Federer back to world no.1 and in the Stuttgart final

It’s Roger Federer again!

The Swiss sensation and Rafael Nadal keeps on dancing at the top of the rankings. Only in 2018, both Roger and Rafa have been the world no.1 on 3 different occasions each of them. On Saturday, Roger has managed to overtake the Spaniard once again after he defeated Nick Kyrgios following an extremely close match. This win gave 150pts to the Swiss that allowed him to conquer the top of the rankings.

The match against Kyrgios

In order to get back to the world no.1 position, Roger had to edge a revitalized Nick Kyrgios that looked at his best after coming back to competitions in Stuttgart. Overall, Roger was much better than the Australian during the entire match with the exception of the first set tiebreak when Federer’s tennis went completely south to give the opener to his opponent.

At the beginning of the second set, Nick looked utterly dialed in until he was leading 1-1 40-15. Then the Australian started to play a bit casual, and he lost that game (and the serve) after committing 2 consecutive double faults. That was game over; Kyrgios couldn’t cope with the disappointment, and he tanked the entire set before losing 6-2.

However, the match was not over yet because, as expected, Kyrgios was determined to make his mark in the decider that went straight to the tie break with both players rarely dropping more than 1 point on serve.

The tiebreak was a thriller. Kyrgios conquered a great minibreak in the 2nd point after blasting a forehand pass out of this world (2-0). With the back of the local crowd, Federer recovered that mini break (4-3) before conquering the breaker and the match after a great chase at the net.

Federer won the encounter 6-7 (2) 6-2 7-6 (5) after earning 18 points more than Kyrgios (108 vs. 90).

I am very relieved. FEDERER

Soon after the match, Roger commented

“I’m very happy, very relieved. I thought it was a tough match, I expected against Nick. We’ve played so many breakers already; I’m losing count. It was close. It could have gone either way, naturally. But I’m happy I got it and get back to World No. 1 next Monday, so it’s very exciting. And I’ve got another final, so it’s great news.”

The final vs. Raonic

Federer will face Milos Raonic in the final. The head to head is 10-3 for the Maestro, 3-1 on grass.