Roger Federer wins Cincinnati Masters
Roger Federer captured his second straight Cincinnati Masters championship and fourth overall defeating American Mardy Fish 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-4 on Sunday.
It was Federer’s first win at a Masters event since winning Cincinnati last year and ended a streak of three straight losses in tournament finals. It was also Federer’s 63rd career title, tying him with Bjorn Borg for fifth place in the Open Era. Federer can tie Pete Sampras at 64 with his next title and move into fourth place on the all-time list. However, Federer still has a ways to go to catch Jimmy Connors, who currently holds the record with 109 career titles.
Prior to the final, it was an easy week for Federer who took advantage of straight set victories over both Nikolay Dayydenko and Marcos Baghdatis to reach the final. After receiving a bye to start the tournament, Federer also caught a break in the second round after Denis Istomin retired in the first set trailing 2-5 due to an ankle injury. In the third round Federer didn’t even have to take to the court after Philipp Kohlschreiber dropped out due to a sore shoulder. In total, Federer had spent only three hours and 17 minutes on court while getting to the title match.
Federer was certainly put to the test in the final however, in a match that lasted two hours and 40 minutes. Fish was able to keep the match extremely close, as both players did not lose serve up until the deciding game in the third set. With Federer leading 5-4, he was able to get the only break of the match to close thing out at 6-4 in the third.
Federer admitted his time “off” the court came in handy.
"Maybe I was just a touch fitter than him today," Federer said.
Federer also admitted after the win that he was in a good frame of mind heading into the U.S. Open.
"I've been playing well the last couple weeks, and today was just another proof that I'm playing really well. It's nice knowing that the hard work already in the off-season after Wimbledon pays off right away."
It was a tough loss for Fish who has been playing the best tennis in his career of late having won his last two tournaments in Newport and Atlanta. He is also 17-2 since July and had five straight wins against top-10 opponents. The win would have given Fish his first Masters title.
"I desperately want to sort of have my career maybe be remembered by a big tournament or something like that," he said. "So I've wanted badly to win a real big one. This would have been perfect."
With the win, Federer becomes only the second player to win the Cincinnati Masters four time, joining Swede Mats Wilander, who won the title four times in the 1980’s.
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