Roger Federer successfully defended his title at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Sunday to clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fourth consecutive year.
Federer Reaction to Clinching No. 1 Ranking
The Swiss superstar improved his perfect 8-0 record against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in 62 minutes. It was the pair's first meeting since the Bangkok semifinals in September 2005.
The 26-year-old Federer required one break of serve, in the second game, to wrap up the opening set in 27 minutes. Nieminen fought hard in the second set, but dropped serve in the ninth game. Federer won 21 of 29 service points and had four break point opportunities.
He now has a 63-7 season record and 1,291 points in the ATP 2007 Race.
Federer was making his eighth appearance in Basel. He defeated Fernando Gonzalez in last year's final and finished runner-up in 2000 (l. to Enqvist) and 2001 (l. to Henman).
He improves to 7-4 in finals this year, having collected silverware at the Australian Open (d. Gonzalez), Dubai (d. Youzhny), ATP Masters Series Hamburg (d. Nadal), Wimbledon (d. Nadal), ATP Masters Series Cincinnati (d. Blake) and the US Open (d. Djokovic) this season.
On the Bubble: Race to Tennis Masters Cup
Federer is the fifth man since the inception of the ATP Rankings in 1973 to be year-end No. 1 four times (after Connors, McEnroe, Lendl and Sampras) and the fourth to do it four or more years consecutively (after Connors, McEnroe and Sampras).
On Friday, Federer passed Carlos Moya (543) for most ATP singles match wins for an active player with his quarterfinal win over Nicolas Kiefer. He now has a 546-132 career record.
Nieminen drops to 0-6 lifetime against World No. 1-ranked players.
The 26-year-old Finn was appearing in his seventh ATP final (1-6). His lone singles title came at Auckland in January 2006 (d. Ancic).
This week, Nieminen saved one match point against Robby Ginepri in the first round and two match points against No. 6 seed Guillermo Canas in the second round.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Federer: "It’s always nice to win at home. Everyone who has achieved that in their life, winning a home title is always something special. Obviously for me it is the only Swiss tournament I play each year. To get the title here is great for the Swiss people and for me. A lot of emotions go through my body when I have the ceremony, as I used to be a ball boy standing in the exact same ceremony. I am very happy with my performance.
"Jarkko has had a great week; he has beaten some great players on the way to get to the final. I have a great record against him, so you always hope it isn’t going to turn against you. I played well and got off to a good start and never looked back after that."
[On his next event]: "Paris is a tough event. I have an incredibly tough draw, I hope I can get through the first one and find my form, get used to the new conditions. I haven’t played in Paris for a long time, so I am really excited to go back there because Bercy is a place where I don’t have a lot of great memories yet. I am still fighting to have a couple of good matches there. I think I have won a lot of fans over the years when playing at Roland Garros, so hopefully they will travel a few kilometres away and come and support me."
Nieminen: "I had a great feeling going into the match on his home court. I tried too much at the beginning and lost an early break. It was 0-3 in a few matches and it was tough to start the match after that. I managed to come back a little bit in the first set and got better in the second. I found myself more relaxed and tried to play my game. I made many unforced errors and had a tough opponent on the other side. I had some simple shots that I should not have missed in important situations and that cost me the match.
"It has been a good week, with two good comebacks in the first and second rounds that give me a lot of confidence. It is much nicer to finish in Paris and get ready for the next season on a high."
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