Federer Wins Cincinnati Masters, Tunes Up For US Open

PETE ZIEBRON

 

CINCINNATI - While Roger Federer and his family flew on a private jet to the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, defending Champion Andy Murray and his team decided to drive following his win in Montreal, stating “I don't know many people that fly as much as the tennis players. I mean, by the end of year you get pretty sick of it.”  Murray opted to spend 13 hours on the road in getting to Cincinnati rather than flying for two hours and eighteen minutes.

 

Rafael Nadal used his time in Cincinnati to attempt to regain his dominant form following his knee injury and gradually increased his time on the practice court: “I need (to be) a little bit progressive and to go every day a little bit more….I practice, for example, today one hour 45 (minutes). Normally if I have one more day gonna play little bit more, two hours 30 (minutes).”

 

World #4 Novak Djokovic expounded on the fact that American Todd Martin would be joining current coach Marian Vajda on his coaching team immediately following the Cincinnati tournament, just in time for the US Open. “Todd, being two-times finalist of the Grand Slams and being top 5 player and playing….professional tennis level for a long time, makes him very experienced. I'm very, very happy, and I really look forward to it. He's got a lot of ideas and things I can improve on, a lot of things in my game.”

 

The Masters 1000 tournaments are always a treat to follow especially since so many blockbuster matches occur in the very first round of the tournament.  This year at the 2009 Western and Southern Financial Group Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, four former Top Ten players were not even able to gain automatic entry in the main draw due to the depth of talent in men’s tennis.  Ivan Ljubicic, Marcos Baghdatis, Rainer Schuttler and Nicolas Lapentti were entered into the qualifying bracket and only Ljubicic managed to win his two qualifying matches to advance.

Although the first two days of the tournament at the Lindner Family Tennis Centerwere played in hot and extremely humid conditions, spectators were treated to intriguing1st round matches featuring several former Grand Slam Champions and Finalists including: Juan Carlos Ferrero v.Marian Cilic, Lleyton Hewitt v.Robin Soderling and Fernando Gonzalez v. Tomas Berdych.  This plethora of heavyweight matches is a regular occurrence at the beginning of a Masters 1000 tournament.

 

Perhaps the most fortunate player at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters 1000 tournament was Frenchman Julien Benneteau.  During the second round of qualifying, Benneteau lost to Lukasz Kubot of Poland, a player that he defeated in qualifying the week before in Montreal.  Benneteau was the #2 seed in the qualifying draw and was rewarded exponentially when Juan Martin del Potro withdrew from Cincinnati, citing fatigue after getting to two consecutive Finals in the previous two weeks (defeating Andy Roddick in Washington and losing to Andy Murray in Montreal).  Not only was Benneteau placed into the main draw, he also inherited del Potro’s #6 seed placement, thus “earning” a first round bye.  If that wasn’t enough, Benneteau enjoyed a relatively easy draw, beating Jurgen Melzer and qualifier Mikhail Youzhny in the second and third rounds respectively.  Benneteau also took the first set from Andy Murray in the quarterfinals and was up a break in the second set before engaging in a 53 shot rally that Murray won that finally turned the tide of the match in Murray’s favor.  (Had Benneteau beaten Kubot to qualify, he would have played Jose Acasuso and if he advanced, Roger Federer was waiting in the second round.)  To say that Benneteau was a “Lucky Loser” may very well be the understatement of the 2009 tennis campaign.

 

Then on day 3, the top four players in the world played consecutively in the day session: #4 Novak Djokovic, #1 Roger Federer, #2 Andy Murray and #3 Rafael Nadal.  While Djokovic played Ivan Ljubicic on Center Court, three other battles were waged on the outside courts.  Nearly all four first sets in the opening matches on all courts went to tiebreakers, three were decided in tiebreakers and the other early match ended in a 7-5 result  Nearly four tiebreakers were played simultaneously on all courts to begin Day 3!  Djokovic defeated Ljubicic after a tight first set, Federer outclassed Jose Acasuso, Andy Murray saved a set point in the opening set against Spain’s Nicolas Almagro and Rafael Nadal managed to serve his way out of trouble against Andreas Seppi, saving batches of break points along the way.  In the night match, #5 Andy Roddick lost to countryman Sam Querrey.

 

During the next two days, Rafael Nadal managed to shake off some rust by defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu and Tomas Berdych to advance to the semifinals.  Roger Federer defeated Lleyton Hewitt, who enjoyed big victories over Robin Soderling and Sam Querrey.  Federer also came from one set down to defeat David Ferrer.  It was only the second set ever that Ferrer won from Federer in this, the ninth time that they played.  Andy Murray defeated crafty Radek Stepanek and was finally able to solve Julien Benneteau following the marathon 53 stroke rally and Novak Djokovic took out a pair of Frenchmen, upstart Jeremy Chardy and #9 Gilles Simon.

 

For only the 13^th time in the last 25 years, the top four players in the world advanced to the semifinals of a tournament.  Meanwhile, the first semifinal featuring #1 Roger Federer and #2 Andy Murray marked only the 10^th time in history that the top two players met before a Final.  Concurrently this was also the first time the #1 vs. #2 match-up occurred in an event that other than Wimbledon or the year end Championships.

 

Roger Federer convincingly ended his four match losing streak against the new world # 2 Andy Murray and in the second semi-final #4 Novak Dokovic showed that #3 Rafael Nadal still has a way to go before he can expect to compete at the level he once enjoyed.

 

In the Final, Roger Federer played scintillating tennis and claimed his 16^thMasters 1000 title and his first as a new Dad by pouncing on Novak Djokovic early and throughout the remainder of the match.  This was Federer’s third Cincinnati title.  With the loss, Djokovic fell to 0-4 in Masters 1000 Finals in 2009 and missed a rare career opportunity to join Federer, Michael Chang and Andre Agassi to become only the fourth man in history to win all four Masters 1000 tournaments that are held in North America.  As always, Federer was gracious in receiving the trophy and praised the work of longtime Tournament Directors Paul and Bruce Flory in his victory speech.

 

Federer elaborated a bit on his enjoyment of playing in Cincinnati: “I think it's sort of a quiet tournament in between the big majors we have or the big cities we sometimes have. It's nice to have it a bit more calm at times. I like that change.”  Roger Federer will move from the tranquility of Cincinnati to the bustle of New York when he attempts to win his 6^th consecutive US Open in Flushing Meadows.