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By Erik Gudris | Saturday, June 20, 2015

 
Roger Federer Gerry Weber Open 2015

Roger Federer will seek his eighth title in Halle when he faces Andreas Seppi in Sunday's final.

Photo Credit: Thomas Starke/Bongarts/Getty


Top seed Roger Federer won a handful of key points against his big serving opponent to once again reach the finals of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.

Now, Federer will go after a record eighth title at the grass-court tune up event.

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Federer squared off in Saturday's semifinal against No. 8 seed Ivo Karlovic. The big serving Croatian veteran earlier in the week hit an ATP record of 45 aces in his three set win over Tomas Berdych. Karlovic proved nearly untouchable with his serve in the first set against Federer as both men entered a tiebreak.

But it was Federer, with a block backhand return winner off a Karlovic second serve, who earned the key mini-break lead. With that, Federer went on to win the set 7-6(3) after Karlovic hit a double fault down set point.

The second set again proved to be a serving contest as Karlovic racked up 20 aces. Once again a tiebreak was needed and the margins for both men proved razor thin. 

Tied at 3-all, Federer struck a forehand wide that appeared to land out. But Hawk-Eye review showed it just clipping the line. Karlovic broke back with a forehand winner for 4-all. Yet Karlovic later would not finish off a volley sending it instead into the net.

With the lead again, Federer soon finished off the set and match 7-6(3), 7-6(4) with a backhand volley winner.


The victory earned Federer yet another incredible result both at the event and in his career.



“So, it was a tough match. I knew that going in," Federer later said to ATP.com."I was struggling to read his serve in the first set, but handled it better in the second set. It was tough. It’s just a bit of a grind and physically it’s like easy, mentally rough.”

Waiting for Federer in the final will be Italy's Andreas Seppi who had a shorter afternoon in his semifinal against No. 2 seed Kei Nishikori.

Japan's No.1 entered the court with his left calf heavily strapped with tape. In the opening game, Nishikori did not move well and ended up being broken in his first service game.

Despite his best efforts, Nishikori's injury prevented him from playing at 100%. Seppi went up another break for 4-1. After that, Nishikori decided to retire from the match rather than risk further injury.

Seppi, who advanced into the semifinals after his quarterfinal opponent Gael Monfils also retired with injury, now finds himself in his second final of the season.

Federer leads the overall head to head 11-1 over Seppi with the Italian's lone win against the Swiss star coming in Melbourne earlier this year.

 

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