Veronica Lidén loves the If Stockholm Open. 41 years in a row she has been on site when the tournament has been played, both as an employee and as the general public. Her favorite winner of all time is Roger Federer, but in this year's tournament she finds it difficult to pick an obvious winner.

84-year-old Veronica Lidén has come to the If Stockholm Open every year since 1970. The first year she was just here as a visitor, and in 1971 she began working as an employee of the competition and served guests coffee and soft drinks.

“We had to do everything ourselves, we had to brew the coffee in the hallways and serve it. So it's not like today, everything is much easier now,” says Veronica, who worked as an employee until the age of 71.

Between 1989 and 1994 the tournament was played at the Globe. Those years Veronica did not think the competition had the same atmosphere like it does when it is played at the Kungl. (Royal) Tennis Hall.

“We play in a hall with many years of history, and of course there are fancier tennis halls, but we did not like the Globe, there is something special about the Kungl. (Royal) Tennis Hall,” she says.

“What do you remember most from all the years the tournament has been played?” we asked.

“It was when Bjorn Borg played. It was just dead silent in the hall when he played, no one dared to say anything,” said Veronica. “It's a fantastic competition we have here with all the foreign players. It is tragic that we don’t have many Swedish players, in the past we had many more from the Swedish clubs,” she said.

Today Veronica follows both the female and male tours. Her favorite on the women's side is Samantha Stosur, while Roger Federer is her men's favorite. The Swiss is also her all-time favorite winner of the If Stockholm Open.

“There is no other than Federer. He is a gentleman and plays wonderful tennis,” says Veronica.

Last Wednesday when she tried to guess the winner of this year's tournament she saw no obvious winner.

“I think it will be a surprise, but Nieminen deserves to win. He has been in the finals twice,” she said.

Maybe Veronica is right. Tomorrow Nieminen plays in the final of the 2011 edition of If Stockholm Open.