Roger Federer savored his first title on home soil, beating
defending champion Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the final of the
Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel, Switzerland on Sunday.
The runaway world number one sealed the 6-3, 6-2 and 7-6 win to
complete a journey from Basel ball boy to tournament champion.
"It's one of the most beautiful moments of my career and also
one of the most important to me after Wimbledon," said Federer
after winning his fourth successive title and his 11th of the
year.
"Although I always wanted to? a professional tennis player,
Inever dreamed as a ball boy that I would one day be the champion
here.
"It's also my one thousandth day as world number one, so it's
avery fitting day for this to happen."
Gonzalez has thus lost all nine of matches against Federer,
including last week's 7-5, 6-1 and 6-0 defeat in the Madrid Masters
final.
Federer broke Gonzalez in game six in the first set and surged
ahead in the second by taking a 4-0 lead with two further
breaks.
In the third set, Gonzalez showed more resistance to live up to
his No. 7 spot in the world, managing two break points on Federer's
serve when 2-1 up.
After the nine-time grand slam champion saved both, Gonzalez
slung his racket across the court, and surrendered the tiebreak
7-3.
"It's always tough to play Roger, especially in front of his
home crowd," Gonzalez said, "He's playing unbelievably, which is
really good for the game -- even if it's not so good for the rest
of us."
(Xinhua News Agency?October 30, 2006)