Federer breezes into Basel final despite late stutter

Basel, October 27: Defending champion Roger Federer raced into the Swiss Indoors Basel final despite a late stutter in a 6-1 6-4 defeat of Daniil Medvedev.

Federer might have expected a genuine examination from seventh seed Medvedev in the last four, but the hometown favourite ultimately cruised towards a meeting with the unseeded Marius Copil, who stunned Alexander Zverev.

The ease of the first set was tempered by a difficult second, however, and Federer was finally made to work for his win.

Some thrilling early rallies hinted at a competitive contest until the Swiss great broke to go in front and showed no signs of slowing.

Medvedev's repeated errors made it easy for his esteemed opponent to wrap up the opening set and there was another break at the start of the second to set the tone.

Federer breezed towards victory until a belated show of defiance from Medvedev saw him stave off a match point and hold to remain in the match.

The Russian then silenced the home crowd by winning to love against serve and again denying Federer a match point to move a game back, but the eight-time champion belatedly got the job done.

Second seed Zverev was beaten 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 by Copil in the first match of the day.

Copil comprehensively claimed the opener to tee up an upset, and although Zverev snatched the second in a tie-break the Romanian qualifier recovered to secure a shock victory.