Steen Kirby, Tennis East Coast
Roger Federer won his first Masters level title since the 2012 edition of the Cincinnati tournament with a 6-3 1-6 6-2 defeat of David Ferrer,who was contesting his seventh Masters level final. His record drops to 1-6 in those finals. The title is the 80th overall.
Federer is creeping back up the rankings and has now solidified his hold on third place with 3 titles and 5 final appearances this season, including Toronto last week. The title is also the sixth in Cincy for the record breaking Swiss maestro.
Federer beat Ferrer for the 16th time in a row with a strong display of serving in the first set, followed by capitalizing on a poor Ferrer service game to break for 5-3 and serve out the first set. Federer went on walk abouts in set 2, narrowly avoiding a bagel, but he recovered his form for the third set, and Ferrer, though he put up a valiant fight was again vanquished, being broken multiple times and going down 6-2.
Federer had wins this week over Vasek Pospisil and Gael Monfils in 3 sets, then a rather routine straight set victory over Andy Murray, who failed to push the match into a deciding third set from 4-1 up in the second, and a straight set drubbing of Milos Raonic, who by virtue of his title in Washington and strong runs in Toronto and Cincy, leads the Emirates Airlines US Open Series points race.
Ferrer’s route to the final involved him saving match points and winning in three sets over Philipp Kohlschreiber, and that was followed by a straight set victory over Mikhail Youzhny and a 3 set win over countryman Tommy Robredo. He followed that up by dispatching a meek Julien Benneteau in straight sets in the semifinals.
Bob and Mike Bryan won their 99th career doubles title over the red hot doubles pairing of Jack Sock/Vasek Pospisil in a sadly untelevised, but much anticipated Cincy doubles final.
Tennis Atlantic 