Tennis: Federer Favored at Home in Basel
Top seed Roger Federer began his quest for a seventh title at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Tuesday by beating Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes. He returns to his birthplace of Basel as the favorite to win his seventh Swiss Indoors title. World’s No. 3 Roger Federer has won the Swiss Indoors title six times, and has been to the finals every year since 2006. He went into this week’s event as the top seed and the favorite. He’s well on his way to defending his title.
Federer is at age 34 now and the Basel native remains one of the best hard-court players in men’s singles. Grass remains his specialty, but he’s 27-4 this year on hard courts, winning tournaments in Cincinnati, Dubai and Brisbane. Federer did lose to Albert Ramos-Vinolas last week in the Round of 32 at the Shanghai Masters.
Federer will play Kohlschreiber in round two. Federer is looking to extend his 10-match winning streak against the 32nd ranked German, who beat qualifier Jerzy Janowicz 6-4 3-6 6-3. The upcoming match marks the third time this season that Federer and Kohlschreiber clash on tour. Their most recent meeting took place in a hardcourt surface in the third round of the 2015 US Open. Federer had only dropped one set against Kohlschreiber, which happened during their third round match at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships.
There are seven other players from the ATP Top 16 participating in Basel. Federer’s toughest competition should come from fellow Swiss and World’s No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, and No. 6 Rafael Nadal. Wawrinka and Nadal are in the bottom half of the bracket, so they’d have to play one another before getting a shot at Federer in the finals. No. 12 Kevin Anderson is the second highest-ranked player in Federer’s half of the draw.
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