"He's way better than being ranked 25 in the world. I don't know what the hell he's doing at the other tournaments, but it worked these two."
- Roger Federer after his loss to David Nalbandian in Bercy
The folks who run the Bercy Masters were tired of their event being known as the one at the end of the year that no one comes to play in and went out to establish themselves as a TMS event worthy of the name. Whatever they did to get the big boys to come and play they did. The fans in Paris got to see the wolrd No. 1 and No. 3 go down to defeat while the world No. 2 fought and outlasted a gutsy Marcos Baghdatis to make the final in his first attempt at this event.
As for the man he will play David Nalbandian, once derided by fans as “Fat Dave” is suddenly playing as if he’s part of the Top 3 and not as number three. For the last two weeks he’s been playing No. 1-caliber tennis taking apart Nadal and Federer in Madrid, and Federer once again in Paris. In a tennis tour de force he destroyed Richard Gasquet, picking him to pieces as if Gasquet was a junior playing his first main tour match. Gasquet seemed to revive at the end of the second set but it was too little way too late.
Nalbandian has to be favored going into tomorrow's final. The French tennis crowds don’t care for either Rafa or David so it’ll be interesting to see what they do. Somehow I don’t think the conga drums will be played to support either of the players.
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