Jarkko Nieminen might be the best player to come out of Finland.  Scandinavians have mostly been represented by Sweden, which is pretty impressive given it’s a county of less then 20 million people.  The Swedes are struggling a bit with Robin Soderling being the only top player, but at least, they have a history of good players.  Finland?  Barely above 5 million.  There are cities in the US with more than 5 million.

Finland may not have its own ATP 250 event so Stockholm will have to do.  Nieminen has usually played well here.  He’s reached the finals twice before, in 2001 and in 2006, but he has never won the title.  So in the tenth year since he first played it, Nieminen is hoping for a bit of a miracle.  He has to be the speedy Gael Monfils.

Nieminen needed to beat James Blake to reach the final.  Had it been 5 years ago, Nieminen might have struggled because Blake was at his best in those days.  But Blake has struggled for years.  Only this year has his game play started to see some daylight.  He had a very good win this week over Juan Martin del Potro who is still seeking to regain some of the intimidation his game used to have.  Nieminen would beat Blake 76, 57, 62.

Meanwhile, Gael Monfils was able to fend of Milos Raonic who has played pretty well indoors.  He needed three sets: 67, 64, 63.

Despite being ranked in the top ten, Monfils has only won 3 titles in his career.  He last won a title in a small event in Montpelier.  He reached the finals of Washington DC where he lost to Radek Stepanek.  On the other hand, Jarkko Nieminen has only won 2 titles in his career and he’s a fair bit older than Monfils.  Nieminen can take some solace that Monfils has lost in 11 finals.  Clearly, the Frenchman is talented, but his ability to close the deal at the end is not proven.  To be fair, he’s lost to some highly ranked players including Nadal and Soderling.

Monfils leads the head-to-head 1-0.  They met just a few weeks ago in Bangkok where Monfils won a tight two setter, so Nieminen knows he can stay close.  Still, Monfils should be favored, but just.  Monfils often makes more trouble for himself than he has to.

Over in Moscow, the last Russian in the tournament, Nikolay Davydenko, fell to Janko Tipsarevic, 62 75.  He’ll face Davis Cup compatriot and defending champ, Viktor Troicki, who beat Jeremy Chardy 64 64.

Despite being teammates, the two haven’t played each other since 2008.  Surprisingly, they met in Moscow.  Troicki had a comfortable straight set win.  Since then, Tipsarevic has passed by Troicki in the rankings.  Tipsarevic still has an outside shot at qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals, but needs about 800 points to catch up to Tsonga.  He could get 250 by winning tomorrow.  There are still 1750 points to go (next week, there are 3 ATP 250 events, then 2 ATP 500s the following week, then the last Masters 1000 event in Paris).