Federer roars back to victory

14 April 2012

Roger Federer overcame a terrible start to defeat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 2-6 6-3 6-2 on Sunday to win the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

It was the fourth straight match that the world's top player lost a set but nevertheless found a way to win.

The Swiss superstar, who turned 25 on Tuesday, improved to 62-4 with seven titles this year, going 61-0 against all opponents not named Rafael Nadal.

Also the winner here two years ago, Federer has claimed nine hardcourt titles in North America since losing to Dominik Hrbaty in the first round of Cincinnati on August 3, 2004.

Gasquet, 20, stormed through the first set and put Federer in a 0-40 hole on serve in the first game of the second set. But Federer won the next five points to hold serve, then broke Gasquet in the next game and maintained the advantage throughout the set.

The top seed earned the decisive break in the fifth game of the third set, then added an insurance break two games later. He held easily in the eighth game to close out his 18th consecutive match win.

Federer was playing in his 17th straight tournament final, one shy of Ivan Lendl's ATP Tour record.

Gasquet began his season in disappointing fashion, winning only seven of 20 games, but he has won 15 of 18 in his past five events, winning a grasscourt title at Nottingham, England, and a claycourt tournament at Gstaad, Switzerland.

Gasquet won his first meeting with Federer in last year's Monaco quarter-finals but has lost all five encounters since, including a 6-3 6-2 6-2 setback in the first round at Wimbledon.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in