Roger Federer beats Juan Martin del Potro in Basel final, withdraws from Paris Masters

The pair served up a terrific match in-front of a partisan crowd, with Del Potro taking a tight first set 7-6 after a tiebreak.

But, spurred on by an extremely vocal crowd, Federer took control from the start of the second set, playing some spectacular tennis on his way to a three-set win.

The match was Federer’s 13th appearance in the final of the Basel event – a personal record even by his lofty standards – and the winning prize money sees him leapfrog Novak Djokovic to the top of the career earnings list in the history of men’s tennis.

Victory in Basel edged Federer closer to the top of the world rankings, with the 36-year-old capable of leapfrogging Rafael Nadal before the end of the 2017 season. But his decision to withdraw from next week's Paris Masters makes such a feat more unlikely.

"My body is asking for a break," said the Swiss legend. "Basel takes a lot out of me emotionally. I had five matches in six days. I feel sorry and sad for Paris.

"I love to play at Bercy, it's a few times now that I've not played there. It's a tough one but they have to understand that it's for the cause of staying injury-free and healthy.

"I'd like to be fully fit for London (the World Tour Finals) and for 2018."

"I did think about the ranking, but I'm so far back in the points race that it was almost out of the question," added Federer. "I asked myself what I would do if the ranking (issue) was not there. I want to stay injury-free, not push it and maybe get hurt next week and then miss London.

"It would be a snowball. It was not really about the ranking to be quite honest. If I was closer in the points race (to Nadal) it might have been."