Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov will be squaring off for the seventh time in their careers when they battle for the title at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Sunday.
Federer is sweeping the head-to-head series 6-0, including 5-0 on hard courts and 2-0 indoors. Both of their previous indoor showdowns have come in Basel, where the Swiss treated the home crowd to straight-set victories in 2013 and 2014. They most recently faced each other last summer during fourth-round action at Wimbledon, where Federer dominated 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
The 36-year-old ended up triumphing at the All-England Club for his second Grand Slam title of 2017, sending him on his way to the No. 1 ranking that he will regain on Monday. Federer needed only a semifinal showing this week in Rotterdam to clinch surpassing Rafael Nadal, and he has already gone one step further thanks to defeats of Ruben Bemelmans, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Robin Haase, and Andreas Seppi. Haase managed to take a set before getting double-breadsticked in their quarterfinal contest, while Kohlschreiber and Seppi were also competitive.
Dimitrov has not dropped a single set while advancing past Yuichi Sugita, Filip Krajinovic, Andrey Rublev, and David Goffin. The fifth-ranked Bulgarian was especially impressive against Rublev and his opening set against Goffin showcased stellar tennis from both parties before the Belgian retired in the second when ball ricocheted into his left eye. Dimitrov is now 10-2 this season with a semifinal finish in Brisbane and a quarterfinal performance at the Australian Open.
Although Federer had already achieved his main goal in Rotterdam, he still looked relatively motivated against Seppi and turned in a solid display of tennis. That is bad news for Dimitrov–albeit not as bad as his hopeless head-to-head history against the 20-time major champion. The underdog’s current form is such that he should be even more competitive than Kohlschreiber, Haase, and Seppi, but Federer will likely cap off his memorable week in appropriate fashion.
Pick: Federer in 3
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