Federer extends Halle rule with eighth crown
Murray continues Wimbledon tune-up with Queens crown
Roger Federer won the Halle Open for a recordextending eighth time yesterday by beating Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-6(1) 6-4 in a successful dress rehearsal on grass ahead of Wimbledon.
Defending champion Federer, who has now won Halle more times than any other tournament, captured a fourth title this year after victories at Istanbul, Dubai and Brisbane to take his career haul to 86.
The Swiss top seed saved two set points on his serve, trailing 5-4 in the first set and dug deep to level.
He then crushed the Italian, who won just one point, in the tie-break to grab the first set after an hour.
Seppi, who reached his second final of the year after Gael Monfils and second seed Kei Nishikori retired in his two previous matches, earned another break opportunity at 2-2 but he sent a backhand into the net.
World number two Federer then squandered three breakpoints at 4-3, allowing Seppi to hold on and win the 10-minute game. He did everything right, however, two games later to earn two match points and finished off the contest with a spectacular overhead smash.
Murray on song
Meanwhile in London, Andy Murray warmed up for Wimbledon by winning back-toback matches at the Aegon Championships yesterday as he scooped his fourth title at Queen’s Club by dismantling big-serving South African Kevin Anderson 6-3 6-4 in the final.
To the delight of the home crowd, the world number three showed no sign of weariness when returning to court two hours after completing his semi-final against Viktor Troicki which had been held up by rain the previous evening.
He had resumed at 3-3 in the first set against the Serb and quickly established control to come through 6-3 7-6(4).
Murray was confident his return of serve would enable him to cope against the lanky Anderson, who went into the final having thundered down 96 aces in his three previous matches.
So it proved, even though Anderson fired down two more aces in his first service game and soon reached three figures for the week.
The top seed’s returning nevertheless enabled him to make a crucial breakthrough once in each set and his own serve never let him down.
A range of drop shots and lobs also proved too subtle for Anderson, and also suggested that Murray was in fine fettle ahead of Wimbledon which starts on June 29.
The first break came in the fourth game, when Murray confidently returned a 141 mile-per-hour serve, forcing his unseeded opponent to net a volley.