There were plenty of upsets along the way in Cincinnati, but in the end the No. 1 seeds prevailed in doubles and the No. 2 seed won in singles. The Bryan brothers captured another title on Sunday afternoon and Roger Federer soon followed suit.
Roger Federer lifted the Western & Southern Open trophy for the sixth time in his career on Sunday after improving to 6-0 lifetime in Cincinnati finals. The 33-year-old Swiss survived his third three-setter of the week, holding off David Ferrer 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in one hour and 42 minutes.
“Let’s not talk about the second set,” joked Federer, who trailed 5-0 in the second frame of play before finally getting on the scoreboard. “This is a good day, you know.”
It was for the world No. 3, at least. He won a Masters 1000 event for the first time since Cincinnati in 2012 and he secured his 80th career ATP singles title. He heads to New York for the U.S. Open with a ton of momentum, having also reach last week’s Toronto final.
“He was quite tired after the tough beginning to the tournament,” Federer said of Ferrer. “Next thing you know, we both end up in the finals with pure confidence and playing good tennis. So I’m very happy about the week; just overall it went from good to great. (I’m) really pleased that I was able to back up a tough week last week already.”
“The third set he served unbelievable,” Ferrer explained. “You know, he played really good and I was a little bit tired. But anyway, with Roger it’s difficult, no? I need to play very consistent all the match.”
Bob and Mike Bryan did just that in a rematch of the Wimbledon final against Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock. The Bryan brothers had lost a 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 thriller last month, but they crushed Pospisil and Sock 6-3, 6-2 in just 53 minutes in Sunday’s battle for the Cincinnati title.
“It was obviously fun to play those guys again,” Mike assured. “Wimbledon was such a great match, going down to the wire 7‑5 in the fifth. We weren’t looking at it as a revenge thing; just another shot to win a title here in Cincinnati against a great team–against a really hot team.”
From an overall career standpoint, no team is hotter than the Bryans. They captured title No. 99 by triumphing on Sunday, meaning No. 100 could come on the grandest of stages at the U.S. Open.
“That would obviously a dream come true, to knock down 100 for arguably the biggest tournament for us of the year,” Bob said. “We’ll be gunning for that for sure; not just because of milestone, but just because it’s insane to win another one of those. We haven’t won a Grand Slam this year. We’ve won a slam every year for the last nine or 10 years, so to do that would make for a really sweet year.”
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