Federer progress towards his 99th crown

Published 10/27/2018, 8:16 PM EDT

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The 20-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer has moved a step closer towards his ninth crown at his hometown tournament in Basel. He dispatched Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals to reach the 14th final at the Swiss Indoors. The 37-year-old Swiss legend took 64 minutes to seal a spot in the final against Medvedev. Recently, in the Chinese city of Shanghai, it was a three-set tussle for Federer to defeat Medvedev in the opening round of the Shanghai Masters.

via Imago

“It was a very good win for me, I’d rate it at eight out of 10,” Federer said. “He played me tough in Shanghai. I was feeling good on court apart from closing it out, I had a few errors there. He finished late last night and maybe his legs were a bit heavy. I was able to use my experience today.”

Up next, Federer will be facing the 93rd-ranked Romanian, Marius Copil in the final. He is the first qualifier to reach the Basel final in more than a decade as he upset Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4.”I still can’t believe I won, it’s been an unbelievable week for me,” Copil said.”When I came here I was fighting to stay in the top 100. I was just hoping to win a few matches. Now I’m in the final, it’s an unreal achievement for me. I cannot wait to play tomorrow.”  Copil reached his second career ATP final and won six matches on his road to the final. “I hope Marius spent a lot of energy in his match, I’m feeling very fresh,” said Federer. “It would be great to win my 99th career title here in Basel”.

via Imago

On the other courts of ATP in the neighbouring country, the Wimbledon finalist, Kevin Anderson and the Japanese, Kei Nishikori set up the final match. The fifth seed Nishikori broke defeated Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes. The second seed Anderson defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The Japanese, Nishikori holds a 4-2 record against Anderson from six previous meetings. A win for Nishikori would challenge Dominic Thiem in the ATP’s Race to London. Thiem presently takes the final spot.

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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