Federer passes Hewitt test

The world tennis number one eked out an 11th straight victory over Lleyton Hewitt to get another chance to secure a 50th career ATP singles title and a 14th ATP Masters Series shield. Federer seemed on course to another straight-set victory after winning the first set easily 6-3 but he squandered three match points in the second set which Hewitt won in a tight tiebreak 9-7. The two then traded breaks in the third set which went on to another tiebreak. Hewitt however committed costly errors as he managed to win just one point (with his first serve) in that tiebreak to hand Federer a place in the finals against another in-form player, the American number two James Blake.

Later Federer admitted that playing against the Australian "made him nervous" and that it did take a lot (he fired 18 aces but committed 36 unforced errors) to defeat Hewitt whom he described as "like a cat with seven lives." (He later corrected himself when his mistake was greeted with laughter saying, "Nine, yeah, thought so, seven would have been easy." Wow! Imagine that. Seven is already easy for Federer.) Federer now leads their head-to-head 12-7, not having lost to Hewitt since 2003.

A victory in Sunday's finals will give Federer his second title in Cincinnati and fifth singles title this year.