Federer is homing in on 10th title win

ROGER Federer moved closer to a 10th Swiss Indoors Basel title with a comprehensive straight sets win over Moldovan Radu Albot.

Federer improved to a 73-9 record in Basel with a 6-0 6-3 second-round victory, extending his consecutive wins on centre court to 22 matches.

Seventh-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka or

American Frances Tiafoe, who both won their respective first-round matches yesterday, will play Federer next.

David Goffin ended a three-game losing streak against Marin Cilic with a 6-4 6-4 victory.

The victory keeps the 28-year-old in strong contention for one of the two remaining qualifying spots at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London next month.

Alex De Minaur, Jan-Lennard Struff, Filip Krajinovic and qualifier Ricardas Berankis also won, as Tiafoe beat British No 1 Dan Evans 6-4 6-2.

Italy’s Matteo Berrettini boosted his own London qualification hopes with a 7-6, 7-6 success over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

France’s Gael Monfils hit 13 aces as he rallied to beat Austrian wild card Dennis Novak 2-6 7-5 6-3 to set up a meeting against Italian Jannik Sinner. There were also wins for Sam Querrey, Karen Khachanov, Pablo Carreno Busta, Mikhail Kukushkin and Andrey Rublev.

SIXTH seed Elise Mertens came through a roller coaster three-setter at the Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai to eliminate Maria Sakkari and set up a Rose Group decider against Aryna Sabalenka.

She won 6-2 3-6 6-1 and will now meet her doubles partner for a place in the last four.

Sofia Kenin kicked off action from the Camellia Group with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Alison Riske.

The 20-year-old broke Riske in the fifth game of the opener and did the same in the third game of the second set to win in their first-ever meeting.

“I just feel like I played really well, I served well,” said Kenin, who dropped just 12 points in 10 service games and won 84% of the points played behind her first serve.