Matches between the last two men standing in Basel, Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro, had long taken on the look of gladiatorial spectacles.
They had met 17 times before, and although Federer, over the years since their first match in 2007, had taken the lion’s share of the wins, 13 of them, there was a rhythm to the Del Potro wins that showed an important ebb-and-flow in his career.
The first Argentine peak came as he barely turned 20, taking Federer to five sets at the French Open in 2009, then coming back from two sets to one down to win the US Open. The year ended in another tight victory for Del Potro at the World Tour Finals.
Then disaster struck the now top-four ranked Del Potro: wrist surgery that took him off the tour for most of 2010.
As he climbed back up the rankings during 2011 and 2012, Federer again was dominant, winning their next seven matches, but the gap became closer with every one.
Again, it was Roland Garros that brought five-set drama in 2012: Del Potro took the first two sets only to fade as Federer stormed back, dropping just five more games. Two months later, the contest was even more passionate: at stake was a place in the Olympic final and it became a record-breaker, a 3-6, 7-6, 19-17 win to Federer.
But 2012 still had some way to go for the rivals who have also become good friends, and the year’s end saw Del Potro in the ascendancy again. It was right here, in the Basel final, that he scored his next win, and once again in the closest of results, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. A fortnight later it was the same at the ATP World Tour finals, also three sets.
Their expected reunion in Rotterdam this year, the expected repeat of the final won by Federer in 2012, did not materialize. Federer lost in the quarters while Del Potro went on to claim the title. It would be almost a year until this special pairing faced one another again, in Basel again.
And the Del Potro’s form continued—finals at Indian Wells, semis at Wimbledon, and a great run through Tokyo and Shanghai. Now ranked No5 and already qualified for the World Tour Finals, he was Basel’s top seed. But the five-time former Basel champion Federer had endured a tough season of back injury and unexpected losses. For the first time in their careers, he was seeded lower than Del Potro, at No3.
Del Potro was, as ever, generous in talking of his chances:
“Against Federer, it doesn’t matter what he says. He’s Roger Federer. He’s playing in his hometown and on this surface. He has experience. He’s won here five times. He’s looking forward to winning again and to qualifying in London with a win here. If I play much better than I did today and serve well, I know the way to make things complicated for him. In the final, anything can happen.”
And both had survived three-setters in the their semis. But Federer’s match against Vasek Pospisil had been the longest match of the week—indeed he had played three of the four longest matches this week. Could he capitalise on his lighter-than-average season, renewed fitness, and the Basel crowd to launch another strong indoor season?
Federer made the unusual decision to receive serve first, so when he went down a break in the eighth game, it left Del Potro serving for the first set at 5-3. But after a game filled with errors—it was a long Swiss forehand that conceded the break—he hit straight back to go 40-0 and broke immediately.
But the cheering of the Basel fans was quickly dampened as Federer alternated between double faults and aces to go 15-40 down. But he got the better of a long, probing baseline rally and aced to hold, 5-5, and it went to a tie-break.
It started badly for Federer and got worse. After seeing a ball dribble over the net to go 0-2, a Federer ball then dribbled back from a net cord. He was down 1-4 and he never closed the gap. Del Potro had first blood, 7-3, after little short of an hour.
Now, though, the mood and the flow of winners switched dramatically, as Federer’s level took off. The set began with a love hold and a sequence of outstanding rallies brought up two deuces, then two break chances. This time it was the Federer forehand that shone, and a winner down the line took him 2-0 up.
Federer compensated for two opening errors on serve in the next with a couple of aces and a serve and volley winner, then backed it up with a love hold to lead 5-2. It was far from one-sided: Del Potro showed little weakness, and the crowd was treated to some terrific defensive work from the baseline and drops, volleys and glorious forehands. But even a 132 mph serve could not stave off a flowing Federer, and he broke again to level the match, 6-2. He had dropped just one point out of 13 on his first serve, and it brought the stadium to its feet.
But as quickly as the Federer serve had soared it also seemed to slip again. He opened the set with a double fault, and would go on to hit two more as he fended off two break points. A forehand hit long handed an immediate break on the a third: It seemed as though the air had been sucked out of the St Jakobshalle.
Still Federer seemed about to repeat his feat of the opening set and break straight back. Del Potro, so solid across the board, hit two huge serves—one at 139 mph—to hold. That, combined with some resounding return-of-serve forehands from the Argentine, punished the Federer’s second serve time and again.
The Swiss was forced to fight off 30-30 on serve in the fifth game, break point in the seventh, 15-30 in the ninth. Meanwhile, Del Potro looked impenetrable. The 135 mph serves rained down, he held to love, and then served out the match 6-4.
It had taken two hours and 21 minutes and the bottom line showed that Del Potro and Federer had scored the same number of points: 96 apiece. Here, as in their last four matches, the win came down to a few key points—and Del Potro is proving himself one of the most consistent clutch players on the tour.
He was, as ever, full of praise for his opponent—after sitting through a five-minute standing ovation as Federer picked up his runner-up trophy:
“I think we played the best match in the tournament today…He’s a hero for your country and for all the athletes around the world, & for me he’s a big inspiration too. I am very proud to have a good relationship with him because I learn a lot from him—he’s [an even] better person than he is a tennis player.”
And pressed about his own level as he heads to Paris and then London, he admitted that he felt he was closing on the top men all the time:
“Maybe today I played as well as in Shanghai, and even better in particular moments of the match. These kinds of matches make the difference. Only way to get closer to the top guys is to play finals with them and I get better all the time.”
Federer was also quick to highlight the level of his opponent: “I think it was probably my best match of the tournament, maybe.
Always hard to judge when you lose. I did hand the break over to him a little too easily in the third set, but overall I think I did well today. He did really well to serve it out well, his last few games were very solid and he really didn’t give me much any more.”
The disappointment for Federer is two-fold. Not only was he unable to add to his tally of five Basel titles but he has also failed to seal his place at the World Tour Finals. Now he heads to the Paris Masters knowing he needs to win a really tough first match against either Kevin Anderson or Mikhail Youzhny, both just outside the seedings at 20 and 21. Indeed Youzhny was just beating David Ferrer to the Valencia title as Federer came into press in Basel.
Perhaps Federer would take consolation from scoring his 40th match-win of the season to reach the final—a tally he has now achieved for 14 consecutive years. But as he said, asked if he took confidence from his good run here:
“I’m a winner type: I don’t take that much the confidence from losing matches.”