Roger Federer enhanced his reputation as a popular champion as he celebrated his maiden title in hometown Basel with the ball kids.
After defeating Chile's Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-2, 7-6, the Swiss served pizza to the ball kids at his home tournament, where he was also a ball boy once.
"It's one of the most beautiful moments of my career and also one of the most important to me after Wimbledon," an emotional Federer told the crowd after clinching the Basel title in seven attempts. "It's just insane."
"Although I always wanted to be a professional tennis player, I never dreamed as a ball boy that I would one day be the champion here.
"It's also my one thousandth day as world number one, so it's a very fitting day for this to happen."
By winning the tournament, Federer clinched his fourth successive and 11th title of the year. The world number one, who bagged 11 ATP titles in 2004 and 2005, became the first player in the Open Era to win 10 titles or more in a season for three consecutive years.
He extended his winning streak to 24 matches and moved to a personal-best 87-5 match record on the year.
Gonzalez has now lost all nine of his matches against Federer, including last week's 7-5 6-1 6-0 crushing in the Madrid Masters Series final, and there was never much danger of him denying the Swiss on Sunday.
Photograph: Getty Images
