Federer Falls Short in Cincinnati Masters Final – Roger Federer lost in the final of the Cincinnati Masters for the first time after winning seven titles since 2005. The Swiss maestro, who had rough patches in his game throughout the weak except for his serve, made a number of uncharacteristic errors, including on this Sunday, his unbreakable serve. After both players held serve to 3-all in the first set, the 37-year-old Swiss double faulted to hand Djokovic a break point, and then missed a forehand when the ball skidded low off of the sideline. The Serbian held serve twice more to take the opening set. Federer managed to break serve to take a 2-0 lead in the second set, but despite swinging the momentum in his favor, he would easily lose his next service game, and would be broken once more with uncharacteristic double faults in the seventh game. Djokovic maintained serve from there on to a 6-4 6-4 victory, his first over Federer in Cincinnati. With his first title at the Cincinnati Masters, Djokovic is the first player to win all Masters 1000 tournaments since Ivan Lendl.
Although the 20-time grand slam champion was surely disappointed in his performance, he was full of praise for his opponent. “He’s a great champion and this is what this should be about, this press conference, not about me missing second-serve returns. It’s about him making history,” Federer said. “We can go into whatever points you want, but I think that’s what the headline should be about. This is an amazing accomplishment, and I hope he’s extremely proud and extremely happy about this moment.”
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“All these records that a player creates, at the end you’re going to all judge it all together, bundle it up and say, ‘Okay, what was the coolest thing you ever did?’” Federer said. “This might be it for Novak besides winning all the Slams and all the other things he’s done already.”
“I think it’s extremely difficult to win a Masters 1000. These tournaments don’t come easy. You saw my performance today. It’s just a long week. It’s tough, grueling. The best players are playing. You play against tough guys early on in the draw, so you don’t have much time to find your rhythm and actually almost work on your game throughout the week,” Federer said. “He’s done that maybe better than anybody. So it’s a great credit to him. I think it’s an amazing accomplishment.”
Federer Falls Short in Cincinnati Masters Final
Federer now looks ahead to the US Open. “I’ve just got to come up with a lot of energy, and then hopefully I also have a chance after 10 years to do something special again at the Open,” Federer said. “I still think this US Open draw, as well, is going to be quite entertaining, and I can’t wait for the US Open to come around.”
“I don’t even want to look for reasons why it happened. I just think it did,” Federer said. “Novak totally deserved to win today. This was not good enough. It’s okay. Good week, but I’m happy it’s over and I need to rest. So it’s all good.”
Source: ATP World Tour