The Australian Open used to be the one tournament where you’d have surprise finalists.  Maybe the Christmas holidays lead many a pro to complacency.  Throughout the early 2000s, you had finalists like Schuttler, Clement, and Fernando Gonzalez.  These are all solid players, but compared to other Slams, they are not the best of the best.  Heck, even Thomas Johansson won the Australian Open.

Back in 2006, Marcos Baghdatis reached the finals of the Australian Open where he lost to Roger Federer.

At the time, Baghdatis might have been seen as a star on the rise.  Baghdatis played a well-known match against Agassi at the US Open.  He has given players like Federer and Murray trouble.  He’s a good player, but due to injuries and other issues, he never seems to reach his potential.  He’ll have a streak where he plays well followed by bad looses.

That’s who Kei Nishikori played in the semis of the Rakuten Japan Open.  Nishikori has been the highest ranked Japanese male.  We must emphasize male because Kimiko Date took her flat, on-the-rise shots to reach the top ten during the mid 1990s.  Prior to Nishikori, Shuzo Matsuoka was the top Japanese players.  Though he played reasonably well, he never got much higher than about 40 in the world which Nishikori has since passed.

Nishikori has taken a Davydenko-like style to the top 20 in tennis.  He uses angles to push players to the edges, and is willing to hit shots down the line after exposing players out wide.  He used this style to great effect against Tomas Berdych who tends to struggle more if he’s forced wide from side to side.  One would think a quicker player like Baghdatis would have more of a chance, but Nishikori used the same sublime hitting to push Baghdatis around the court.

Nishikori won 62 62 by exploiting angles and hitting great shots that left the Cypriot guessing where the shot would go.

However, it will be a tall order to beat the big hitting Raonic.  The positive news is that Nishikori beat Berdych who is perhaps more mobile than Raonic, but doesn’t serve nearly as well.

The two have never met as pros.  Only two spots separate the two.

In Beijing, Djokovic has looked dominant.  He had a relatively easy win over Florian Mayer.  He’ll face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Lopez who retired in the second set.  Djokovic has a narrow lead over Tsonga, so this should prove to be an interesting final with Djokovic likely to be favored.