Federer finds grass green in Germany, wins 98th ATP title

Stuttgart, June 17

Roger Federer claimed his 98th ATP title and re-established his unrivalled superiority on grass with a 6-4 7-6 (7/3) victory over Milos Raonic in the Stuttgart Cup final. Top-seeded Swiss beat his Canadian opponent for the 11th time in 14 meetings while winning a first Stuttgart title.

Federer, who will be chasing a ninth Wimbledon triumph next month, finally came good on the German grass on his third attempt after losing a semifinal in 2016 to Dominic Thiem and falling in the first round here a year ago to good friend Tommy Haas.

The 36-year-old will regain the world No. 1 ranking on Monday and is playing next week as top seed in Halle. “It's a great comeback for me,” Federer said after completing his 78-minute win.

“I'm so happy to win this tournament in my third attempt. We'll see if being No. 1 again will probably give me a boost.” Federer made a return to the top ATP ranking for a sixth time through his semifinal victory on Saturday over Australian Nick Kyrgios.

He takes the honour back form Rafael Nadal for the second time this season and continues the duel on court between the two modern icons. Federer kept tight control on the match as he claimed his third title of the season after the Australian Open and Rotterdam and now owns 28 grass trophies including eight from Wimbledon. “I think I played very well not having played for a while,” Federer said as he competed this week for the first time since mid-March after skipping the clay season.

“Maybe I was a bit better on the big points.” The Swiss broke twice in the first set to earn it after 32 minutes when his opponent returned long over the baseline. The second set stayed on serve into the tiebreaker. A double-fault from the Canadian followed by a return winner from the Swiss set up three match points, with Federer needing only his first as Raonic netted a return. — Agencies

Yuki sets up clash with Raonic 

New Delhi: Yuki Bhambri qualified for the ATP 500 Fever-Tree Championships after beating America's Taylor Fritz in the second and final qualifying round in London and has been drawn to meet Stuttgart Open finalist Milos Raonic. Bhambri, seeded fifth in the qualifiers, ended the hopes of the American third seed and world No. 67 with a 6-4 6-2 victory in one hour and 10 minutes. Bhambri lost his serve twice but broke his rival five times. It was the second meeting between the two players with Fritz emerging winner last year at the Ilkley event. Bhambri will open his main draw campaign against the world No. 35 Canadian. — PTI