Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro could be headed for a showdown at ATP Basel (2012 Swiss Indoors) this weekend. The top two seeds in the tournament are both into Friday's quarterfinals at the 500 series event. Of the two players Federer appears to have the easier draw ahead of a possible showdown on Sunday.
The current World No. 1 has won ATP Basel five times and he is through the first two rounds of this season's event at the expense of both Benjamin Becker and Thomaz Bellucci. The win against Becker was routine however Bellucci, Brazil's top player, managed to capture Federer's attention in their second round match when the two players played a tight third set. In the end, Federer prevailed as he so often has in his home tournament and he will next face Benoit Paire of France.
Paire has enjoyed a strong season on tour however beating Federer in Basel is something only Novak Djokovic has been able to accomplish in recent years. Surviving that quarterfinal Federer would face either Grigor Dimitrov or Paul-Henri Mathieu in the semifinals. Neither of those two players can be considered a pushover however neither have a solid history of success late in ATP draws.
Del Potro's draw to the final looks a little bit rockier. He will face Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinal round, an unseeded player from South Africa. Anderson has been slumping lately however he does have an ATP hard court title to his credit this season (Delray Beach) and he might be a stumbling block for Delpo if the Argentine isn't playing his best. Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Youzhny, the tournament's 3rd and 6th seeds respectively, are still alive in del Potro's half of the draw. Both players are perfectly capable of defeating a top ten player on a given day with Youzhny having made two US Open semifinals in his career.
The question with Federer is if his close match against Bellucci hints at being slightly off form. If so, the World No. 1 could have difficulty closing the tournament out against the survivor from the bottom half of the draw. The question with del Potro is if he can pull off titles in back to back weeks. Del Potro won ATP Vienna last week and the Argentine, lumbering at 6'6", is not the best player on tour when it comes to playing back to back events and keeping his energy levels high. If he faces Federer in the final, the Swiss Maestro should have an advantage not just in terms of pure skill but also in terms of relative fatigue.