Roger Federer slays Kei Nishikori to clinch second season title – Davidoff Swiss Indoors 2011
Local hero, Roger Federer swallowed past Japanese Kei Nishikori with a breadstick at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event held on the indoor hard courts in Basel, Switzerland. He registered a 6-1,
6-3 victory over the 21-year-old Japanese to win his fifth crown at St. Jakobshalle on Sunday.
A former world number one re-ignited his spark to claim his second year-to-date title and his 68th ATP career title after crushing the Japanese, ranked 24th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings,
on their first meeting.
The Swiss Master got the first blood in the opening game and after holding his serve in the proceeding game, he went 2-0 up. After the Japanese put his foot on the score sheet, Federer unleashed barrage of angled shots and groundstrokes
to reel off next four games in a row. He faced zero breakpoint and cashed in half of the six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Federer kept momentum rolling into the final set and after fending off the only breakpoint came across, he pocketed entire serves. The Swiss founded an amazing seven breakpoint chances of which he converted one to his advantage
in the sixth game to seal the victory with a 6-3 score line.
Overall, the Swiss outclassed the Japanese by firing five aces from his box of tricks and manipulating a higher first serve share of 65 percent. He also registered a spectacular 88 percent win on it.
“I’m very happy, as I got better as the week went on,” stated Federer. “I definitely saved the best for last at the tournament. I played really well today in the final.”
The Swiss Ace is all geared up for the upcoming BNP Paribas Masters 1000 event in Paris and declared, “I’m feeling really fit and I’m ready for more. I’m very hungry and fired up... I haven’t been able to win in Paris yet, so I
hope to do some damage over there”
“I think I started a little bit nervous even though at the same time I was excited to play in the final here with Roger,” Nishikori said afterwards. The Japanese, however, played his best tennis in this tournament as he surprised
everyone by becoming the first Japanese to upset world number one Novak Djokovic. He also upset the fourth seed Tomas Berdych in the opening round.
After his outstanding performance here, the Japanese is also set for the Paris Maters event.
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