Basel: Roger Federer will face Romanian qualifier Marius Copil in the final of the Swiss Indoors in Basel after storming past seventh seed Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 6-4 here Saturday.
Copil, the World No.93, stunned second seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4 in the day’s other semifinal.
Federer was pushed to three sets by Medvedev when the two met at the Shanghai Masters earlier this month, but there was never any danger of the Swiss suffering a repeat. The 37-year-old saved a break point in the first game and, his nerves settled, set about the task of outclassing his opponent with clinical precision to reach his 14th Basel final.
After tamely surrendering the first set in 20 minutes, Medvedev found himself trailing 5-1 in the second but managed to fend off a match point and hold serve.
The Russian then broke Federer to love to keep his hopes of an unlikely comeback alive but the Swiss snuffed them out in his next service game, wrapping up the win in 65 minutes.
Standing between Federer and what would be his ninth career title at his hometown tournament is the unfancied Copil, who beat World No.6 Marin Cilic earlier in the week.
Kei, Kevin face-off
Vienna: Kei Nishikori will have a chance to win his first ATP title in over two years after beating qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3 to reach the Vienna Open final. The Japanese, ranked 11th in the world, will face this year’s Wimbledon runner-up Kevin Anderson after the South African beat Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Nishikori, who won the last of his 11 titles in Memphis in 2016, will attempt to end a run of eight successive defeats in tournament finals.
