Swiss Indoors Final Preview: Roger Federer, Kei Nishikori Are The Last Two Remaining In Basel

On Saturday morning, Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori were practice partners. On Sunday afternoon, they will become opponents.

Federer admitted to being Nishikori’s warm-up partner before the 21-year-old played Novak Djokovic. Nishikori upset the World No. 1 player. He handed Djokovic only his fourth loss of the 2011 season.

Nishikori joins Federer as the only player to defeat Djokovic in a full match this season (with two of the losses being results of injury retirements). Now, the two Djkokovic-defeaters will face off in the final round of the Swiss Indoors.

Federer is a household name in Basel, Switzerland - home to this week’s Swiss Indoors. It’s his hometown tournament and the tournament’s No. 3 seed is in search of his fifth title. Federer has won the tournament from 2006-2008 and 2010.

He is 38-7 at the Swiss Indoors.

Then there’s Kei Nishikori - currently ranked No. 32. Nisikori. His last biggest upset was defeating No. 8 Jo-Wiflried Tsonga in the Shanghai Masters for a spot in the semifinal round. He lost there to Andy Murray.

The 21-year-old has reached his first round of two at the Swiss Indoors. He is 22-12 on the year in hard court play. He hasn’t advanced further then the fourth round of a major tournament, but has reached the semifinals for the third time in his previous four tournaments. The 5-foot-10, 150 pound right-hander from Japan has only one career title to his name, a hard court win at Delray Beach, Fla. in 2008.

On Sunday, the wildcard entry will play in his second finals of 2011 against the man that holds a men’s record 16 Grand Slam titles.

The champion will walk away with $450,000.