The 38-year-old Swiss has now won 103 singles titles in his career.

The record win in Basel — where he once acted as a ball boy — was the second time he had won a tournament 10 times.

He had first achieved the feat in Halle in June.

Federer converted four of 10 break points and did not drop serve to wrap up the match in 68 minutes for his fourth title of the year.

He had achieved title wins in Dubai, Miami and Halle.

“It was fast but very nice. I think I played a great match,” an emotional Federer said after lifting the trophy.

“I thought Alex played a great tournament as well, and I think we both can be very happy. But what a moment for me to win my 10th here in my hometown of Basel.”

Federer and De Minaur traded blows with long baseline exchanges early in the match, including an absorbing 39-shot rally when Federer led 2-1.

The Swiss then stepped up a gear to break his opponent twice and take the opening set.

Federer was ruthless on his serve and retained his momentum and intensity in the second set.

He moved into a 3-0 lead after winning five games in a row, before De Minaur held.

“It was a tough opener… the first five games, we had some great rallies,” Federer added. “I never looked back.

“I was great on the offence, made very few unforced errors and came up with the big shots and served well when I had to.”

De Minaur’s rare success only delayed the inevitable as Federer set up match point and forced the 20-year-old to fire a forehand wide.

The crowd never missed the moment as they rose to their feet to salute the 20-times Grand Slam champion.

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The Swiss 38-year-old competed in the first of four Olympic Games at Sydney in 2000 and won the doubles gold partnering Stan Wawrinka in 2008 and a silver in singles in 2012.

He missed the 2016 Olympics due to a knee injury.

“At the end of the day, my heart decided I would love to play the Olympic Games again,” Federer told reporters during a promotional event for his sponsor Uniqlo in Tokyo.

Federer will attempt to win a singles gold medal at the July 24 to Aug. 9 Games, the only major prize the 20-times Grand Slam winner has yet to win.

“I’ve been debating with my team for a few weeks now, months actually, what I should do in the summer after Wimbledon and before the U.S. Open (in 2020),” Federer, who will turn 39 during the Games, added.

“I carried the flag twice for Switzerland in Athens and Beijing. I’ve got a gold and a silver, and I would love to play again. So, I’m very excited.”

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The Swiss third seed fired 35 winners and 10 aces to see off the outclassed Belgian in a speedy 80 minutes on a sunny day at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.

The 38-year-old Federer was at his best when it mattered most, converting nine of his 10 breakpoint opportunities to set up a meeting with Grigor Dimitrov or Alex de Minaur.

The only drama came early when Goffin, seeded 15th, broke Federer to take a 2-1 lead in the first set.

But the Swiss broke back in the next game and cruised to the finish line.

“I’m very happy with the level of play and the atmosphere,” Federer said in an on-court interview.

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The Russian qualifier broke the third seeded Swiss in his first two service games and won 81 per cent of his first serve points to wrap up the upset in just over an hour.

The 21-year-old shed tears of joy after pulling off the biggest win of his career.

“It is such an amazing feeling when you’re playing a legend like Roger and all these people supporting him until the end,” he said during an on-court interview.

“One day I hope I’m going to feel the same.

“Today I was just trying to do my best and was thinking in my head that I need to play every point until the end, no matter what.”

The win sets up an all Russian quarter-final with ninth seed Daniil Medvedev.

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It was the first All England Club final match to be decided by a tiebreaker.

The Serbian repelled everything the Federer could throw at him in am epic final worth every minute.

The defending champion was outshone at times on Centre Court and saved two match points deep into a gripping decider.

But he dredged his tank of mental and physical resilience to claim a thrilling 7-6(5) 1-6 7-6(4) 4-6 13-12(3) win.

Nothing could split the players in an intoxicating final set and the match was already the longest Wimbledon singles final in history.

So, the club’s new rule stipulating a tiebreak at 12-12 in a deciding set was deployed for the first time in singles.

As he had done in the day’s two other tiebreaks, the top-seeded Djokovic showed nerves of steel to crush Federer’s hopes of claiming a ninth title.

The Swiss would have become the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title in the professional era.

Djokovic moved 6-3 ahead and, after the final point had to be replayed following a Hawk-eye challenge, he could celebrate victory when a weary Federer framed a forehand.

Victory took the 32-year-old Serbian level with Bjorn Borg in fourth place on the all-time list of men’s winners at Wimbledon.

It also increased his Grand Slam tally to 16 – four behind Federer.

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The 40th career meeting between the golden duo with 38 Grand Slam titles between them swung this way and that before Federer seized control.

He went on to claim a 7-6(3) 1-6 6-3 6-4 victory to become the oldest finalist at Wimbledon since Ken Rosewall in 1974.

World number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic now stands between the 37-year-old Federer and a record-equalling ninth Wimbledon title in Sunday’s showpiece.

After edging a tense first set by taking the last five points of the tiebreak, Federer was overpowered in a 36-minute second set.

This was as Nadal, reviving memories of his memorable 2008 final triumph over the Swiss, appeared to have wrestled control.

Federer’s fans inside Centre Court and massed on “Henman Hill” watching the drama on the giant screen, need not have worried though.

The second seed had plenty left in the tank.

He broke early in the third set and then held off a fierce Nadal counter-attack to restore his one-set lead.

The Swiss maestro turned the screws to break again early in the fourth set.

And now there was no way back for third seed Nadal as he lost a Grand Slam semi-final against Federer for the first time.

The 33-year-old Spaniard was never going to slink away without a fight though.

He clung on at 3-5, saving two match points, then had a break point as Federer served for the match.

Federer saved that and then threw everything in his arsenal at Nadal on a third match point, only for the indefatigable Spaniard to win a sensational baseline rally.

Nadal fended off a fourth match point with another sublime winner, but Federer sealed it at the fifth time of asking —— holding his arms aloft as Nadal fired a backhand long.

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But it was something the Spaniard welcomed and dreaded with equal measure —— Roger Federer was through to the semi-finals.

It meant it was game on for a Federer-Nadal blockbuster.

All the Spaniard had to do to ensure Act 40 of the most compelling rivalry in tennis became a reality was to win one more point and another set.

And there was no stopping Nadal on Wednesday as he soaked up 22 thunderbolt aces to flatten Querrey 7-5 6-2 6-2 and reach his 32nd Grand Slam semi-final and seventh at Wimbledon.

Ever since the draw set Nadal and Federer on a collision course, tennis fans around the world had started dreaming, hoping and longing.

That the two most successful players on planet tennis would renew their rivalry on the sport’s greatest stage for the first time since their mesmerising 2008 twilight epic.

In recent years Nadal had declared he was “not stupid” as he would “prefer to face an easier opponent” than the eight-times Wimbledon champion on his favorite patch of turf.

But since that was no longer an option, the Spaniard admitted that he was excited to see how the latest installment in their shared history would pan out.

“Playing against Roger is always a unique situation. Excited to be back on this court against him after 11 years. Means a lot for me and probably for him, too,” said the 33-year-old Nadal, who leads Federer 24-15 in their head-to-head meetings.

“I am excited to play Roger again at Wimbledon after such a long time.”

Perhaps it was the anticipation of setting up that mega showdown that provided the spark that the Spaniard needed to make a jaw-dropping start to his quarter-final against Querrey.

He won all 12 points during his first three service games.

Querrey, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2017, finally got a foothold on Nadal’s serve in the eighth game but making any form of sustained attack proved to be mission impossible.

A warning for a time violation threw third seed Nadal, who had already squandered four set points, off his service stride in the 10th game and allowed Querrey to break back for 5-5.

But that was as good as it got for the 6-foot-5 American as his serve might have been on fire but everything else was misfiring.

Querrey had bulldozed his way into the last eight by firing down 100 aces and winning 71 of his 72 service games.

But when it came to facing a man who owns 18 Grand Slam titles, Querrey knew that such stats were meaningless.

“It’s his least favorite place of the slams and he’s finalled it five times (and won twice). And he’s been rolling through guys. It’s going to be tough,” the unseeded American said in the build-up to the quarter-final.

That assessment was spot on as an airborne Nadal was celebrating with a fist pump after sealing the first set with a service winner.

He could have drilled a volley right into his opponent’s chest to win the second but gently, and politely, tapped it away to take a 2-0 lead.

As he sprinted back to his chair, the 37-year-old Federer’s winning score flashed up on the Court One screen but Nadal had no time for such distractions.

Instead he pulled out a fresh shirt from his bag and slipped it over his head as he needed no official confirmation about the identity of his next opponent.

The deafening roars still ringing around the grounds had already done that.

Thirty-five minutes later, the Spaniard whipped a forehand winner on match point to make sure it was game on with Federer in Friday’s semi-final.

Nadal’s victory meant it was the first time more than one Spanish man had reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in the same year.

Compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut was also through to the last four after he beat Argentine Guido Pella in an earlier quarter-final.

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The Spaniard once again showed he is invincible on the Parisian clay as he beat Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 on his favorite Court Philippe Chatrier.

No other player has won the same Grand Slam title as many times as his dozen at Roland Garros, Sunday’s triumph taking him past Margaret Court’s 11 Australian Open titles.

It was pointed out to the 33-year-old Spaniard a few hours after he walked off court that he is now just two behind 37-year-old Federer’s record haul, with time on his side.

Nadal, however, was content to enjoy the moment.

“Being honest, I am not very worried about this stuff. No.” Nadal told reporters.

“You can’t be frustrated all the time because the neighbour has a bigger house than you, or a bigger TV or better garden. That’s not the way that I see the life, you know.”

Nadal has suffered more injuries throughout his career than Federer and Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic, who is third on the all-time list of major winners with 15.

Even this season he has been plagued with knee injuries, being forced out of his Indian Wells semi-final with Federer before withdrawing from Miami.

His knees were still bothering him as his happiest hunting season began on the European claycourts he has owned.

“I lost, I think, around 15 or even more Grand Slams in my career for injuries,” Nadal said. “So, it has been difficult.”

Watching him repel the swashbuckling Thiem on Sunday with the kind of intensity and sheer willpower that has marked his career, it was hard to believe the transformation.

It was hard to believe that just a few weeks ago in Barcelona he was suffering a crisis of confidence.

Thiem beat him in straight sets in Barcelona and Nadal said it was at that tournament he realised he needed to change his mentality.

“Mentally, I lost a little bit of energy, because I had too many issues in a row,” he said.

“Mentally I was not enjoying. Too much worried about the health and, being honest, too negative.

“After the first round in Barcelona, I was able to stay alone for a couple of hours in the room and think about it and think about what’s going on, what I need to do.

“One possibility would have been (to) stop for a while and recover my body. And the other was change drastically my attitude and my mentality to play the next couple of weeks.”

Sunday’s display proved he made the correct call.

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Neither Federer or Nadal have dropped a set in their three matches at Indian Wells, a tournament Federer has won five times and Nadal three.

In other fourth-round action, hard-hitting Canadian Milos Raonic saved all three of Jan-Lennard Struff’s break point opportunities to down the German 6-4 6-3.

The 13th seed will square off against either France’s Gael Monfils or Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Federer needed just over an hour to dispatch Briton Kyle Edmund 6-1 6-4 in their first career meeting and reach the quarter-finals on a sunny and breezy day in Indian Wells.

Next up for the 20-times Grand Slam champion is another unknown quantity in Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

He defeated Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov 7-6(3) 2-6 6-3 earlier in the day to set up his first career meeting with the Swiss Master.

Nadal, 17 times a Grand Slam winner, ruthlessly put an end to Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic’s run at the tournament, converting three of his four break point opportunities to advance 6-3 6-4.

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But tennis was the true winner as two of the game’s greats treated fans worldwide to an unforgettable evening.

Defending champions Switzerland sealed a 2-1 victory over six-times winners U.S. which left them bottom of Group B.

But the result mattered little to over 14,000 fans in Perth and millions around the world who had eagerly awaited the contest.

Federer and Williams, holders of a combined 43 singles Grand Slam crowns, won their singles matches to keep the mixed doubles clash alive.

The deciding match then lived up to the hype it had generated as both players left the court with big smiles.

The contest had been described by local media as the most anticipated clash involving men and women since 1973’s “Battle of the Sexes”.

That was where Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in an exhibition match.

While that meeting between 39-times major winner King and former men’s world number one Riggs was a grudge match, there was only mutual respect between Federer and Williams.

Both posed for selfies before indulging autograph hunters.

“It was great fun. What a pleasure. What an honour. Thank you for making it possible,” 20-times Grand Slam winner Federer, who is gearing up to defend his Australian Open title this month, said.

“I was nervous returning. People talk about her serve so much and I see why it is such a wonderful serve because you just can’t read it.”

Serena said the match, which was full of laughter and had an exhibition feel to it, was a “great experience” and one she hoped would not end as quickly as it did.

“I’m sorry it had to finish, I was just warming up. It was such fun, we grew up together. It was super cool. I wanted to take pictures and bring my baby out,” the 23-times Grand Slam winner said.

“This guy is great, both off the court and on the court. I think his serve is super-underestimated. It’s a killer serve, you can’t read it.

“I watched him all the time and I never knew how amazing it was.”

Playing in front of the highest single session attendance in the tournament’s history, the team of Federer and Belinda Bencic beat Williams and Frances Tiafoe 4-2 4-3(3) to clinch the tie.

It helped them to the top of the group.

Earlier, Federer hardly broke sweat in his singles match against Tiafoe, taking his game up a notch at 4-4 in the first set to win 6-4 6-1.

Williams, who had powered past Greece’s Maria Sakkari in straight sets on Monday, then fought back from a set down to seal a 4-6 6-4 6-3 win over Bencic,

It helped to level the contest at 1-1.

Switzerland have two wins from two games ahead of Thursday’s meeting with Greece, while U.S. take on Britain next.

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