Roger Federer has been the most popular face of Men’s tennis last 16 years. The Swiss has amassed 103 titles in his long and illustrious career so far. He seems to be adding to the tally each year. In 2019, the Swiss Maestro won 4 titles. At Halle and Basel, the maestro won his 10th title this year. Let’s look back at the history of Federer’s reign in those 2 ATP 500s.
A Perfect 10 At Halle
Roger Federer is regarded as the game’s greatest Grass Court player. He laid another solid foundation to this claim by becoming the 1st man to win 10 titles at the Halle Open in Germany. Federer won the Halle Open for the 1st time long back in 2003 defeating Nicolas Kiefer of Germany. This was incidentally the 1st ever Grass Court title for the great Swiss.
In his 10 title journey Federer has defeated many accomplished players in the Halle finals. The list includes Mardy Fish, Marat Safin and local Germans such as Philipp Kohlschreiber and Sascha Zverev.
Federer chased his 10th win at Halle in 2018 also but was surprisingly stunned in the final by the inspired Croat Borna Coric. However, in 2019 Roger was not to be denied his date with destiny. He beat the Belgian David Goffin to lay his hands on the 10th Halle trophy.
The King Of Basel
Nothing would have been as such fulfilling and satisfying in Federer’s great career than lifting 10 trophies in Basel, the same tournament where he found his early feet in tennis as a ball boy. In 2019, Basel’s most famous ball boy scripted his name for ever winning a double digit of trophies in his home tournament.
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Federer debuted in Basel long back in 1998 as a teenager receiving the wildcard. In 2006, he won the trophy for the 1st time. Since then it has been a dream run in his home city where Federer has made 15 finals and came out winning in 10 of them.
His 1st victim was Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in 2006 final and since then, Federer has defeated the who’s who of tennis in Basel. The list includes Nadal, Djokovic, Del Potro and many more.
With his success in Halle and Basel Roger Federer became only the 2nd male player in Open Era to win a tournament 10 or more time, joining his great rival and friend Rafael Nadal. However, Federer also achieved a rare distinction of winning 10 titles at different surface i.e. the Grass of Halle and Indoor Hard Courts in Basel.
