Roger Federer downs Wawrinka Nishikori stuns Djokovic in Basel

Written by: Global Chick on 6th November 2011

Swiss Indoors tennis tournament in Basel

Roger Federer downs Wawrinka Nishikori stuns Djokovic in Basel

Switzerland's Roger Federer cheers after winning his semifinal match against Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, 05 November 2011. EPA/GEORGIOS KEFALAS |

Hometown Hero Roger Federer is through to the final of the Swiss Indoors in Basel after defeating good friend Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (5) 6-2 in Saturday’s semi-final.

Federer is looking to win his fifth Basel trophy and Sunday’s final will be Federer’s eight finals appearance at the event. Wawrinka and Federer have faced each other elven times and the Swiss number two has only been victorious once. The World No. 4 has only got one title to his name this year but his Grand Slam record has been great with one final, two semis and one quarterfinal.

The French Open finalist will now face Japanese wildcard Kei Nishikori in the Basel final. This upcoming player stunned World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the top half semi-final 2-6 7-6 (4) 6-0. Federer said has never encountered the Japanese rising star, “He’s a guy I’ve never played against. My focus will be to remember how he plays. He beat Novak in the semis, so he’ll have a shot in the final.”

Nishikori is the first Japanese player to beat a world number one ranked player. It looked like Djokovic was going to win easily as he took at 5-1 lead very quickly in the first set. Nishikori kept fighting and the Serb kept getting treatment on his shoulder throughout the match. Djokovic is not sure if he will be able to compete in Paris next week, “I changed the technique of my serve a little bit. I was forcing it too much because of the injury I have.”

The 21-year-old said of tomorrow’s final, “I’ve always wanted to play Roger. Before the tournament I was wishing to play him but I was on the other side of the draw and knew I would need to make the final to have a chance to play him. It will be a good challenge for me to play against him.”

The Basel Indoors doubles final will be played between Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic and Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor on Sunday. Top seeds Llodra and Zimonjic had a straight set win over Ivan Dodig and Viktor Troicki 6-2 7-6 (5).

Mirnyi and Nestor sailed through to the final defeating Xavier Malisse and Dick Norman 6-2 6-2. Both final teams have already qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Topics: Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka