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. 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.
Playing his 12th final in his home town, Federer
survived a break point in his opening service game
before grabbing the upper hand.
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment