Last week, three ATP 250 events were being played.  Given the proximity to the year-end finals in London, some top-ranked players opted to play.

Let’s start in Moscow.  Andreas Seppi faced Thomaz Bellucci in the finals.  Bellucci twice had chances to serve out the match in the second set, but ultimately lost in a tiebreak, and Seppi won the match: 36 76 63.  At age 28, Seppi is having the best year of his career.  This is his second title this year, and his third lifetime.  He won at Belgrade earlier this year.

In Vienna, Juan Martin del Potro and Janko Tipsarevic, currently 7 and 9 in the year-end race, were the top two seeds.  del Potro reached the finals, but Tipsarevic was upset by Zemlja of Slovenia in the semis.  del Potro secured a straight set victory: 75 63.

Stockholm feature the most competitive of the three finals with the top two seeds: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych facing each other in the finals.  Berdych is 6th in the year-end points chase, while Tsonga is 8th.  Berdych should qualify for his third consecutive year-end championship, showing a level of consistency that was missing early in his career.  Berdych won this in three sets despite Tsonga winning the first set and being up a break to take it 46 64 64.

This week, the two big events are Valencia and Basel, both are ATP 500 events.  Valencia has part-ownership between David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero.  Ferrer is the top seed, followed by Tsonga, and Tipsarevic.  Basel’s top two seeds are Federer and del Potro.  It appears neither Murray nor Djokovic are playing these events, possibly due to Paris (played next week) and London being back-to-back this year.  In previous years, there was a week off between Paris and London.

Murray, it turns out, requested a wildcard, but much like last year, he’s withdrawn from the tournament due to an injury.  It may just be precautionary.