The Swiss German-speaking public address announcer at the Swiss Indoors ends every on-court introduction of Roger Federer with the English phrase, “welcome home Roger Federer.”
In 2011, Federer did not disappoint the 9,000 or so spectators in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, winning the final on Sunday without any drama, 6-1, 6-3 over Kei Nishikori.
“It was a five-star performance by a five-time champion,” was the succinct summation of commentator Nick Lester right after Federer had dispatched a winning overhead on championship point for the 68th title of his career. It put an end to a 12-tournament drought, dating back to Dubai in January.
Nishikori won the first three points of the opening game on his serve but Federer soon reached deuce with a beautiful, down-the-line backhand winner and followed that with a big forehand winner to get the advantage. Nishikori then tried a bold but poorly-executed second serve and volley on the break point, missing a forehand volley into the net.
The rout was on, with Federer wrapping up the first set in 28 minutes, and winning 28 points to 12 (after dropping the first three).
The only slight hiccup in the second set came when Federer served for the match at 5-3. Nishikori earned his only break point of the match at 30-40, but Federer hit a big serve that the 21-year-old Japanese could not return in court. He would not get another chance.
Despite the one-sided score, Nishikori, who needed a wild card to get into the tournament, did not embarrass himself. It was mainly a matter of Federer just being too good.
Federer put it all together on a day that was obviously special for him. His presentation ceremony speech in Swiss German was warm and composed—right up until his last words about returning for next year’s event. Suddenly, he obviously choked up, and there were tears in his eyes as he and Nishikori stepped forward to pose for pictures with the winner’s trophy and the runner-up’s plate.
It was a family affair, with Federer’s wife Mirka shooting away with her camera at various stages of the post-match ceremonies.
It all ended with a nice touch. Both Federer and Nishikori presented medals to the ball kids who were in two parallel lines out on the court. The medals had the ATP logo on them, along with the Swiss Indoors name of the tournament.
It could hardly have been a better weekend for the hometown boy. Federer spent just an hour and 27 minutes on court during his semifinal win over Stanislas Wawrinka, and only an hour and 12 minutes today versus Nishikori. That low workload should put him in good shape for this week’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, an event he has not won in eight previous attempts. Seeded third, Federer, after a bye, will start out against the winner of the Dmitry Tursunov-Adrian Mannarino match, with Richard Gasquet looming as a possible third-round opponent.
—Tom Tebbutt