Most fans who follow tennis only ever care about the pros at the very top, those who threaten to win Slams, those who win dozens of titles, those who will be remembered long after their careers have concluded.

Then, there are pros that are on the other end, who aren’t good enough to last more than a few years on the tours, at best.  Their losses pile up, and it becomes too expensive to stay on tour.  Alex Bogomolov, for example, was left to teaching tennis until he changed his mind and gave the pro tour one more chance and surprisingly found success.  Many don’t even get to experience that.

Then, there are the journeymen.  They are good enough to win matches and the occasional title, but the titles are few and far between.  They are lucky if they win a title a year, or even every other year.

Players like Julien Benneteau and Jarkko Nieminen fall into this category.  Nieminen has actually been in lots of finals.  He’s reached 12 finals, but his win ratio is pretty low.  Niemimen reached the Sydney final this past weekend.  Were he to win, it would only be his second career title.  His only other title was in nearby Auckland back in 2006.  His most successful tournament is Stockholm which he reached 3 times spaced about half a decade apart–one which he reached just this past year, but never won.

Julien Benneteau, aged 30 just like Nieminen, has not had the career his Finnish counterpart has had.  While Nieminen has been to a singles final almost every year he’s been on tour, Benneteau has been only to half as many finals.  Six, to be precise.  He’s never won a singles title.  Benneteau’s success has primarily been in doubles.  Back in 2010, he won the Marseille finals with Michael Llodra, and lost to him in the singles final as well.

The Sydney final was delayed because of rain, which made life for both players a challenge.  The finals were held at 10 AM in Sydney so both players could get to Melbourne.  Apparently, despite the delayed finals, the two players may have to play on time which means Nieminen is playing Monday evening against David Nalbandian.   It’s worse for Nieminen.  Not only did he reach the singles final, Nieminen also reached the doubles final which was scheduled immediately after the singles final.

Nieminen is not exactly going to win the Australian Open without some miracle.  But a solid Sydney is something he can hang his hat on and be proud of.  Nieminen took the singles title over Benneteau, 62, 75 for his second career title.

Nieminen paired up with Australian, Matthew Ebden, but the two weren’t good enough to beat the number one doubles team in the world, the Bryan brothers, 61 64.

Auckland

If Nieminen’s career is pretty outstanding for a journeyman, David Ferrer’s is at the next level up.  This is the kind of player that might win between 10 and 20 titles, a career comparable to, say, Tim Henman, better even.  Ferrer has reached 26 finals and won 12 of them.  The last few years, he’s won about two titles each year.  One of his favorite titles is, oddly enough, Auckland, which is played in New Zealand.

Ferrer won the title in 2007 and then in 2011.  For a guy known for his clay prowess, Ferrer has won half his titles on clay and half his titles on hard courts.

This year, he reached the finals as the top seed and face Olivier Rochus, one of the shortest players on tour, and yet one of its most resilient players.  Rochus has been on the tour since Federer has.  The two even teamed to play junior doubles together years ago.  Ferrer is not that tall himself and is clearly the best of the tour’s small men using his speed, steadiness, and resolve to be a steady number 5 in the world displacing Robin Soderling who is only just ready to practice and return tour after an extended bout with mono.

Although Rochus fought, he’s not at the level of David Ferrer.  Ferrer took the finals 63, 64.  He told crowds he wanted to come back next year and win the title a fourth time.  This may pale to the number of times Nadal has won, say, Monte Carlo, but for a player like Ferrer, three titles at one location is quite the feat.

Lest you think Ferrer has overplayed, he also won Auckland last year, then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, showing he has stamina to play tournaments back-to-back.