Top seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina won the Swiss Indoors for the second straight year by outwitting five-time champion Roger Federer by 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-4 on Sunday. In fact, the replay of last year's title match, which concluded with a similar outcome, took 2 hours 20 minutes, as Federer sealed his fate at the beginning of the third set. Actually, he dropped serve as he delivered two double faults in the opening game. Undoubtedly, the Swiss third seed had ample opportunity to clinch his spot in the World Tour Finals, which is going to commence after eight days in London. Anyway, he will now have to wait up to next week, as the ATP regular season shuts down at the Paris Masters. Precisely, Del Potro owns four titles this season and has hammered Federer in their last three matches. Interestingly, the modest Argentine was quite apologetic in victory following outlasting the 17-time Grand Slam champion. Del Potro apologized in a half-joking manner at the trophy presentation that he is sorry again to oust him here. He mentioned that it is always a pleasure to play with Roger. He is the hero here and for him, his biggest inspiration. He highlighted that he makes history at every tournament he plays. He is proud to be playing at the same time as him.
Specifically, Federer fired 14 aces to no avail in the final, as he failed to win in a disgusting season. Certainly, the 32-year-old was playing his 8th consecutive Basel final at the stadium, where he commenced the game as a ballboy almost two decades ago.
Overall, he has played 10 finals in Basel, where he has won five titles, as he was bidding for his 78th career trophy from 113 finals.
Frankly, Federer spotted himself on the back foot as Del Potro emerged as the early leader in the 54-minute opening set following breaking the Swiss but subsequently, lost his own serve just a game later for a 5-4 lead.
Remarkably, as the opener entered into a tiebreaker, Del Potro claimed a 4-1 lead before Federer continued with the chase, as he pulled to 3-5, netting a forehand for three Del Potro set points. Anyway, only one was needed.
Moreover, Federer was loudly supported by a stadium consisting of 9,200 fans, who crashed into the second set to level with two breaks of the top seed from Argentina.
It cannot be ignored that the Swiss star's misfire in the opening game of the final set, proved to be excess gap to overcome as Federer plunged to defeat following a Del Potro 216kph ace set up of match points.
Of course, the Argentine completed his afternoon following Federer saved the first.
Federer congratulated Juan, who has been having a great few years. He admitted that he had to fight hard all the way through. He feels that he was lifting his level and so was he. He added that at the end, he felt that he was playing not badly at all.
In fact, Del Potro already got qualified for London. He added Basel to his trophies this season in Rotterdam, apart from Washington and earlier this month in Tokyo. Currently, he stands at 48-13 on the season.
