Federer too good for Falla in Halle

Roger Federer won the Gerry Weber Open for the seventh time by defeating Alejandro Falla 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3) in the final.

Federer fired five aces and saved three of the five break points he faced to win in 1 hour, 28 minutes. It was the 14th title on grass and 79th overall for the 32-year-old Swiss.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion improved his record to 46-5 in 12 appearances at the tournament where he made his debut 14 years ago.

“I’ve left a little bit of my heart there,” Federer said after his ninth Halle final. “My big goal for the week was to collect the title, play good tennis and have fun. I’ve done that.”

Federer broke to go 5-3 up in the first set, only for Falla to respond with a break and take it to the tiebreaker.

Federer then started the second set with a break, but a forehand error allowed Falla respond with a break in the next set.

Both held serve to set up the second tiebreaker, where Federer’s experience saw him through. It was Federer’s seventh win from seven meetings with Falla.

“He’s the king of kings of tiebreaks,” Falla said. “Overall I played very well throughout the whole week and I want to keep it up.”

The 69th-ranked Falla was the first Colombian to reach the final of a grass-court tournament. He was playing his second on tour after he finished runner-up to Ivo Karlovic at Bogota in 2013.

Federer was playing the doubles final later with partner Marco Chiudinelli, hoping to repeat his feats from Halle in 2005 and Vienna in 2003 of winning singles and doubles in the same tournament.

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal was knocked out in the second round by the 85th-ranked German wild card Dustin Brown, who became the lowest ranked player to defeat a world number one since number 98 Mardy Fish upset Federer at Indian Wells in 2008.