Federer downs old foe Nadal to take Basel title

Published 11/01/2015, 12:36 PM EST

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via Reuters

BASEL (Reuters) – Roger Federer got the better of old foe Rafa Nadal for the first time in more than three years to win a seventh Basel title 6-3 5-7 6-3 on Sunday.

Top seed Federer, whose rivalry with Nadal is one of the most storied in tennis history, had not beaten the Spaniard since he won a semi-final at Indian Wells in 2012 and had lost their last five meetings.

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Playing his 12th final in his home town, Federer survived a break point in his opening service game before grabbing the upper hand.

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The Swiss broke twice to take the opening set and then went about putting pressure on third seed Nadal at the start of the second, crafting a break point at 3-2 ahead.

Nadal, however, dug deep to stay in the contest and then claimed his first break of the match for a 6-5 lead as Federer netted a backhand, leaving the Mallorcan to serve out to love.

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The Swiss broke decisively to lead 5-3 in the third set and then served out to take the title, the 88th of his career, after two hours and three minutes of battle.

(Reporting by Toby Davis; Editing by Ken Ferris)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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