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.

Photo credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

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.

Another Federer vs. Hewitt semifinal

Federer has struggled yet again past another opponent to advance in the Cincinnati Masters as he needed three sets (6-3 3-6 6-2) to shake off a fighting Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. The top seed had a few lapses as he was broken once in each of the first two sets. While he was able to recover in the first to get up a set, he was unable to fight back when he was broken in the eighth game of the second and Almagro hung on in the next to force a deciding third set. From then on, however, Federer took control as he broke twice in the final set to set up a second semifinal meeting with Lleyton Hewitt in two weeks.

Roger has admitted that the in-form Hewitt is one of those "who can make it hard for me to win here." While it is well known that he has defeated the former Australian world number one in their last ten matches, Roger hasn't been as dominant this year as he used to be in the last three years. Hewitt on the other hand seems to have rediscovered of late the form that made him a top ten player three years ago. But as Federer has proven that he can win matches despite playing badly--that is, compared to his usual brilliant standards--I can still see him extending his dominance over Hewitt.