BASEL, Switzerland (AP) ― Defending champion Roger Federer beat Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-3 in the Swiss Indoors final on Sunday to win his first title in 10 months.
The former top-ranked Swiss was emotional as he thanked his hometown fans after winning for the fifth time in six years at the event where he once worked as a ballboy.
“It’s always the greatest for me to win the title here. See you next year,” he said on court in Swiss-German.
Federer had a complete game on display to dominate the 32nd-ranked Japanese, who stunned top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
“He was too good for me today,” said the 21-year-old Nishikori, who described Federer as “my idol. “I tried to do my best but he wouldn’t let me.”
Federer’s 68th career title was just his second this season after he won the season-opening event in Doha, Qatar. He had not reached a title match since losing the French Open final to Rafael Nadal in June.
Now ranked No. 4 at age 30, Federer was playing his first event while ranked outside the top three since he won his first Wimbledon title in 2003.
“It’s been a great week. I got better as the week went on and I saved the best for last,” he said.
Nishikori started strong on his own serve but Federer broke after reeling off three straight winners. Federer dropped just one point on his own serve in the first set and fired flat ground strokes to all corners of the court. He repeatedly pressured Nishikori’s serve and took the set on a double fault.
Fed Cup
The Czech Republic won its first Fed Cup title in 23 years on Sunday after Lucie Hradecka and Kveta Peschke beat Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-2 in the decisive doubles match to secure a 3-2 win over Russia in the final.
It was the sixth title in the competition for the Czechs but their first since 1988, when it competed as Czechoslovakia and beat the Soviet Union 2-1 in the final.
The victory also caps a breakthrough season for second-ranked Petra Kvitova, who won both of her singles matches for the Czechs. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova then beat No. 2 Lucie Safarova to pull Russia even and set up the decisive doubles.
Valencia Open
Marcel Granollers defeated Juan Monaco 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (3) in the Valencia Open final on Sunday for his third career title.
“This is the biggest win of my career considering all the good players that were here,” Granollers said. “In the last two years here I have played the best tennis of my life.”
The 25-year-old Granollers dominated the first set between the two unseeded players with his serve-and-volley game.
Monaco found his baseline stroke and rallied to win the second set before saving three championship points in the decider to force a tiebreaker.
