Federer achieves new milestone in winning 10th Halle title over Goffin

World No. 3 Roger Federer defeated David Goffin, 7-6 (2), 6-1, on Sunday to win the grass-court event in Halle for the 10th time, becoming just the second man in the Open Era to win the same ATP tournament on 10 occasions. With his victory, Federer is expected to leapfrog Rafael Nadal for the second seed at Wimbledon under the tournament's grass-court formula.

There were some tricky moments early on. After four straight holds to start the match, Federer faced three break points in his 2-all service game. But he fought them all off and never faced a break point the rest of the match, cruising through the first set tiebreaker. He broke Goffin three times in the second set, including for the match, to close out the Belgian after an hour and 23 minutes. Federer ripped one last backhand on match point that Goffin couldn’t get back into the court.

“He was the better player for probably the first 10 games of the match,” Federer told ATPTour.com. “He had more chances. He had some big chances, too. But then I played a really good tie-break.

“I was able to run away with the lead, getting the break early on in the second, and I think that maybe calmed down my nerves. His level might have dropped just a tiny bit, but it was tough to play with the shadows, and it’s a fast court. David, of course, also had a great week, so clearly he was feeling it from the baseline. But I was able to tough it out and at the end I was able to play some great tennis.”

Federer has conquered Halle 10 times in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and now 2019. The only other man in the Open Era to win the same ATP event 10 or more times is Rafael Nadal, who’s won Monte Carlo and Barcelona 11 times and the French Open 12 times. Federer also won his 102nd career ATP title, closing in on Jimmy Connors’ Open Era record of 109.

The Swiss could pass another of Connors’ records at Wimbledon this year. He’s now 181-25 in his career on grass and Connors was 185-38, so a semifinal run at SW19 would put him over the top. And if previous years are anything to go by, Federer is likely to do very well at Wimbledon - in the nine previous years he’s won Halle, he’s made the Wimbledon final eight times (winning five titles).

“Every time I’ve won Halle I went on to play well at Wimbledon,” he said. “It’s never a guarantee, but I’ve been on the tour for long enough to know what it means. Most important is I know I’m injury-free. I’m going to have a couple of days off and then get ready once I’m at Wimbledon practicing again.

“But for now I’m going to enjoy this one, rest up a little bit, and then look forward to the rest.”

Despite the loss in the final, it was an impressive week for Goffin, too, as the former No. 7, currently ranked No. 33, reached his first ATP final since contesting the title match at the 2017 ATP Finals. Along the way he took out No. 5 Alexander Zverev, his first win over a Top 10 player since Cincinnati last year, where he knocked off No. 6 Kevin Anderson and No. 3 Juan Martin del Potro in succession. The Belgian will return to the Top 25 on Monday.