Former world's No.1 Roger Federer will attempt to book his spot in the final of the ATP Basel Open as he takes on Vasek Pospisil on Saturday at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.
Federer's qualification to next month's ATP World Tour Finals got a boost after he reached the semis of the Basel Open, not to mention the early round exits of Stanislas Wawrinka, Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych.
However, the Swiss Master is also looking to win his second championship in a year filled with early-round upset losses and inconsistency. Federer last won a hardware earlier this year in a grass-court tournament in Halle, Germany.
No Place Like Home
Federer reached the semifinal of the Basel Open after beating up-and-coming tennis star Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) on Friday's competitive quarterfinal.
On Friday, Federer grabbed the 50th win of his career at the Swiss Indoors, where he is also a five-time champion.
"It was very important to win in two sets," Federer said during the post-game interview via CNN "There were a lot of free gifts out there in some games. When I saved three set points I just told myself to play one point at a time and hope to get there."
"I broke him and that made it difficult for him. I was able to come through well in the tiebreaker. It always feels good to win at home," he said.
Head-to-Head With Pospisil
With the elites going down early in the tourney, Federer will have a relatively unknown opponent in Vasek Pospisil. Still, Federer is very much aware that he needs to put all his focus on this upcoming match, or else disaster will have another opportunity to strike again for him.
Pospisil advanced to the semifinals with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Croatia's Ivan Dodig, the player who stunned sixth-seed Kei Nishikori in the second round.
Before their Saturday clash, Federer and Pospisil met only once, with the Swiss grinding out a 7-5, 6-3 win at the Montreal Masters in 2011.
Valencia Open Semis
The Valencia Open also reached the final four rounds with Mikhail Youzhny taking on Dmitry Tursunov; later on, David Ferrer will be playing Nicolas Almagro for the spots in the final.
Live Stream & Schedule
Federer vs. Posposil at the Basel Open Semis is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. EST. The match can be watched on the Tennis Channel and online via ESPN Watch. Youzhny vs. Tursonov and Ferrer vs. Almagro are also available on The Tennis Channel while live scores can be followed by clicking here.
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