This week's Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London has been a stately procession of the status quo, not unlike that daily routine of pomp and circumstance over at Buckingham Palace.
The top four seeds progressed to the semifinals, and 10 of the 12 round-robin matches were decided in straight sets. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, won all of their matches without dropping a set.
But Saturday's semifinal matches were different. They were actually compelling, fiercely so.
Sure, there were some snickers when Stan Wawrinka moved ahead of his Davis Cup teammate in the rankings -- for more than five months after Wawrinka won the Australian Open -- to become the No. 1 Swiss player. In 16 previous matches with Federer, Wawrinka had won only twice -- although they split this year's meetings, at Monte Carlo and Wimbledon.
Three times, Wawrinka had a match point on his racket, and three times Federer squirmed out of it to level the third set at 5-all. And then two times, Wawrinka held break points, and two times Federer again saved himself and eventually forced a tension-charged tiebreaker.
Federer saved a fourth match point, then converted his first, dropping a gorgeous forehand stick volley winner to win 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6). At the age of 33, not at his best, Federer conjured the superb stuff that many believe makes him the best tennis player of all time.
Earlier, Djokovic needed three sets to beat No. 4 Kei Nishikori 6-1, 3-6, 6-0.
And so, we'll have the final most people hoped for. One caveat to consider, though: Federer needed all of 2 hours, 48 minutes to close the match that ended after 11 p.m. London time. Now he's got to come back and play Sunday's final only 19 hours later.
Advantage, Djokovic.
Coverage of the singles final begins at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and WatchESPN. The doubles final can be seen at 10:30 a.m. ET on ESPN3.
Earlier, the No. 1-ranked doubles team of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan advanced to the final, dispatching Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-0, 6-3. Earlier, No. 7 Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo defeated No. 8 Lukasz Kubot and Robert Lindstedt 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.
Federer leads Djokovic 19-17 in their career head-to-head. Federer, who beat him most recently in Shanghai, as well as at Monte Carlo and Dubai, holds a 3-2 edge in 2014.
"If I get to play him tomorrow, I'm going to have to deliver my best game because that is what is needed when you play against Roger at this stage of one of the most important tournaments of the year," Djokovic said after his match. "We all know how good he is in finals. I know what to expect from him.
"Hopefully I can deliver what I imagine."
Wawrinka was in control for most of the match. He consistently worked over Federer's backhand and served an average of 10 miles per hour faster. But as the noose tightened in the third set, errors began to creep into his game. On each of his four match points, Wawrinka elected to force the issue by coming forward -- and Federer proved to be better.
Meanwhile, Nishikori lost seven of the first eight games to Djokovic in the first semifinal, but then something curious happened.
Playing precisely and aggressively at the same time, Nishikori won the second set in his debut year-end tournament and seemed to have the world No. 1 in a bad place. The 24-year-old Japanese player, believe it or not, has already fashioned the best deciding-set record in Open era history, and if he had landed one of two thumping backhands, Nishikori would have been up 2-0 in the third and might have added an unlikely win to that impressive column.
But in this narrow era of men's tennis, Djokovic is playing the best. Nishikori, the fifth-ranked player in the world, blinked -- he threw in a double fault and then a loose forehand followed by a looser backhand -- and Djokovic was through to the finals.
Nishikori was 21-2 in deciding sets this year, a remarkable piece of work, but Djokovic has now won an amazing 15 straight in that category since losing to Federer in Dubai.
"Second set I started playing well," Nishikori said afterward. "He got a little bit tight. I took some risk. Everything worked well in the second.
"Even first couple points in [the] third set, I thought I had it. I think I started thinking too much about he's [the] No. 1 player, Novak. I think I risked too much. I think I did too many unforced errors first couple games. Then he started playing better."
Djokovic has now won 30 consecutive matches indoors and is 17-1 since losing to Nishikori in the US Open semifinals, and is 9-1 against top-10 players.
Federer? He's a remarkable 18-1 since the US Open.
The issue of No. 1 was settled Friday when Djokovic won his third round-robin match, a tidy straight-sets win over Tomas Berdych. That made Djokovic the year-end No. 1 for the third time in four years. He is the seventh player to finish No. 1 three or more times. The others are named: Sampras (6), Connors and Federer (five), Lendl and McEnroe (four) and Nadal (three).
This is the 11th consecutive season that Djokovic, Federer or Nadal has held the No. 1 ranking.
The only remaining question: Can Federer summon one more effort against Djokovic?