Federer lands maiden Paris Masters title

Roger Federer won the Paris Masters for the first time yesterday by defeating Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 7-6 in a one-sided final.

It was the Swiss star’s third tournament win of the year after Doha early in the year and his Basel hometown event last week.

It was also his 18th Masters title win, second only to Rafael Nadal who has won 19 times.

Tsonga was aggressive from the start and he immediately had two break points.

The 30-year-old Federer, though, saved them both and then totally took command of the match running off five games in a row with two breaks of serve.

Tsonga looked shell-shocked and frustrated, but he held serve twice to take a 2-1 lead at the start of the second set and finally profited from some errors from Federer to put some pressure on his opponent’s serve.

A whipped crosscourt forehand which wrong-footed Federer at the net gave Tsonga break point but he went for broke on his service return with a forehand drive down the line and missed by inches.

Federer duly held serve again to level at 2-2 but he was in trouble again in the eighth game only for what looked initially like a Tsonga winner on the baseline to be called out much to the anger of the crowd.

Both players held serve from there taking the final into a tie-break which Federer dominated from the start by powering into a 4-0 lead.

The win makes Federer just the second player after Andre Agassi to win both the French Open, which he took in 2009, and the Paris Bercy title. It sets him up for the ATP Tour finals which take place in London from November 22.