Roger Federer overcame a sluggish start on Sunday to win his first title of the year by beating unseeded Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 at the Gerry Weber Open.
Returning to grass in his favourite warm-up for Wimbledon, it took the top-seeded Federer until the middle of the second set to come out of his lethargy and start hitting shots with confidence against a player he had never lost to in 14 previous career matches. It was the first final on the tour this year involving players 30 or older.
“I’ve won a lot but not so much in the last 10 months, although I feel I’d been playing well,” Federer said. “But the others were playing better.”
Federer won his first title since Cincinnati in August and his sixth in Halle, the first since 2008. Four of Federer’s seven Wimbledon titles have come after triumphs in Halle.
The former top-ranked player, who is now No. 3, won his 77th career title. Federer will be looking to add to his record 17 Grand Slam championships when he defends his title at Wimbledon.
Federer had beaten Youzhny in both last year’s semifinal in Halle and the quarterfinal at Wimbledon, but it looked for a while Sunday that the Russian could have discovered a key to finally beating Federer, although he had to fend off four break points in the first game of the match.
Youzhny saved another break point in the 11th game, but he had the Swiss on the defensive and Federer saved a set point in the next game before holding to go into the tiebreaker. An error by Federer gave Youzhny a set point and the Russian put away a volley winner to go ahead.
Federer finally started finding his range and went up when Youzhny double-faulted at break point in the eighth game, which proved to be the turning point of the match.
The Swiss hit a perfect backhand passing shot to go up 4-3 in the third, held for 5-3 with a smash and fired a service winner to seal his victory after two hours and two minutes. Federer has a big following at the Halle and has a street named after him next to the stadium. The fans gave him a standing ovation, while his wife Mirka let out a sigh of relief while keeping an eye on their twin daughters.