Roger Federer fought hard to beat Diego Schwartzman at the 2015 Istanbul Open in three sets, and that doesn’t even include his code violation for angrily hitting the ball away as he dropped the first set.
Roger Federer beat eighth seed Diego Schwartzman 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the final of the inaugural TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.
The top seed reached his fourth ATP World Tour final of 2015 (2-1) and his 128th career final (84-43) as he looks to win a tour-level title in a 19th different country. He will face third seed Pablo Cuevas in Sunday’s final.
“I think what was important in the third set was to keep working hard,” said Federer. “I needed to put in a lot of effort to stay with Diego.
“Cuevas is playing very, very well… I think it’s going to be a tough match. Cuevas has obviously played a lot on clay.”
Federer fired six aces in the one hour, 55-minute match. The crowd was appreciative of the strong effort from Schwartzman, who saved eight of the 11 break points he faced, chanting “Diego!” as he left the court.
With his second-round victory on Wednesday, the World No. 2 became the seventh active player with at least 200 career match wins on clay.
Later, Cuevas broke on five of his six opportunities to prevail 6-2, 6-4 over second seed Grigor Dimitrov in one hour and 15 minutes.
The 29-year-old Uruguayan captured his third career title in Sao Paulo (d. Vanni) earlier this year. He is 3-0 in ATP World Tour finals.
“I come from a small country, and I’m used to having the crowd against me,” said Cuevas. “Playing Roger tomorrow will be like playing Roger in his hometown.”