No Federer vs. Nadal in Dubai

It takes Federer three sets to defeat Djokovic (6-3 6-7 6-3) in the quarterfinals but he breezes through to the finals with a straight sets victory over Haas. Now he has stretched his winning streak to 40 matches--just six matches shy of the record set by Guillermo Vilas! I'm just disappointed that it isn't Nadal that he'll be facing in the finals, thanks to the extreme precision of Hawkeye technology. Now that would have been an interesting final with Nadal defending his title.

Speaking of Federer's opinion about ATP's "innovations", here's another instance where the round-robin format can be very very confusing and seemingly unfair: Blake wins a round-robin match via a walkover but doesn't make it to the quarterfinals because walkovers, according to the rules, are not counted. ATP decides to bend the rules and lets Blake through...and then changes its mind later. Ouch! Poor Blake. This is the second time he's at the losing end of these round-robin mix-ups. I think I can hear Federer saying, "I told you so!"