Roger Federer has won his eighth home tournament in Basel and has reached another milestone in his career. The Swiss Grand Slam record winner won in a contested final 6:7 (5:7), 6:4,6:3 against the Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro and is 95th. Titles on the ATP tour now number two of the “eternal” best list.
The 36-year-old Federer, who was born after his 144th birthday, was born in the middle of the 19th century. With 14 victories missing in the final for Jimmy Connors’ (109) record, he celebrated his seventh tournament win in his outstanding comeback year in 2017. He had gotten more in 2007 (eight).
In his native city of Basel, Federer had been in the main draw for the first time in 1998 and lost his first-round match against Andre Agassi when he was 17 years old. It was not until eight years later that Federer won his first title in his third Basel final.
Against his “fearful opponent” del Potro, against whom he had lost four of the eight most recent duels, including the quarter-finals of the US Open 2017, Federer once again struggled for a long time and did not dominate until the third set. Only after 2:31 hours did del Potro, who had already won in Stockholm last week, have to admit defeat.
The long injured tower from Tandil, however, lost in the final in Basel and still has his chances of making it to the first ATP finals in London (12th place) despite his defeat in the final. till 19. November) since 2013.