Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro are one round away from a second straight showdown in the Basel final. They are first going up against Vasek Pospisil and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, respectively, on Saturday.
(3) Roger Federer vs. Vasek Pospisil
Federer and Pospisil will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they collide in the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Saturday. Their only previous meeting came two years ago on the hard courts of Montreal, where Federer prevailed 7-5, 6-3. Pospisil, of course, is a much different player now at 23 years old. The Canadian owns 17 ATP-level match victories this season and he will surpass his career-high ranking of No. 39 in the world on Monday. So far this week he has dismissed Robin Haase, Ivo Karlovic, and Ivan Dodig all in straight sets.
A five-time champion of this event, Federer is showing signs of regaining his form in front of Swiss fans. The world No. 6 booked his spot in the last four with scalps of Adrian Mannarino, Denis Istomin, and Grigor Dimitrov. Still, Federer is just 39-13 for his 2013 campaign and he has not yet mathematically clinched a spot in the World Tour Finals. Federer generally heats up as tournaments progress, and his straight-setter against Dimitrov exceeded the expectations of many after his scare against Istomin.Pospisil will make this competitive, but he is not quite ready for an upset of Federer on the 17-time slam champion’s home turf.
Pick: Federer in 2 with at least 1 tiebreaker
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(1) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Edouard Roger-Vasselin
Del Potro and Roger-Vasselin will be doing battle for the third time in their careers on Saturday. They split their two previous encounters; Roger-Vasselin scored a 6-4, 6-4 upset at the 2009 Tokyo event before Del Potro won a French Open showdown 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4 last spring. The fifth-ranked Argentine is completely on fire at the moment, with a title in Tokyo and a runner-up finish in Shanghai already this month. Del Potro is 46-14 for the year thanks to straight-set routs this week of Henri Laaksonen, Marcos Baghdatis, and Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Roger-Vasselin is 23-24 for the season following wins over Stanislas Wawrinka, Tobias Kamke, and Daniel Brands. The 65th-ranked Frenchman is continuing a solid stretch in which he qualified for the Tokyo main draw and reached the second round before posting a quarterfinal result in Moscow. The bad news for Roger-Vasselin is that Del Potro has been nearly untouchable this week. Last year’s Basel champion has been broken only once (none in his last two matches) and against Mathieu he dropped a mere six points in 10 service games.
Pick: Del Potro in 2 losing 7 games or fewer
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Federer in 2 (no TB)
Pospisil is playing with a neck injury so this is not the moment for challenging a Federer who is looking more and more determined as the week goes by. Should it come to a TB Popsi will revert to default mode. At least he has broken the tiebreak curse: that’s progress.
Delpo is in cruise control to get to the final.
2 easy sets (losing 7 or less games)
I just want to see the Poppet acquit himself well and not fall apart as GD did.
Fed getting stronger as the tourney moves on…I like him in straight w/no TBs, and DP on a roll, but he’ll still lose more than 7 games.
very bizarre match between ERV and JDP
I tuned in to the JMDP/ERV match halfway into the 2nd set. The commentator mentioned JMDP having a nose bleed and then later mentioned that JMDP might have a cold. JMDP appeared lethargic although sometimes it’s hard to tell since his normal court demeanor is often sort of mopey. If Roger makes it to the finals and JMDP plays like he did today, Roger could very well win their match.
Can you believe it. The Poppet breaks Federer when he was serving for the match.
Only delaying the inevitable but funny all the same.
Drooling commentator has just said Federer has been serving so well. But stats show 1st set 61%, 2nd set 45% (52% average)
This I dont believe. Popsi takes the 2nd set in a TIEBREAKER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you watching Ricky?
Fed SERVED for the match???
Pospisil takes the 2nd set!! Nicely played tiebreaker.
I cant believe Popsi can maintain this level. Waiting for Federer to rise to the occasion. The crowd are VERY subdued.
Popsi just might be able to pull this off.
So far he’s holding on by the skin of his teeth, helped by frayed nerves from Federer.
Federer is unravelling.
another heartbreaking loss is in store for Pospisil
Geez. Easy break back for Roger. Hope Pospisil won’t fall apart now.
Federer going for the finishing line. Rather hoping he wraps it up before it gets to a tie break. It would be heartbreaking for Popsi to lose it on a TB.
I know Federer is their national hero but I hate the way they cheer double faults and every point Popsi loses.
CLUTCH point by Pospisil
2 BPs saved
I cannot believe that Vasek hit that forehand long. Dang.
I thought it was longer out than what challenge showed
Oh, I agree…challenge showed it close. I meant I couldn’t believe he choked on it.
So, JMDP vs Roger it will be.
Did anybody expect it would be that close.
I never know what to expect from Roger anymore, so I’ve kind of stopped predicting any of his matches.
@Rick
Well, Poppit put up a much better fight than GD!
Think he’s gr8 and looking forward to seeing a lot more of him in 2014 🙂 His ROS needs attention though, must learn to chip not bash.
#Naughty.
Sky Sports announcer: “Roger Federer understands climaxing.”
^^^^^ you have to be kidding, no?
final preview – https://tenngrand.com/2013/10/26/basel-final-preview-and-pick-del-potro-vs-federer/
and no i’m not kidding
you can’t make this stuff up, folks
^ ROFL!
Lucky Mirka
What a match. Popsi needs to go away and work on finding a consistent first serve. When it’s on it’s very, very good but when it’s off it’s terrible.
I came here to find out what happened and was surprised to see that Pospisil made quite a match out of it.
I will get to see it later this afternoon. It seems like Pospi can’t hang in there in these close matches.
good experiences for Pistol. He will have a huge 2014, when he will presumably start winning close matches.
NNY: He made a pretty good fist of it bearing in mind who he was playing and made it far more competitive than Baby Fed managed to last night.
He is work in progress still. Most of his career has been spent playing Futures and Challengers. He only been playing the ATP circuit on a regular basis for a couple of years. Give him a bit more time.
He gave Federer more than a few frights.
ed,
Thanks for the info on the match. I can’t wait to see it this afternoon. Now this is what I was hoping Baby Fed would do in his match with Fed.
I guess Pospi needs to learn how to win the close ones. I do think he’s got a bright future if he can keep on working at it.
I still don’t think Fed is playing all that great from what I have seen. I do think he’s very motivated in Basel and with qualifying for London at stake.
I finally got to see this match. That was some ugly stuff from Fed as he was serving for the second set and the match. He made about three errors in a row and was broken. Popsi took advantage and won the tb.
I think Fed does seem more comfortable on indoor hard courts, but he still has these lapses that can be costly. I thought that Popsi played better in the second and third sets, but two things stood out in the post match stats – five double faults for Popsi and sometimes at crucial times and also less than 50% of first serves in. That won’t get it done.
Saw parts of both matches. Congrats to Pop. Now we know how much promise he shows. And can we say again, Fed should thank the draw riggers for making the final this time. A tougher draw and he likely would not have.