In 2017, the hometown hero Roger Federer and David Goffin competed for the third time in Basel. Federer scored his sixth triumph from as many encounters, toppling the Belgian 6-1, 6-2 in an hour. Thus, he advanced to his 11th consecutive Basel final and performed one of the finest performances in front of the home crowd!
A seven-time champion played textbook tennis, delivering incredible ball striking and imposing his strokes without making too many errors. Federer did just about everything right, serving without any troubles and returning almost as well to tame his strokes nicely and use every opportunity to attack.
Roger dropped eight points in eight service games. He never faced a break point and stole 52% of the return points to convert four out of ten break chances for a commanding victory and a place in his 13th Basel final. The match could have been even shorter if the third game of the second set did not develop into a ten-minute marathon or had Roger converted a few more break chances.
Despite that, the Swiss was in complete control from the first to the last point, never letting Goffin find any rhythm. David hit 20 winners from the 39 points he won, in the only segment that carried him toward those three games and away from a complete disaster.
Federer hit 21 unreturnable serves and had total domination in the exchanges, attacking every shorter ball and keeping the points on his racquet with aggressive initial groundstrokes.
Roger Federer toppled David Goffin to reach the 2017 Basel final.
David could not exploit Roger’s backhand, as the Swiss sprayed only six errors from that wing and left his opponent without any game plan.
Roger had 16 winners (nine from his forehand), while David stayed on five. Goffin had 11 unforced mistakes and 16 that Roger forced, eight from forehand and backhand. That brings him to 27 errors, 16 more than Roger, who stayed on five unforced and six forced mistakes.
Federer had no unforced errors in the first set, and those 11 points he failed to return across the net showed how well he played, considering he was in attacking mode from start to finish. 70% of the points ended with four shots or fewer thanks to those 41 service winners they hit combined.
Roger forged a 44-30 advantage in those and dominated the mid-range rallies 14-7. He secured eight out of ten most extended exchanges to dominating seal the deal.
