By Charles Bricker

Here's to The Little Guy, and a little guy who has been too much maligned over the last couple years.

Nikolay Davydenko. Kolya to those who feel a kinship with his droll humor and his grinding, persistent style of play. And to me, well. . .I prefer to call him The Stroke Machine.

He's listed at 154 pounds, which, based on the several times I've been close enough to lift him with one hand, seems a bit more weight than I would assign him. Still, I'll go with the official ATP number, which makes him the smallest (in terms of pounds) player to win one of the five major men's titles (four Slams and the ATP championships) since 147-pound Ken Rosewall won the Australian Open in 1972.

Twenty-seven years ago. Twenty-seven years in which the game has evolved with bigger, stronger players. There are little guys playing professional tennis today, but it's an odd day when one cracks the top 10, and now Davydenko will finish this year at No. 6, edging ahead of Andy Roddick (6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, for the record) in the end-of-the-year rankings.

The decidedly un-muscular Kolya, who was born in Ukraine but who claims Russian citizenship, is the man of month after taking down U.S. Open winner Juan Martin Del Potro in straights on Sunday, a day after his historic win over Roger Federer in the semis.

He was 0-12 vs. Federer, but no one beats Davydenko 13 times in a row.

There isn't a lot I want to say about the Davydenko win over Del Potro. This was a much better matchup for Davydenko than if he had to play Robin Soderling for the sixth time this year, having lost three of the previous five). There is much more to say about the Federer match, in which Davydenko looked as cool and unflappable as he did during the months in which blood-thirsty but evidence-poor reporters attempted to lynch him on what proved to be a bogus gambling charge.

We'll get back to that later. First, let's talk semifinal at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday. That match reached the critical stage at love-30 and 4-5, with Federer two points from reaching the final after a sensational trackdown of an overhead that looked eerily like the same shot he hit against Roddick seven years ago in a quarterfinal in Basel, Switzerland. That one, also, indoors.

Davydenko's overhead bounced high and wide of Federer's forehand sideline, but Federer raced to it, leaped for it and, airborne, slammed it down the line, where Davydenko could not control the ball. That gave Federer a love-30 lead with Davydenko serving at 6-2, 4-6, 4-5.

You could see dozens of reporters prepping a dramatic story about how one of the greatest shots of the year was THE difference in Federer's semifinal win. Only it never happened that way.

From love-30, Federer pushed a forehand long, then a backhand down the line long. At 30-all, Davydenko, making a great transition from defense to offense, swatted a forehand into the corner, forcing an error, then drew even at 5-5 in the final set with a well-placed first serve that Federer returned long.

Roger had that shaken look on his face -- the one he put on display in the fifth set of his loss in the U.S. Open final, and here was another final-set meltdown with more Federer nervousness to follow.

At 40-30 to go up 6-5, Fed lined up a fairly easy forehand down the line which would have been somewhere between difficult to impossible for Kolya to return. Federer slapped the ball into the net for deuce.

More consternation on his face. At deuce, he slopped a backhand low into the net. Not even close. An unforced error. Then, on break-point, he fed Davydenko a second serve to the backhand side and the Russian went down-the-line with the return. Yet this was not one of those scorchers that hugged the sideline. This one landed five feet from the sideline and very close to the base. Federer took two steps after it and gave up. No chance. He never raced past the center service line for this ball.

He would have one final chance with a point to break back to 6-6 and force a tiebreak. But Kolya slugged an angled forehand winner for deuce. Federer netted a return to give the Russian match point and Davydenko won the semifinal with a forehand to the corner on which Federer never got his usual jump. He arrived at the ball with dodgy footwork and his weak forehand was intercepted by the net. It was over.

For Davydenko, this was the match. Once this was bagged, he had all the confidence he needed to put away Del Potro and pocket the $1.5 million first prize.

Two years ago he was besieged everywhere he went because the ATP had identified him as being under suspicion for throwing a match in Poland. There was intriguing circumstantial evidence, but no smoking gun, no hard truth, no confessing accomplices. It left Davydenko hanging by a rope from a tree, his toes barely touching the ground. Finally, months later, he was exonerated completely.

I have nothing but the highest respect for the way Davydenko handled himself during this inquisition and he never let it bother his tennis.

So what have we learned from this World Tour Championship? First and foremost, that the O2 Arena is a fantastic venue. Great preparation and great execution by everyone that put on the event. Former ATP CEO Etienne de Villiers made a lot of mistakes in his three years at the head of the tour, but this wasn't one of them. This, long after he'd been pushed out the door by players unhappy with his management style, was his belated triumph. And of course the tournament returns to London in 2010.

There were some tired players out there and maybe that accounts for Federer losing all the opening sets of his four matches (two wins and two losses).

He will finish at No. 1 after winning two Slams. Rafael Nadal, who didn't win a set in three matches, will remain at No. 2. He's got some hard work ahead of himself this off-season, though there won't be much of an off-season, thanks to the absurd length of the ATP season. He looks as if he doesn't trust his shots at the critical moments. That's a confidence problem and it probably stems from the match-time he's lost to injury this year.

These elite eight players will have about two weeks to take wives or girl friends on vacation or just get away from the game and regain some emotional equilibrium. But by mid-December they'll have to be back on court getting ready for the 2010 season that begins in Australia.

Not only is the length of this season ridiculous, but it's killing the tour. It's killing the top players' appetites for the game and it's encouraging injury by making these guys play fully 11 months.

Doesn't anyone at the highest levels of the ATP get it?

Novak Djokovic, who was the favorite to win this World Tour Championship, won two of his three matches but didn't get out of the round-robin prelims because of the tiebreaking procedure. Still, I think he goes into 2010 with the best chance of anyone, including Nadal and Del Potro, of replacing Federer at No. 1.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com