MONACO: Third seed Stanislas Wawrinka clinched his maiden Masters title after rallying to beat fourth seed Roger Federer 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 in an all-Swiss final at Monte Carlo on Sunday.
Australian Open champion Wawrinka bludgeoned 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer with powerful shots in the final two sets to win his seventh ATP title.
It was only Wawrinka’s second win over his close friend in 15 career meetings. His last win over Federer came at the same venue in 2009.
Wawrinka, who fired 33 winners on Sunday, had lost his previous two Masters finals — in Rome in 2008 to Novak Djokovic and last year in Madrid to Rafael Nadal — and looked like losing a third until Federer’s level dropped suddenly late in the second set, and he began troubling his compatriot with his aggressive backhand.
The title was Wawrinka’s third of the year after trophies at Chennai and Melbourne in January.
He also held on to his world number three ranking as a result of his success in two hours, 13 minutes. Federer would have taken the third spot with a victory in the final.
Federer, who accepted a wild card invitation to play in the tournament, was also looking to win it for the first time after losing his three previous finals here to eight-time champion Nadal from 2006-08.
It was the first all-Swiss final on the ATP since 2000, when the teenaged Federer lost to Marc Rosset in Marseille.
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