Roger Federer sealed his ninth Swiss Indoors title with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Marius Copil in front of his home crowd at Basel on Sunday.
The 37-year-old world number three, went a break down in each of the sets against the 93rd ranked Romanian – seeking his first title – but eventually beat him in an hour and 34 minutes long match to secure his 99th career title. When he returns to action again on November 11 at the ATP finals, Federer will be chasing history in becoming the only second person to reach a century of ATP singles tournament victories.
Jimmy Connors of America has 109 singles career titles. He played during the period of 1972-96.
Also Read: Roger Federer beats Daniil Medvedev to reach 14th Swiss Indoors Tournament final
Federer’s first title at his home event came in 2006 and here he was – after 19th consecutive victories and 14 final appearances – aiming for his ninth title. Copil made him work hard, breaking Federer’s serve early into the contest.
But the defending champion bounced back taking the first game into a tiebreaker, where he used his vast experience to the fullest to take the Lead.
Enroute to his first final appearance, Copil had overcome World No.6 Marin Cilic in the quarters before overseeing world number five Alexander Zverev in the last four. He wasn’t going to go down easy and fought back into the contest with a 3-0 lead in the second set. But Federer came back again and won the next five games to retain his title for a fourth consecutive time.
In the process of winning, the Swiss maestro hit 22 winners and won 32 out of the 33 first-serve points. Copil in return was nervous and made 31 unforced errors to crumble down under pressure.