Federer Registers 200th win on clay; Reaches Istanbul Open Final

Top seed Roger Federer beat eighth seed Diego Schwartzman 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the final of the inaugural TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.

This is Federer’s fourth ATP World Tour final of 2015 (2-1) and his 128th career final (84-43) as he looks to win a tour-level title in a 19th different country. Federer will take on third seed Pablo Cuevas in Sunday’s final.

“I think what was important in the third set was to keep working hard,” said Federer. “I needed to put in a lot of effort to stay with Diego.

“Cuevas is playing very, very well… I think it’s going to be a tough match. Cuevas has obviously played a lot on clay.”

Federer hit 6 aces in the match which lasted an hour and 55 minutes. Diego Schwartzman, backed by the crowd support, saved 8 out of the 11 break points he faced. With this victory, Federer became the seventh active player with 200 career match wins on clay.

On the other hand, Cuevas prevailed to a convincing 6-2, 6-4 over second seed Grigor Dimitrov in one hour and 15 minutes.

Cuevas, when asked about how he feels about facing Federer in the final, said, “I come from a small country, and I’m used to having the crowd against me. Playing Roger tomorrow will be like playing Roger in his hometown.”