Swiss Indoors 2019: Statistical analysis of Roger Federer's win over Peter Gojowzcyk

Over the past year and a half, there has been a certain pattern in the victories of Roger Federer - especially during the early rounds of tournaments. He hits hard right from the start, moves quickly between points and doesn't allow his opponents to breathe.

Most players fall prey to this tactic, and it worked well today too on the German Peter Gojowzcyk.

Playing on his home turf, in an indoor stadium filled with 9000 fans rooting for him, Federer had a dream start to his bid for a 10th Basel title as he claimed a straight-sets victory over Gojowzcyk in the first round. He will now face the winner of the first-round match between Dusan Lajovic and Radu Albot.

Let us take a look at the statistics behind Federer's impressive win.

Right from the start, Federer took care of his serve quite well. It was the German who faced the first break point of the match, in the fourth game of the first set.

Federer took the break and jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in just 15 minutes. It's a well-known fact that Federer likes playing indoors, and that was clearly evident in this match. Federer flew across the court gracefully, moving the German from corner to corner and controlling the play from the baseline to establish his dominance.

Peter Gojowczyk

Federer did most of the heavy lifting from the back of the court. He approached the net just thrice in the entire match, and won two out of those three points.

Federer's first serve stood at 61% at the end of the first set while Gojowzcyk's stood at 72%. The Swiss managed to hit 16 winners, almost all from the baseline, compared to just eight winners from the German.

Gojowczyk was solid on some occasions, but it would need more than a solid effort to defeat the Swiss Maestro on his home court.

As usual, Federer lost his way in the middle of the second set as he gave up his serve after breaking the German in the second game of the set. The score was 2-1 when Federer broke once again with some incredible defense from the baseline coupled with a few silly errors from the German.

The Swiss immediately pounced on that lead with a firm hold of his serve and took the score to 4-1.

The second serve could be a matter of concern for the Swiss Maestro as he only managed to win 39% of the points on it. Gojowzyck took advantage of the shot with some quality returns to grab the initiative whenever he could.

Roger Federer

At 4-1 Gojowzyck lost his serve once again, handling a double break and an opportunity to serve for the match to Federer. And the World No. 3 didn't need to be asked twice; he finished off with three aces, taking his count to 12 for the match.

Federer hit 13 winners on the forehand and four on the backhand, taking the tally of his winners to 34 (including the 12 aces). Gojowzyck managed to hit 13 winners with 4 coming from the forehand, 5 from the backhand and 4 winners on his serve.

Federer managed to win 5 break points out of the 10 opportunities he had while the German managed to take the only break point opportunity he had in the entire match.

All in all, it was a dominant performance from Federer in his 1500th match on tour; he didn't let the disappointing run at the Shanghai Masters affect his game in Basel. If he continues in the same vein he could soon lift a 10th trophy in Basel, and move even closer to Jimmy Connors' record tally of 109 career titles.