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| October 30, 2006 | Monday | Shawwal 6, 1427 |
Federer celebrates first win in hometown
BASEL, Oct 29: Roger Federer finally celebrated his first hometown title on Sunday after a 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 win over Fernando Gonzalez in the final of the Swiss Indoors tournament.
Federer took control of the first set when he broke Gonzalez with a backhand down-the-line winner in game six and then tore through the second set after taking the first four games.
The world No 7 managed to put up a fight in the third set and earned two break points.
Federer defended both but was unable to kill the match off after failing to convert six break chances of his own.
He made up for that in the subsequent tiebreak, however, earning a mini-break with a fierce return on the opening point before going on to win 7-3.
On Saturday, the world’s top player survived a huge scare against unseeded Thai Paradorn Srichaphan in the semi-final.
Federer had to twice fight back from a mini-break down in the decisive third set tiebreak before eventually winning 6-4, 3-6, 7-6.
ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Third seed Mario Ancic beat holder Thomas Johansson 7-5, 7-6 in the St Petersburg Open final on Sunday to clinch his second title of the year.
The Croat broke Johansson's serve in the 11th game to take the first set.
The second set was just as close with the players trading breaks to force a tiebreak which Ancic won 7-2 to deny the Swede his third St Petersburg crown.
LYON (France): Richard Gasquet beat unseeded French compatriot Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-1 to win the Lyon International on Sunday.
Fourth seed Gasquet, who will carry French hopes at the Paris Masters Series event next week, was too consistent for Gicquel who was playing in his first ATP final.
The French No 1 had on Saturday beaten compatriot Arnaud Clement 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the semi-final while Gicquel wasted six match points before beating Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-4, 1-6, 7-6.
LINZ (Austria): Maria Sharapova claimed her fifth title this year at the Linz Open when she beat holder and number two seed Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-2 in Sunday's all-Russian final.
She added to her wins at the US Open, Indian Wells, San Diego and Zurich and by reaching the final guaranteed she would overtake Justine Henin-Hardenne as world No 2 on Monday.—Reuters
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