BLURB
Roger Federer hit such a plane of brilliance over the weekend, comprehensively beating Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic to win his seventh Cincinnati Masters
AGENCIES
OHIO
Roger Federer hit such a plane of brilliance over the weekend, comprehensively beating Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic to win his seventh Cincinnati Masters, that it is logical to wonder if he can do the same three weekends from now at the US Open, where he has won five times.
What needs to be said is the last of those arrived seven years ago, when he beat a 21-year-old Murray to close out a remarkable run of consecutive victories at Flushing Meadows “ starting with Lleyton Hewitt back in 2004 “ when he was supreme not just there, but on every court in the game.
On that 2008 weekend he also beat Djokovic and Murray back-to-back, although the Serb and the Scot were still moving towards the heights of their game at that point. This past weekend, he caught them cold in their prime, when each of them might have expected to prevail.And it was not just the scorelines “ 6-4, 7-6 against Murray and 7-6, 6-3 against Djokovic in Sunday’s final “ but the manner of their delivery.
To the astonishment of few, Federer has reinvented himself at 34, but to win in Mason he went even further than his previous experiments with racket and coach. The talk of the tournament was his seemingly suicidal willingness to crowd the net if he sensed his opponent’s second serve was going to be under-powered.
Up 4-1 in the tie-break, Federer even took one Djokovic second serve on the half-volley on the edge of the service box. “I thought this is the time to do it,” he said. “I thought he was going to go backhand and he went big forehand. So I had to lunge and had the perfect timing on it.”
The Swiss Charge, as it has become known, was a remarkable sight, although Murray said he was not greatly troubled by it, and Djokovic chose not to comment at length on that surreal tie-break magic, a sign perhaps that it spooked him.
Afterwards, Federer played down his chances at Flushing Meadows, and said his move back to No2, above Murray, was not hugely significant. “It’s not that important for me to be ranked No2 or 3,” he said. “For me, wouldn’t it be maybe better to play Novak in the semis? Possibly. Now it’s out of the question. I won’t see him before the finals. To be quite honest, I don’t think that far ahead because I haven’t been in a final since 2009.
“So I’ve got my work cut out. Usually everybody does play well in New York. It’s a fair surface, good court. Everybody knows it’s the last chance [of the year] to do well at a slam.” A lot of people reckoned Federer’s last chance passed a good while ago, but he continues to prove everyone wrong.
