The thrills of the Tennis World Tour finals

Do people really understand the importance of the ATP world tour finals? Or is it that there was not enough publicity? The tournament, which is certainly next to a grand slam tournament, if not on the same level as a grand slam, features the best eight players in the world. It's a tournament with huge price money - 1.5 $million for the winner. So why would players not fight to win it?

This year's edition promised to more exciting with the change of venue from Shanghai to the O2 arena in London. It was very well organised with a bit of creativity. It looked more like a boxing arena than a tennis stadium. The organisers went all the way out, although, it was hardly the final they hoped for.

Davydenko's moment in the sun

Kudos to Nikolay Davydenko, who finally beat Roger Federer for the first time in 13 attempts en route to lifting the trophy and making him the first man never to appear in a grand slam final to claim the year-end men's extravaganza.

It was particularly special because he won against all current grand slam titlists - Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Del Potro. No wonder he is off to Maldives with his wife $1.5 million richer. Can anybody blame him? He has earned it.

It was a beautiful week of tennis and even though world number one, Roger Federer, seemed to struggle, there were still breathtaking moves produced by him. His match against Del Potro certainly lived up to the hype. It is sad though that Federer lost that one again.

It is mission accomplished though for him as he finished the year as number one for the fifth time in his career, making him just one shy of Pete Sampras' record of finishing as number one six times. But we all know now that six is not Federer's lucky number. My best match of the tourney was certainly that between Federer and Murray. I was too excited that Roger beat his number one enemy.

Federer off colour

Federer hasn't been entirely focused on tennis lately and it justifies the questions that are being asked, "Like what motivates you", what are you still playing for? I hope he hangs around for a little longer.

I must say though that his main rival, Rafael Nadal, was quite disappointing losing all three of his round robin matches. For once in my life, my heart truly went out to the Spaniard. He seems to be a shadow of himself, and his parents' divorce probably has a hand in his dip in form, according to him. Never write Nadal off though because his fighting spirit is one of the reasons he has won six grand slam titles. According to him, he will be back next year and I don't doubt it.

Kudos to Robin Soderling who happened to have been the "surprise package" of the tournament and of the season as a whole. He proved that his victory over Nadal at Rolland Garros was not a fluke by beating him in straight sets in their opening game; unfortunately he lost to Del Potro in the semi-final.

Most of the players must have been fatigued because even Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray who were hot favorites to win the event didn't even make it to the semi-final. You must feel sorry for Murray who lost out on a semi-final appearance by one game. It took calculators to finally determine who made it out of group A, the "group of death".

Now that the season is officially over, what do we expect from 2010? Will it be sweet 16 for the FedExpress?

Treating Serena unfairly

Something else that has upset me this week is the recent fine and ban given to Serena Williams for her outburst at the US open. Serena was fined $82,000 and put on probation for two years. If she violates it by committing a "major offense" in a grand slam, the fine will be doubled and she will be suspended from the next US open. Don't get me wrong here, I am not saying that what Serena did was right. In fact, I was ashamed of her that night, but hey, she has apologised; she paid the initial fine of $10,500.

And why did it take almost three months to punish her? In my opinion, she is being made a scapegoat. In that case, Agassi too should be punished for his "confession".

Officials are truly being protected; I mean why haven't they said anything about the "bad call" that led to her outburst? I hope this will ginger her towards successfully defending her title at the Australian open. Thank God she has put it all behind her and is training very seriously for the start of the season which promises to be good with the return of Justine Henin and compatriot Kim Clijsters. But I say this all the time; like Nadal, never write Serena Williams off.