Federer starts his bid for 10th Basel title

Roger Federer started his European indoor season with more dominance in his hometown of Basel on Monday evening. The 38-year-old Swiss won his 21^st consecutive match at the Swiss Indoors Basel, sprinting past German Peter Gojowczyk 6-2, 6-1 in only 53 minutes.

“I thought the match was good. I felt like I had a good spring in my step and was quick onto the ball. Didn’t take me long to get used to the conditions. That was positive,” Federer said. “I knew of the danger playing Peter, especially indoors. He had a great couple of qualifying matches, so I knew he’d be tough, especially because he beat Karlovic easy, who serves great.”

Federer, who was playing in his 1,500^th tour-level match, broke five times and, despite giving back one of those breaks in the second set, cruised in the quick indoor conditions to improve to 72-9 at the ATP 500 event. He finished with 34 winners to only 18 unforced errors.

The World No. 3 is going for his 10^th Basel title and 103^rd overall. Federer has won only one tournament 10 times, the Noventi Open in Halle.

The Swiss has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for a record-extending 17^th time. He will next meet Moldovan Radu Albot or Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.

Federer, who has made the Basel final on all of his last 12 visits, owns ATP titles this season in Dubai, Miami and Halle.

Date: 21 October 2019, Source: ATP