Federer loses to Djokovic in Swiss Indoors final
BASEL, Switzerland (AP)—Top-ranked Roger Federer lost his hometown tournament on Sunday, falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to Novak Djokovic in the Swiss Indoors final.
Djokovic earned his fourth title of the season with a victory that ended Federer’s run of three straight titles at the tournament where he was once a ballboy.
“It’s disappointing to lose at home in the finals, no doubt,” Federer said. “I thought I missed plenty of opportunities. I’m not looking for excuses. He played tough and he played well when he had to, and saved a ton of break points that were crucial.”
Djokovic improved to 3-2 this year against Federer, and said the top-ranked Swiss pushed him to his limits.
“I have to produce something special to win,” Djokovic said at sold-out St. Jakobshalle.
The second-seeded Serb clinched the first set by saving five break points in a game that lasted 24 minutes.
“It may be the longest I have ever played in my life,” Djokovic said. “It was maybe the turning point in the whole match. I was fortunate to keep my nerves.”
Federer fought back from a break down to win the second set and rouse his partisan fans, but Djokovic raced to a 4-0 lead in the decider and closed out the victory after Federer wasted three break points in the sixth game.
It was a tour-leading 71st win this year for Djokovic, who improved to 4-5 in finals in 2009. His other title wins were at Dubai, his home event at Belgrade, and Beijing last month.
Federer is 59-9 this year after losing only his third match since May.
The first set went with serve, until Federer was broken for the first time in the tournament to trail 5-4. Then came that tense, error-strewn game that featured 11 deuces before Djokovic took his seventh set-point chance.
Federer dropped serve again to open the second set, sending another forehand into the net. But he won his next service game, then broke his opponent for the first time when a drop shot grazed the net cord before falling in play.
He broke Djokovic’s serve again to win the set when the 22-year-old Serb sent a forehand into the net. Djokovic rallied immediately in the decider, Federer dropping two straight service games for the second time in the match.
Trailing 4-1, Federer held three break points at 0-40 but was let down again by his groundstrokes as Djokovic reeled off five straight points. Djokovic needed just one match point to clinch, as Federer mistimed a backhand from the baseline.
88 Comments
1 - 25 of 88
Report Abuse
novak u also played very well !!!!!
Report Abuse
it;s ok for you, i think! but still, you might feel a little bit dissappointed when you lost on your own country tournament last sunday. however, i am still believing you! i know that you're a very good tennis player and you will never give up. just be patient, do whatever you need to do and can do. and always "keep it up federer!'
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
Hello there :-)
I just finished writing you on another thread (I can NEVER remember the titles)..wondering if your computer was giving you grief again! I know how you feel when you don't have your computer..
Glad yours is up and running again or you have a new one right?
Thank you regarding the weather situation. I will most likely lose power any minute now. The gusts are getting fairly high out there about 45 mph right now. We are expected to lose power around the land-fall which could be any time from now until about 3 in the morning. We're ALL so grateful this thing fizzled out about 100 miles out to sea because this time last night it was a Cat 2 hurricane barreling down on us. The wind shear from the west and the much cooler water temps closer to shore pretty much has taken much of her punch away. THANKFULLY!!! We've been through our fair share in the last 18 years..some bad ones for sure.
We'll be just fine, have everything battened down..pretty used to the drill by now after all these years of storms.
Appreciated your kind words~johnp's and nightwing's too! Thank you guys~
Yes, I have been really having to watch myself lately about all these posts bashing Pete, his career, the man, just everything about him. Just off the charts with attacks on this man. I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like this..and it's all been since Andre's revelations or at least people are "saying" these things in greater numbers. I was actually beginning to feel sorry for Andre, well as much as I could considering he lied to protect himself from being punished by the governing body of tennis and then for some very strange reason decided to write about it and allow the entire planet to know of his every little discretion. Someone wrote they were really tired of knowing every little piece of fodder about these celebrities, be that entertainment or sports. Agreed!
After hearing what he said last night on 60 Minutes and reading the People excerpt I have far less respect for Andre.
I wrote to this on another thread too. I KNOW he's had it rough..a brutal stage father. Probably never playing tennis because HE wanted to. Making really bad choices about friends and at the heart, I think, he had very little self-esteem and self-respect making poor choices easier to make.
I hope something positive comes out of all this, but I will never stop wondering "what if" regarding not only Pete, but other's in the top 10 who may have had their careers affected by Andre's remaining in the sport. Tennis history may have hung in the balance with Andre's deceptions. We will never know, that the only thing we do know~
I wrote that I don't think Roger so much "lost" his match as Novak was the more hungry and wanted it "more" on that particular day. There is no doubt Novak is a top competitor and can be VERY dangerous!!!
I also wrote that Roger's little girls didn't care one little bit if "Daddy" won or lost..just as long as he gave them lots of kisses they'd be happy little ones. Roger is smart enough to know this is true and they'll be another tennis tournament just around the corner, tennis is now second to everything else which is TRULY important in his life :-)
Take care~
Competition is getting tighter and closer and I think 2010 will be a VERY good year for tennis, if everyone will just stay HEALTHY!!! SO many injuries.
You take good care..more soon! Missed you~
Report Abuse
you're the best RF!
Report Abuse
Yes, pete'sbest14- I also made a reply to Anon's comment re: Federer, Nadal and Sampras being ignorant and idot and uneducated. I posted- these players do need a Master's Degree nor a Ph.D.et alone an A.A. or BSEE degree. They are master of what they do- without a diploma . I was on a roll when I was typing my reply.. I'll search for it and let you know what thread was it on. I'll llok for yours, too- now that my computer is back to normal.....
Report Abuse
Take care and be careful!
Report Abuse
Thank you, that is appreciated~
We've done all we can do, not we just wait and see what will happen. It's supposed to make land-fall about 6 tomorrow evening. (always at night)..just makes a storm (seem) so much worse.
Normally we would leave, but don't think so this time. My eye is still healing & my husband is needed here with his work so we're probably going to ride it out, hopefully there won't be much "to" ride..The waves are already at 3 feet, 4-5 in some of the coves.
We have (always) all the supplies. This waiting really is so hard, just watching the news, weather and listening to your weather radio, which goes off about every 5 minutes now. With these 2 system colliding there will likely be lots of little tornadoes too. Those are REALLY scary!!!
I thought we just might escape this season, but many things can happen to help cause this one to down-size right before land-fall. Hopefully so~
I'll stay in touch~
Report Abuse
Not to worry, Roger; you're still Number One, and still in the hunt for the end of the year championships!
PETE'SBEST 14 -- PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND SAFE!
My thoughts and BEST WISHERS are with you...
Report Abuse
We have a Hurricane barreling it's way toward us across the Gulf of Mexico.
Our community is collectively praying for a wind sheer, a change of direction, a cold front, cooler waters closer to land, anything which would cause this thing to fizzle out before reaching us.
In 18 years we've have several very destructive ones here.
We and so many others lost everything in the worst one 5 short years ago. Many are just now getting back to where they were before it happened and we've had one since compounding the situation.
We're all trying to batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst, praying to God, in His Infinite Mercy, to allow this one to pass us by and do no harm to anyone~
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
that's ik roger federer (mr.tennisman). you will "always be the #1 tennis player in the world. now you can spend more time with your adorable twins /mirka.
semper fi/god bless. a dedicated/devoted fan penny khadija alzawahreh waterbury, ct
Report Abuse
No other comments.
Report Abuse
Exciting indeed!
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
I meant a ONE year suspension, not TWO for the two players!
Report Abuse
Hello there :-)
I was wondering about you since I hadn't seen any post from you anywhere. My husband is out of town, but I will have him "investigate" this idea of Kim's. It may be just what we're looking for, but would like to hold off for now..just be cautious :-)
Roger has been on auto-pilot this entire tournament. He played his old friend Marco today (semi) and the first set was highly entertaining. Very close tiebreak. Novak has looked pretty good throughout. He's had a couple of hiccups and had to come from behind as in today's semi with Stepanek. I thought it probably would be Dovak and Roger in the Final, so hopefully will be a good, entertaining match!!! If Roger bring his A game, I don't see how he cannot not win, barring any horrible injury to either of these guys!! Heaven forbid~
Regardless of how long Roger is 'out'. he never seems to miss a beat!! Always very confident and clean..just an amazing player!
I'm not totally 100% of these facts and have NO doubt if I'm not spot on, other's will correct me.
The other thing this week has been about the "ruling" on so many players..for missing drug checks, actual drug usage and other things..Malisse of Belgium, and Wickermeyer (sp) have both been suspended for (2) years..Gasquet will also have a ruling and Serena is waiting to hear about the USO incident, in the next couple of weeks and that will likely be another fine of some sort.
Also nothing about Andre other than all this nonsense of him making the rounds (on talk shows) to basically promote the sale of his book by asking us for "compassion"..I won't even go there. At first I was honestly "trying" to five him every benefit of the doubt, but no more. It is was it is.
A poster, anon, posted on this topic earlier this week saying Andre did the MOST to humanize the sport of tennis and was "the" PIONEER in tennis and there was NO comparison between Andre's ability or goodness and Pete. That he (Pete) was not liked and he cussed like a sailor and has done NOTHING charitable like the great Andre has!! Well, as you can imagine I really had my say about all that & it was too long to try to even recall for you. I tried to find the thread for you..it was one on the "Busted Racquet" about 4 days ago..something about Andre deserving criticism, but he also deserves our compassion~
Really, I'm pretty sick of all this about Andre after reading the excerpt in People, no NEW revelations and seeing an excerpt of his interview with Couric coming tomorrow night on 60 Minutes..Tears welling, nearly begging for us to take pity on him. Anyway, try to find that thread. I spoke for me, but knew you would be saying the exact same thing regarding Pete!!
The other thing this week, for me personally, has been the lack of support being given our ladies playing Fed Cup in Italy right now. Once Venus and Serena decided to not play, there's been LITTLE support or interest at all in this International tournament. I wrote on that this morning after our girls lost 2 matches..It's the thread with the least amount of posting (there are two, but one has little but garbage on it) so I chose the "newer" of the two thread...
It just really upsets me so many, seemingly, have so little interest, respect and pride for our country or their participants, regardless WHO they may be.
We have many Veterans who post here and with Veteran's Day coming next week I am appalled.
Anyway, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Tomorrow will be the Basel Final and the Fed Cup Doubles..I am SOOOOO pulling for our women to pull one out..Regardless they WILL be WINNERS in my book, just for having fought the good fight :-)
So nice to have you back, missed seeing your moniker :-)
Have a good Saturday!!
Report Abuse
And, the quality of the play that had completely become in a slump due to the sickness and injury in 2008 fell into Federer, too.
Roger.. now is really ..the reign over the king
Roger Federer is an all-time best player
Report Abuse
And, the quality of the play that had completely become in a slump due to the sickness and injury in 2008 fell into Federer, too.
Roger.. now is really ..the reign over the king
Roger Federer is an all-time best player
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
1 - 25 of 88