It was good to be home for Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem.
Federer triumphed–again–at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Sunday afternoon, while Thiem treated the Austrian crowd at the Erste Bank Open to his first-ever title at the 500-point event.
For Federer, of course, it was nothing new. His title in Basel was the 10th of his career in his 15th final, improving to 75-9 lifetime at the tournament. The 38-year-old Swiss accomplished his latest feat in front of the hometown crowd by beating Alex de Minaur 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and eight minutes.
“I think I played a great match,” Federer assessed. “It was a tough opener, in the beginning, the first five games, we had some great rallies. I never looked back. I was great on the offense, made very few unforced errors, and came up with the big shots and served well when I had to. I thought Alex played a great tournament, as well, and I think we both can be very happy. But what a moment for me to win my 10th here in my hometown of Basel.”
“He just puts you under pressure,” de Minaur noted. “Any ball that isn’t a metre from the baseline for him is a short ball. That’s something I learned the hard way today. But I can’t wait until I’m able to step out and play him again.”
In Vienna, Thiem overcame Diego Schwartzman 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a two-hour and 25-minute final. After getting broken three times in a nervy first set, the world No. 5 did not drop serve the entire rest of the way while facing only one break point. He broke Schwartzman twice in the third, including at 5-3 to finish off one of the most emotional wins of his career in style.
“It’s been an unbelievable year for me in Austria, to win titles in Kitzbühel and now here in Vienna,” Thiem reflected. “I have had some troubles to deliver my best tennis in front of these amazing crowds in Kitzbühel and also here in Vienna and now, in the same year, I win both titles. It is completely unreal to me.”
“I felt very good on court,” Schwartzman said. “The support of the people was crazy. It was really nice and real for me. In another place, really far from home, I felt really nice. After the first set, he played so aggressive. He was better than me and that is why he won the title.”
Thiem, Schwartzman, and de Minaur will now head to the Paris Masters. It will be the penultimate tournament of the year for Thiem (Nitto ATP Finals) and de Minaur (NextGen ATP Finals), while Schwartzman could quality for London with a title. Federer withdrew from Paris on Monday.
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congrats to both!
Fed truly is GOAT….and congrats to Thiem as well.
There is someone else who has reached la decima at 3 events all in 2017 despite playing 5 years less . What fed has done is great but by winning Basel n Halle 10 times does not make him truly the GOAT. It’s best if word GOAT is not used for any of the 3 because they are all now very close to leapfrogging the other in some record or the other.