Roger Federer reached a 12th Halle final after he struggled past American qualifier Denis Kudla, 7-6(1) 7-5.
The world number one was left frustrated on multiple occasions especially in the early stages as he had lost his early break to Kudla. The American had yet to lose a set before this match and it was easy to see why as his ability to serve big and accurately on the pressure points was impressive. The top seed was struggling to win points on return as the world number 109 forced a first set tiebreak in Halle.
Despite his frustration the nine time Halle champion played a great tiebreak and dominated proceedings against the American grass court specialist as he only dropped one point in the tiebreak. The second set saw similar frustration from the 20 time grand slam champion as he even received a code violation warning for ball abuse:
😳(🎥@TennisTV ) pic.twitter.com/7GP03MDenb
— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) June 23, 2018
However the world number one remained focused and after saving multiple break points from his American opponent, he eventually grabbed the break of serve in the 11th game of the match. The crucial break of serve was all that Federer needed to seal the victory in just under 90 minutes.
It was a struggle at times for Federer on a warm Saturday Halle morning, however the main thing is that it is another win and some more momentum heading into the defence of his Wimbledon title in a couple of weeks time. The world number one will now play either Roberto Bautista Agut or Borna Coric in tomorrow’s final, where he looks to win a 10th Halle title.
