2010 If Stockholm Open Final preview: Roger Federer vs. Florian Mayer
Sunday, 24th October, will see the final of 2010 If Stockholm Open at the grand Kungliga tennishallen. The final will be played between the Swiss favourite and world number two Roger Federer, and world number forty seven,
Florian Mayer from Germany. The top seed Federer will play his seventh tour-level final of the year.
In the past decade, both players have met only twice on the court. Once in 2005 for the Gerry Weber Open in Germany and then in 2006 for the Australian open; both being early round matches. On both occasions, Federer had straight
set wins over the German player knocking him out of the running for the title. Moreover, Federer moved onwards on both occasions to grab the title.
Federer advanced into the final after defeating the Croatian player, Ivan Ljubicic in Stockholm on Saturday. Ljubicic having served for the first set almost recreated Federer’s match with countryman Stanislas Wawrinka, played earlier
in the tournament. Having broken Federer’s serve in the third game, the score was 5-4 in Ljubicic’s favour. However, Federer soon made a comeback and won the fifth game. The set was then won by the Swiss in a tie-break. This did not seem to break down the
Croatian’s confidence who initially managed to be one game over the Swiss with a score of 2-1 in the second set. However fans soon witnessed the famous Swiss talent as Federer won the next five games straight and ultimately won the second set. The final match
score was 7-6, 6-2. The match lasted a total of seventy seven minutes and was Federer’s sixteenth meeting with the Croatian on the court. Their head to head score now rests at 13-3 with ten straight wins for Federer.
Federer’s last ATP World Tour final was in Beijing at the 2010 Shanghai Masters. He lost the match to Scottish favourite Andy Murray. The player will play two more ATP World Tours at Paris and London before this year’s end.
Mayer secured a spot for himself in the final by defeating the Finn Jarkko Nieminen in his semi final match earlier on Saturday. Although the German lost his first set 6-4, he soon bounced back to reverse the score and won the
second set 6-4. In the third set Mayer, at one point in the match, trailed the Finn at 4-5 with the Finn needing a match point in the final set. However, he held his nerves and finally managed to tie the set. The German player then ultimately ensured victory
for himself in the tie break. The final match score was 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.
Mayer has been on a giant killing run in the tournament having defeated world number five Robin Soderling from Switzerland and 6th seed Feliciano Lopez from Spain; this is his first shot at any ATP World Tour title for
the season. Betting on the good luck he has had against tennis superstars, the German might hope for a title win on Sunday. With no wins this year, Mayer will definitely bring his A-game to the court and hope that it will be more than enough to beat the Swiss
superstar.
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