This day marks the fourth year since the legend Roger Federer won his last ATP title in his hometown Basel.
The Swiss Indoors is an ATP 500 event that takes place every year in St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. The 2023 Swiss Indoors which marks its 52nd edition is underway and the day is up for the semifinals.
But, we cannot forget the local boy, Roger Federer who is from Basel and has won the title a record no. of 10 times. With this, he has recorded the highest number of titles in a single ATP event. He has reached the finals 15 times and won it 10 times.
Federer, 38 played the finals against Alex De Minaur who was only 20 years old coming into that tournament. De Minaur was born a year after the legend turned pro. Federer won the match 6-2, 6-2 and it also marked his 1500th ATP match only behind Jimmy Connors who played 1556 matches.
It was the fourth title of the season for Federer and his 103rd overall. De Minaur who also had won three titles in that season was fighting for his fourth title. Federer had a good season in the ATP Tour and performed decently well at the Majors. He started the year with a win at the Hopman Cup with Belinda Bencic, which was a mixed-gender event and took Switzerland to victory for the third time.
He won the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships which marked his 100th career title, the 2019 Miami Open, and the Halle Open before he won the Swiss Indoors later that year. He managed to reach the final at the Wimbledon Open, the semifinal at the French Open, the quarterfinals at the US Open, and the fourth round of the Australian Open.
With such a great season in 2019, no one could have ever imagined back then that the Swiss Indoors would be his last ATP title. Wimbledon could have been his 21st Major when he played the finals against Novak Djokovic. He was serving when he got two chances to convert the championship points in the 5th set.
But, Djokovic gave it all to bring back the game and take it to the tiebreaker where he finally won. He even reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in 2020. He played the Australian Open with an injury and so had to undergo surgery later. Due to this, he couldn’t play in any tournament in 2020 and was hoping to make a comeback in 2021.
Since he was still recovering, he did not play in the 2021 Australian Open. He made a comeback in the Wimbledon and reached the quarterfinals where he lost to Hubert Hurkacz. Later that year, he had to undergo another surgery which made his hopes of making a comeback very uncertain. Federer wanted to play more tennis but his injuries were not allowing him to do so. So, with a heavy heart, he decided and announced to retire after the 2022 Laver Cup. He played his last match in doubles with Rafael Nadal for Team Europe and ended in a loss. He ended his career with 20 Grand Slams and 103 Total Career Titles.
It has been a year since his retirement, four years since he last won a title, and close to five years since a Grand Slam Title. But he is still etched as the Greatest of All Time in the hearts of Tennis fans.
