Federer blitzes Blake for 50th title

It was another of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it tennis matches courtesy of the Federer Express. I for one "blinked"--having awakened at 4:35am already, 35 minutes after live coverage of the match began here--and was dismayed to find that I had completely missed the first set. Actually, the match could have been over more quickly had Federer not struggled through several deuces on his third service game of the first set. And then it would have been tempting to say Federer blitzes Blake in fifty-five for fiftieth. Haha. But never mind. That would have been overkill--both as a blog post title and for poor James Blake.

Anyway, the phenomenal Swiss quickly stamped his authority on the match when he broke Blake's serve at the very first opportunity and repeated the feat in the sixth game of the first set after fighting off three breakpoints himself in the fifth game. In the second set, the oppressive hot and humid weather conditions forced Federer to conserve energy as he kept his movement on court to a minimum. He however managed to lift his game just enough in the seventh game to break Blake's serve once again, ultimately securing the title. Overall, Federer was most impressive with his service game, just he had been throughout the tournament, having fired nine aces and lost only seven points when he got his first serve in.

With this quick 65-minute victory over the American number two at the Cincinnati ATP Masters Series tournament, Federer has achieved so much again:

• He now has 50 career singles titles, including 11 Grand Slam titles and 14 Masters Series titles. Only nine other players in the Open Era have won more than 50 singles titles in their career.
  
• He is the fifth youngest to achieve that milestone, beating Sampras who got his (at the 1997 US Open?) when he was two weeks older than Federer is now.
• This 14th Masters Series title brings him within three of Agassi's career total of 17.
  
• This is his fifth singles and second Masters Series title for 2007.
• He has beaten Blake in all seven of their meetings.
• He has not lost to an American in 35 matches, and not since he lost to Andy Roddick in Montreal in 2003.
• He has secured the US Open Series title this year which means if he wins at the US Open as well he'll win a whopping total of $2.4M--and even much more if they give him a car again!
  

Federer seemed pleased with his "nice number" of career singles titles while Blake had this to say about Federer's latest achievement:

Just about everything he does is pretty impressive. So, yeah, 50 titles at any age is impressive. 50 titles at 26 is incredible. 50 titles with 11 of them being Grand Slams, and I think now 14 being Masters Series, that's just phenomenal.

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