Federer beats Copil to win 99th career title in Basel

World number three Roger Federer beat Romanian qualifier Marius Copil 7-6(5), 6-4 to win the Swiss Indoors yesterday and claim his 99th career title in front of his home crowd in Basel. Federer began the year by winning the Australian Open and his ninth Basel title was his fourth of the season but the first since his victory in Stuttgart in June. The Swiss top seed was made to work hard by the fearless Copil, whose path to the final included wins over world number six Marin Cilic and number five Alexander Zverev.The 28-year-old broke Federer’s serve early in the match but the Swiss recovered to force a tiebreak that he needed every bit of his vast experience to win. Copil stormed out of the blocks in the second set, racing into a 3-0 lead before Federer got on the scoreboard, but the Swiss kept a level head to reel his opponent back in before breaking serve to take a 5-4 lead in the second set.He closed out the victory in one hour, 34 minutes for his fourth consecutive title in Basel to draw within one of his century. American Jimmy Connors (109) is the only player to have won more than 100 career titles in the professional era.Despite being broken twice by world number 93 Copil, Federer was never truly in danger, striking 22 winners and winning 32 out of 34 first-serve points. Copil made 31 unforced errors and crumbled when the pressure was highest, allowing Federer to recover from a break down in the second set and win the last five games as the Romanian’s challenge ran out of steam.Anderson into ATP Finals after Vienna Open win over NishikoriBig-serving South African Kevin Anderson secured his spot at next month’s season-ending ATP Finals by beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6(3) to win the Vienna Open yesterday. The world number eight sent down 13 aces and 36 winners as he wrapped up victory in just under two hours. The 32-year-old is the first South African to reach the ATP Finals in 23 years and follows in the footsteps of compatriot Wayne Ferreira who achieved the feat in 1995. Anderson joins Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev in sealing his spot at the season finale, which will run from Nov 11-18 at the O2 Arena in London.His qualification means there are two places still up for grabs ahead of next week’s Paris Masters, with Croatian Marin Cilic, Austrian Dominic Thiem, Nishikori and American John Isner still in the race.Anderson was runner-up to Djokovic at Wimbledon this year but the win in Vienna represented the biggest title of his career.