Federer beats Milos Raonic in straight sets to win 98th ATP title after reclaiming World No 1 spot
Roger Federer claimed his 98th ATP title on Sunday and re-established his unrivalled superiority on grass with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) victory over Milos Raonic in the Stuttgart Cup final.
Top-seeded Swiss beat his Canadian opponent for the 11th time in 14 meetings while winning a first Stuttgart title.
Federer, who will be chasing a ninth Wimbledon triumph next month, finally came good on the German grass on his third attempt after losing a semi-final in 2016 to Dominic Thiem and falling in the first round here a year ago to good friend Tommy Haas.
The 36-year-old will regain the world number one ranking on Monday and is playing next week as top seed in Halle.
"It's a great comeback for me," Federer said after completing his 78-minute win.
"I'm so happy to win this tournament in my third attempt. We'll see if being number one again will probably give me a boost." Federer made a return to the top ATP ranking for a sixth time through his semi-final victory on Saturday over Australian Nick Kyrgios.
He takes the honour back form Rafael Nadal for the second time this season and continues the duel on court between the two modern icons.
Federer kept tight control on the match as he claimed his third title of the season after the Australian Open and Rotterdam and now owns 28 grass trophies including eight from Wimbledon.
"I think I played very well not having played for a while," Federer said as he competed this week for the first time since mid-March after skipping the clay season.
"Maybe I was a bit better on the big points." The Swiss broke twice in the first set to earn it after 32 minutes when his opponent returned long over the baseline.
The second set stayed on serve into the tiebreaker.
A double-fault from the Canadian followed by a return winner from the Swiss set up three match points, with Federer needing only his first as Raonic netted a return.
Federer improved to 21-2 on the season after playing in the 24th grass final of his career.
The 35th-ranked Raonic, a victim of various injuries over recent seasons, was playing a final for the first time in his last 16 tournaments dating to Istanbul last year.
Murray returns
london: Andy Murray will make his long awaited return from hip surgery at Queen's Club next week, while his old rival Novak Djokovic arrives at the Wimbledon warm-up hoping to end his wretched run.
Murray has not played a competitive match since he was knocked out of the Wimbledon quarter-finals last July as a hip injury brought a painful end to his season. The former world number one underwent surgery in January after pulling out of the 2017 US Open and this year's Australian Open.
Murray made a tentative commitment to appear in the grass-court tournament in Rosmalen this week, before again pulling out at the last minute to spark fresh fears that he wouldn't make it back in time for Wimbledon.
But the two-time Wimbledon champion has been practising regularly for the past fortnight and a final workout on Friday at Queen's Club with fellow Briton Cameron Norrie convinced him to return.
"I've been practising the last couple of weeks and obviously building up each day. I started playing sets about a week ago," Murray said on Saturday.
Murray, a five-time Queen's winner, had only been seen on court during a charity match against Roger Federer last November and one exhibition set against Roberto Bautista Agut in December.
And, after such a long and frustrating rehabilitation period, the world number 157 admits it will be a tense moment when he gets back on the court to face Kyrgios.
"Well it's obviously eleven months since I last competed. So obviously I'm looking forward to it. There are a lot of doubts though as well when you've not played for a long time," Murray said.
Embarrassing
like Murray, Djokovic has endured a frustrating period. Djokovic is a lowly 21st in the rankings after an embarrassing French Open quarter-final defeat against Italian journeyman Marco Cecchinato.
The struggling Serb hasn't earned a major title since competing his career Grand Slam by winning the 2016 French Open.
Djokovic has failed to reach the semi-finals in any of his last five Grand Slam appearances.
A 12-time Grand Slam winner, Djokovic traditionally opts against playing a pre-Wimbledon event.
But, dogged by rumours that he no longer has the motivation and desire to return to the top, he has decided to start his bid for a fourth Wimbledon crown earlier than usual by accepting a Queen's wild card.
"Grass is very special, it is the rarest of surfaces so I'm happy I'll have the opportunity to compete at this strong tournament, which will also be a great preparation for Wimbledon," Djokovic said.