Defending champion in the singles was Roger Federer , who was in the final for the seventh time in a row this year and met the Argentine Juan Martín del Potro . In a hard-fought final, del Potro won in three sets with 6: 4, 6: 7 5 and 7: 6 3 . In the sixteenth meeting of the two, it was only the Argentine's third victory. In the current year it was the first victory in a total of seven games. In doubles Michaël Llodra and Nenad Zimonjić were the defending champions; Zimonjić competed with his former doubles partner Daniel Nestor this year and won the final again. They defeated the duo Treat Conrad Huey from the Philippines and Dominic Inglot from Great Britain in three sets. It was the third title for Zimonjić in Basel, and the fourth title for Nestor. In 2009 they both won the title together in Basel.
As part of the tournament, on the opening day, due to the 100th anniversary of Swiss Olympic, an event was held to honor all Swiss Olympic participants, where the three most important Olympic winners of all time were chosen. The award went to the ski jumper Simon Ammann , the former ski racer Vreni Schneider and the wheelchair athlete Edith Wolf-Hunkeler .
The qualification took place on October 20 and 21, 2012 in the St. Jakobshalle . Four qualifying places were played, which entitle them to participate in the main draw of the tournament.
At the Swiss Indoors Basel 2012, the following prize money and world ranking points were paid out or credited for reaching the respective round. Players who entered the main field from qualification received the specified qualification points in addition to those for reaching the respective round. Otherwise the amounts are not to be understood as cumulative. The amounts for the double competition were per player.