Federer nets ninth Halle title
HALLE: World No.5 Roger Federer clinched a record ninth Halle Open title yesterday, crushing last year’s finalist Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3 to lay down a marker in the lead-up to Wimbledon.
The 18-times Grand Slam champion, who skipped the claycourt season after winning the Australian Open and titles in Indian Wells and Miami, to prepare for the grass, is in ominous form and won in Halle without dropping a single set all week.
The 35-year-old, defeated in his first comeback match in Stuttgart last week, was aggressive from the start, breaking in the first game to take control.
Federer kept world No.12 Zverev on his toes and earned a second break point with some deft volleying, which he pounced on to race through the first set in 24 minutes.
Zverev, who beat the Swiss in last year’s semi-final, had a chance to break at the start of the second set.
Federer, however, was a class above even as his opponent attempted to mix up his game by forcing the Swiss to come to the net more often.
A dropshot put Federer 5-2 ahead and he sealed victory two games later on his first match point with a crosscourt volley.
In London, Spain’s Feliciano Lopez succeeded in his Queen’s Club revenge mission against world No.11 Grigor Dimitrov to set up a final showdown with Marin Cilic.
Lopez held a championship point in the 2014 Queen’s final against Dimitrov before crashing to a three-set defeat, but the world No.32 made amends for that painful loss in Saturday’s semi-finals as he beat the Bulgarian 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.
The 35-year-old was due to face Cilic in yesterday’s title match at the Wimbledon warm-up event after the Croatian reached his third Queen’s final with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Gilles Muller.
Cilic became the first player to break Muller in the tournament, despite a barrage of 22 aces from the world No.26, to return to the Queen’s final for the first time since 2013.
The 28-year-old lifted the Queen’s trophy in 2012 and finished runner-up to Andy Murray a year later.
In Birmingham, Petra Kvitova’s comeback from a lengthy injury lay-off gathered momentum on Saturday as she reached the Aegon Classic final in Birmingham after Lucie Safarova retired from their semi-final with a leg injury.
Twice Wimbledon champion Kvitova, playing in just her second tournament of the year, was 6-1, 1-0 up at the Edgbaston Priory Club when her Czech compatriot pulled out.
Kvitova was due to face Australian Ashleigh Barty, who upset Spain’s Garbine Muguruza 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the other semi, in the final late last night.
In Mallorca, Germany’s Julia Goerges reached her first final on grass by beating American teenager CiCi Bellis in the semifinals of the Mallorca Open on Saturday.
The 28-year-old, 10 years Bellis’s senior, was simply too aggressive on the Santa Ponsa turf as she won 6-1, 6-1.
Goerges, ranked 54, was scheduled to play second seed Anastasija Sevastova in last night’s final after the Latvian beat Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-2.