By Erik Gudris / Sunday, October 27, 2013

 

With clutch serving in the final set, Juan Martin Del Potro defended his Swiss Indoors title against local favorite Roger Federer.

Photo Credit: AP

Roger Federer wanted to win in front of his home crowd. But it was Juan Martin Del Potro who once again raised the trophy at the Swiss Indoors finals in Basel.

Not only was Federer hoping to win his second title of the year, a victory would have clinched his qualification for the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals. But to do that, he would have to defeat Del Potro, who stayed level with Federer during the opening stages of the first set.

Both men struck the ball with great precision, leading to some stellar rallies. But it was Federer, down break point, who sent a forehand long to give Del Potro a 5-3 lead. Federer responded by breaking Del Potro right back at love for 4-5 to the delight of the vocal Basel crowd. Perhaps the best rally of the event happened in the next game.

Federer soon found himself facing 15-40 on his serve and with it two set points. He saved the first with an ace.

The next point saw Federer display vintage shotmaking as he and Del Potro became engaged in another extended rally that Federer finally won when Del Potro sent a shot into the net. Federer soon held for 5-all and eventually a tiebreak was needed to decide the set.

But it was Del Potro who took command early in the breaker and never relinquished his lead. Del Potro closed out the set 7-6(3) when his own shot clipped the far baseline, causing a Federer error.

Undeterred, Federer carried on. In the second set, Federer held serve and then broke Del Potro with a piercing crosscourt forehand winner. Despite soon holding a 3-0 lead, Federer would often shout out in displeasure on errors he made - an indication that Federer really wanted this win considering the rough season he's had in 2013.

Hanging tough with Del Potro, even when the Argentine unloaded on several massive forehands, Federer climbed to a 5-2 lead. Del Potro sent an errant backhand pass wide while down set point in the next game.

With that Federer took the set 6-2 and looked poised to perhaps pull off, at least in terms of their current rankings, the upset.

But it was Del Potro's serve that proved the deciding factor in the final set.

Federer quickly fell behind early to give Del Potro the 1-0 lead, then had two break points on the Argentine's serve in the next game. After missing a shot on one of the break points, Federer grabbed a ball and hit it towards the roof - a clear sign that the frustrations of losing serve early were getting to the usually reserved Federer.

Down the stretch, Del Potro continued to enjoy an advantage especially with his first serve. Del Potro, at one stage, won 100 percent of his first serve points while Federer tried to find ways to bring up another break point opportunity.

Eventually, Del Potro served for the match at 5-4. With two booming serves backed up by a sizzling forehand winner, Del Potro held match point. A final forehand in the corner that Federer couldn't handle sealed the 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-4 victory.

Basel is the fourth title of the year for Del Potro and 17th career title overall.

"Congratulations again on a good tournament. Sorry again," Del Potro said to Federer during the trophy ceremony. "It is always special for me to play against you. I know that you are their inspiration and you also an inspiration for me, too. I'm so proud to be playing at same time with you."

Despite the loss, Basel was a good week for Federer and puts him just one win away from qualifying for London.