Roger Federer was pushed to the limit by Gilles Simon, but he still beat the French 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 to reach the Swiss Indoors semi-finals in Basel.
Federer, the favorite, needed over two and a half hours to beat the 32nd-ranked in the world Simon. The Swiss escaped a long sigh after Simon had missed a setback to concede the victory. He made his career record against Simon at 7-2.
This was Federer’s 18th consecutive winning match at a tournament where he is unbeaten since 2013 and is an eight time winner.
Federer, aiming for a ninth title in Basel, will face the next round the Russian Daniil Madvedev, who defeated the Greek and fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The 20th-ranked in the world, Medvedev won all three duels this season against the 16th-ranked Tsitsipas.
“I knew it was going to be difficult. I was a bit unsure of my serve and his return is excellent.” Federer said after the match.
Federer has a contract until 2019 with the Swiss Indoors in Basel and he prioritizes the tournament so much that, like last year, the 37-year-old player may skip the Rolex Paris Masters that takes place next week.
Apart from 2016 when Federer was absent from the tournament, the 37-year-old man has reached every final since 2006. His last quarter-final defeat was 19 years ago, as an 18-year-old against Britain’s Tim Henman, and he has only lost once in 14 previous semi-finals appearances.
Alexandre Zverev beats Roberto Bautista Agut with a 7-5 and 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of Swiss Indoors. (Source:www.ubitennis.net.)
Earlier in the day, Germany’s second-seeded Alexandre Zverev beat Roberto Bautista Agut with a 7-5, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, Zverev will face the 93rd-ranked Marius Copil. The qualifying Romanian, who defeated Marin Cilic in the second round, has not yet escaped a single run this week following a 7-6 (6), 7-5 win.
“(Trailing) 3-0 in the second, I started to play more aggressive. I was able to play my game. Copil has nothing to lose coming from qualifying, so I have to be ready for anything.” Zverev said.
