Swiss Indoor Open Basel 2015: Roger Federer wins title
World No 3 Roger Federer, top seeded at the Basel Swiss Indoor Open, took victory at his home tournament in a three-set match against his long-time nemesis Rafael Nadal, who has beat him in 23 of the pair’s 34 meetings.
With his ‘special weapon’, the SABR making a number of appearances, Federer took victory over the Spaniard in a 2 hour battle.
Federer, who last faced off against Nadal at the 2014 Australian Open, hit 12 aces – with none by Nadal in the course of the match. He committed 2 double faults to Nadal’s 3, hitting a whopping 44 winners, with Nadal only able to manage 27 in comparison. Federer capitalised on 3 of the 7 break points he faced, converting them to wins.
The Swiss committed 32 unforced errors, coming into today's final on the back of a straight sets victory over American Jack Sock in the semi-final. Nadal himself took a straight sets victory over France’s Richard Gasquet, with the second set going to a tiebreak in that match.
The former World No. 1 today extended his own record of most titles at the Basel tournament; he now has 7, and becomes the only player to win 60 titles on any given surface.
Today’s win, the pair’s only meeting all year, takes their head-to-head record to 11-23 to Federer.