Roger Federer from Switzerland waits for the ball served by Florian Mayer from Germany during the ATP tournament tennis match in Halle, western Germany, on June 23, 2017. CARMEN JASPERSEN / AFP
Roger Federer swept aside Alexander Zverev in the finals of the Gerry Weber tournament in Halle, Germany, while Feliciano Lopez outlasted Marin Cilic in a titanic battle at the Aegon Championships in London. There is just one word to describe Roger Federer’s victory: A rout. The expected thriller between age groups ended as anti-climax, as Zverev faded away in losing 6/1; 6/3 for Roger’s ninth title in the event. The match between Marin Cilic and Feliciano Lopez went the full stretch over three hours and 31 minutes. In the end, two points separated the combatants, with the final score of 4/6; 7/6 (2); 7/6 (8).
Federer won the first set after breaking Zverev twice. He opened serving in the second set and held easily. When the youngster also held without dropping a point, it looked like a battle was in the offing.
Federer missed his first serve in the third game and Zverez pounced on the second delivery to take the point. The Swiss master leveled and took the next three points for the game. The lanky German leveled at two games apiece. High percentage success in first serves gave Federer the fifth game.
In the sixth game, Zverev challenged calls twice with mixed success but lost the game for the crucial break. Although he lost the first point, Federer raised his act and won his serve to consolidate for a 5-2 lead. The challenger took the eighth game t reduce the tally but it was his last time on serve. Federer dropped but one point in winning his serve and the set and match. The one-sided show ended in a little over 53 minutes.
Federer got to the finals without dropping a set although he had to stave off two set points in the semi-final match against Russia’s Karen Khachanov. It was his 11th final in Halle, while the victory was retaliation for his defeat by Alexander Zverev in 2016. It was also out of 140 career finals of which he won 92, including one by walk-over.
Zverev and Federer had met only twice prior to the final, with split results. The Master won their first meeting in Rome 2016 while Zverev turned the tables with a victory in the semi-final of the Gerry Weber tournament the same year. Another similarity is that the two players came to the final match having won three finals this season. Thus, in the battle for records, experience prevailed over youth.
It was a long day for Zverez as he returned to court with his senior brother Mischa in the doubles finals. The Zverev brothers won the first set 7/5; lost the second 3/6 and conceded the third set 8/10 to the first seeds, Lukasz Kubol of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
After losing the final match in London, Marin Cilic would be allowed some rest before pairing Poland’s Marcin Matkowski in a doubles semi-finals match against Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Bruno Soares of Brazil. Waiting to face the winners in the finals were the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Eduardo Roger Vasselin.
