By Chris Oddo | Sunday October 29, 2017
Roger Federer won a seesaw battle with Juan Martin del Potro to claim his 8th title in Basel.
Roger Federer won his 8th Basel title on Sunday, defeating Juan Martin del Potro in a topsy turvy battle, 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3. The victory places Federer in sole possession of second place on the ATP’s all-time title list with 95. He passess Ivan Lendl and is now just 14 shy of Jimmy Connors’ all-time record.
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Both players had struggles throughout the match, as bad decisions and ill-timed errors dotted the scoresheet, but it was Federer who pulled his game into focus when it mattered.
After struggling with a low first-serve percentage and a low winner to unforced error ratio, the Swiss began to hit targets on the serve in the decider.
After a trade of breaks in the first two games, Federer reeled off three straight games to take a 4-1 lead and held serve the rest of the way to close out his 18th win in 24 career matches against Del Potro.
The victory moves Federer within 1,460 points of Rafael Nadal for the No.1 ranking. There are 1,000 points on the line at next week’s Paris Masters and another 1,500 on offer at the World Tour Finals.
The Swiss will enter Paris on a 10-match winning streak, holding a 49-4 record on the season.
Del Potro saw his chances of qualifying for the World Tour Finals take a hit. He will enter next week’s Paris Masters 190 points behind Pablo Carreno Busta for the final qualification slot. The Argentine saw his eight-match win streak by Federer in Sunday’s final.