Tennis: In Basel, a 15th final for a 10th title for Federer

Basel (Switzerland) (AFP)

Roger Federer is now only one victory of a tenth crown in Basel, his hometown: Switzerland has rallied to its fifteenth final by dominating the world N.7 Stefanos Tsitsipas in two sets 6-4, 6-4 Saturday.

In the final, Federer (N.3) will discover the young Australian Alex de Minaur (20, 28th), the recipient of an invitation and the decider in three decisive games of the great American server Reilly Opelka (37th) after more than two and a half hours of fight. The two players, who are eighteen years apart, will be face-to-face for the first time.

In play, a 103rd trophy for the Swiss 38, the fourth this season after Dubai, Miami and Halle; a fourth for De Minaur, all won in 2019 (Sydney, Atlanta and Zhuhai).

Federer added Saturday one more chapter to the great story he shares with the Basel tournament. He now remains on a series of 23 games won consecutively in his hometown. He has not lost in the last five years, when Juan Martin Del Potro resisted him in the final in 2013.

For his third duel of the season against Tsitsipas (one win each), the Swiss twenty-one record Grand Slam champions quickly announced the color. Certainly, he had to wait until his sixth break point to seize the service of his opponent, to lead 4 games to 2. But, other than that, he was intractable on his faceoffs and has never relaxed its concentration all along. A new entry-second break was enough to make the difference.

This translates into an excellent record of 28 winning strokes for only eleven unforced errors, and an almost perfect success at the net (12 of 13).

Federer, however, eventually had to break a break point when he was serving for the win in less than a quarter-past one. Two points later he qualified for his fifteenth final in Basel in nine participations, 21 years after the first.

It remains to be seen whether he will then decide to play the Masters 1000 in Paris just like he did a year ago, or whether he will prefer to save for the end of year Masters in London (11-17 November ), as many times in the past.

© 2019 AFP