Roger Federer gets more challenging rivals in Basel, with Tsitsipas and..
The ATP Tour had visited Basel for the first time in 1975 and has stayed in this picturesque town ever since, attracting some of the biggest names of our sport. Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro have all celebrated here in the past but the hometown hero Roger Federer has stolen the glory from all of them, lifting nine trophies and reaching 12 consecutive finals between 2006-2018! The organizers of the Swiss Indoors will give their best to gather the strongest possible field in Basel between October 21-27, confirming the names of the first three competitors back in April and revealing another three on Monday. The nine-time champion and hometown favorite Roger Federer will compete in Basel for the 19th time at the age of 38, more than two decades after making a debut against Andre Agassi in 1998!
Since then, Roger had skipped Basel only in 2004, 2005 and 2016 and has been standing as the player to beat at this prestigious indoor event, lifting the ninth trophy last fall against Marius Copil. Roger is scheduled to play the first match on Monday, October 21, and the crowd will have a chance to watch Stan Wawrinka and Alexander Zverev as well. Besides them, world no. 6 and the last year's quarter-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas is set to return to Basel, targeting even deeper run after that loss to Daniil Medvedev in three sets.
Fabio Fognini will compete in Basel for the first time, cracking the top-10 for the first time just after turning 32 in June and winning Monte Carlo Masters back in April, his most significant title so far. Fabio is not known for his indoor abilities, winning one title under the roof on his beloved clay, although that all could change if he brings his best tennis. The sixth and so far the last confirmed player is Marin Cilic, returning to Basel ten years after making a debut there. Marin claimed the title in 2016 over Kei Nishikori and reached the semi-final a year later, seeking the same kind of result in October after a slow start of 2019 due to injuries. The organizers should unveil the rest of the field in the next couple of months although it is already one of the strongest ATP 500 tournaments of the season, with four current top-10 stars ready to fight for that beautiful trophy.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Y3JpCo
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