Valencia, but arguably, he lacked preparation and primarily showed up because he had to.  He had attended his brother’s wedding the week before.  Murray, in any case, is likely to focus on Paris.  Whether this lack of preparation will hurt him, one can only wait.  Suffice it to say that he won Shanghai despite not having a good week in Beijing, losing to Ivan Ljubicic.

Five of the eight players have been determined for the ATP World Tour Finals.  This includes Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Robin Soderling.  Although Thomas Berdych has played indifferent tennis since just after Wimbledon, his appearance in the finals of Wimbledon and semis of the French appear to give him a good chance of making the final 8.  David Ferrer should move to 7 after winning Valencia.  Andy Roddick will be 8th.

There are a handful of other players with an outside shot of making the final 8.  Fernando Verdasco, Mikhail Youzhny, and Jurgen Melzer.  Verdasco has played indifferent tennis so far, so unless he does spectacular in Paris, it doesn’t seem likely.  Youzhny seems to be injured, so again, this is likely to be an issue.  Melzer is a bit too far back and would likely have to win Paris to advance.  And this assumes Roddick, who didn’t play any tournaments after Shanghai receives 0 points in Paris.  If Roddick has a halfway decent performance (say, reaches the quarters), he’s likely to add distance to everyone, and be a safe bet for the 8th spot.

Though Roger probably didn’t intend it, he’s won a title in each category.  Stockholm is an ATP 250 event.  Basel is an ATP 500 event.  Cincinnati is a Masters 1000 event.  The Australian Open is a Slam.

Oddly enough, Nadal hasn’t achieved this distinction despite winning plenty of titles.  In 2010, Nadal has 3 Slams, 3 Masters 1000 events (the entire clay season), and Tokyo (ATP 500).  To be fair, he probably doesn’t care, and furthermore, he’s only played 2 ATP 250 events (Queen’s, losing to Lopez, and Bangkok, losing to Garcia-Lopez).