Disappointing finish for Roger Federer at Swiss Indoors Basel – Tennis News
Reigning world number one, Roger Federer, stepped on the hard courts of Basel as the home favourite for winning the championship title but the local crowd was in for an absolute shocker. The five-time former champion at Swiss Indoors
Basel tournament, Federer, couldn’t defend his title in the final showdown of the event and stooped to the Argentinean number one, Juan Martin Del Potro.
It was a really disappointing finish for the Swiss Maestro in the title match, especially against the opponent he has been so brutal throughout this season. Del Potro hasn’t been able to win a single encounter against Federer in
the running year and it was expected that the home favourite will comprehensively defend his title. However, things didn’t go Federer’s way and he suffered a three-set defeat after a gruelling contest, finishing at 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-7(3).
"I thought overall I played pretty good," said Federer. "He got off to a bit of a better start, but it was close. He served well at the beginning, which made him the better player in the first set. The second set was close. He
didn’t play a very good tie-break and then I had my chances early on in the third. I couldn’t break, despite doing the right things, but then I didn’t play a good tie-break myself.”
It was not merely a match defeat for the Swiss Maestro, but it also deprived him from the ranking points after failing to defend his last year’s title. It has given a perfect opportunity to the Serbian juggernaut, Novak Djokovic,
to reclaim the season-ending world number spot in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings. It was the most distressing part of Federer’s loss in the final of Swiss Indoors Basel that his dream of retaining the top spot in men’s rankings by the end
of this season has failed to materialise.
The ongoing BNP Paribas Masters tournament in Paris and then the season-ending grand finale, Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, are the tournaments where Federer will have to defend his last year’s titles and gain some momentum before
the 2012 ATP season wraps up.
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