With Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, last year’s finalists, not playing, there were hopes that the top two seeds might meet each other once again, namely, Nikolay Davydenko and Novak Djokovic.

So tournament organizers probably cringed a bit when neither made the final.

If there’s a player that Davydenko doesn’t like playing, it must be Robin Soderling.  Soderling’s big serve and big groundies are tough for anyone to handle, but Soderling, unlike some other players, is willing to play closer in to the baseline, dishing out to Davydenko a bit of what he gives to other players.  Soderling isn’t the baseline hugger that Davydenko is, by any means, but he still gets in enough to bother Davydenko.  It may be that Soderling attacks the Davydenko serve better than most.

For whatever reason, Soderling gives Davydenko trouble and gave him trouble again beating him 7-6, 6-4.  Soderling was not originally scheduled to play Rotterdam, but requested a wildcard from Richard Krajicek who is the pro associated with the tournament (and decides wildcards, apparently).

Novak Djokovic found himself struggling against a resurgent Mikhail Youzhny.  Youzhny was one of those guys that used to give Nadal a lot of trouble, but he faded a bit the last 2 years or so.  Since the US Open, he’s played pretty well.  Djokovic looked like he was going to lose in straight sets when Youzhny got up a break in the second.

Djokovic managed to break back and then push the set into a tiebreak.  Djokovic was up 5-2 in the tiebreak and coming into net.  But each time Djokovic comes to net, he seems to get too cute.  He loves to lob volley (remember the semifinals against Fed at the US Open?) when he gets the chance and he’s really good at it, but he drop-shotted one point which lead to a great Youzhny pickup, a desperate Djokovic pass, a volley to the backhand, and a missed shot into the net.  Youzhny was up 6-5 and match point when Djokovic played a great backhand to save match point, but it wasn’t enough because Youzhny took the next two points and the match.

That leaves Soderling and Youzhny in the final.  The two have met twice and split 1-1.  Soderling beat Youzhny the last time they met which was in Washington DC.  This was an easy straight set win.  However, Youzhny appears to be playing better so expect a tighter match, probably with Soderling favored to win in straight sets.