CINCINNATI, 22 August 2005 — World No. 1 Roger Federer had to dig deep to beat American wildcard Robby Ginepri 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday to reach the final of the Cincinnati Masters.
Federer, who has won his last 21 finals, now meets fifth seed American Andy Roddick, who beat third seed Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 7-6.
The Swiss top seed looked out of sorts as he dropped the first set. He snatched the second before breaking serve once more in the third to reach his fourth Masters Series final of the year.
“It was definitely a hard battle but I didn’t underestimate him. That’s why I came back and won,” said Federer, who has won eight titles and lost only three times this year.
“I felt I was winning my own service games very easy. But up until the moment where we should have been in a (second-set) tiebreak I didn’t really have that good a feeling on the return,” he told reporters.
“It was only in the third when I really started to relax a little bit.” Federer was strangely flat in the early stages on a hot but breezy day and the unseeded Ginepri, playing error-free tennis, broke to love in the ninth game before serving out for the opening set.
Light rain forced the players off at 5-5 in the second. The interruption lasted eight minutes and it seemed to galvanise Federer as he held serve before breaking for the first time to level.
Ginepri matched Federer until he was 5-4 down in the decider. With thunder rumbling in the distance, a volley error handed the Swiss his 21st consecutive victory against an American player.
Roddick smashed 24 aces to exorcise a few demons with his victory over Hewitt, having lost six of his seven previous meetings with the Australian.
“I felt like I was serving really well, especially on my second serve and I didn’t want him to just be able to bunt the ball back in and battle from there,” an elated Roddick said.
“(Against Federer) I’m excited. I have nothing to lose. I am just going to go out there and be really aggressive.” Serving and volleying much more than normal, and slicing his backhand to deny Hewitt the pace he thrives on, Roddick saved two break points in the sixth game before breaking Hewitt in the next game and taking the opening set on his fifth set point.
As the second set wore on, Hewitt began to get hold of a few more service returns and Roddick was always playing catch-up as the set headed to a tiebreak.
A backhand in the net handed Roddick the mini-break, and then Roddick enjoyed a big piece of luck at 5-4, when a linesman appeared to call his second serve out, only for the umpire to call the point to the American. Hewitt’s protests went unheard and Roddick produced another ace to clinch victory.
“I felt like I had opportunities out there and didn’t quite take them,” Hewitt said.
“Tonight, a few points here and there and it could have been a different result.” Federer has a 9-1 record against Roddick.
Henin-Hardenne Beats Mauresmo in Rogers Cup Semis
In Toronto, Justine Henin-Hardenne advanced to the finals of the $1.3 million Rogers Cup on Saturday night, downing defending champion and second-seeded Amelie Mauresmo 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 in the semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Belgian, who won this event in 2003 the last time it was in Toronto, will now meet seventh-seed Kim Clijsters in an all-Belgium final Sunday afternoon.
Clijsters raced into the final thanks to a 6-4, 6-1 drubbing of ninth-seeded Russian Anastasia Myskina earlier on Saturday.
Henin-Hardenne had a much tougher time in her semifinal against Mauresmo, who has won this event two of the last three years. Mauresmo rallied from being down 2-0 in the second set to force a third set and broke Henin-Hardenne in game one of the final set.
However Henin-Hadrenne broke right back in the second game before reeling off another five straight games to advance to Sunday’s final.
“I had a lot of ups and downs, but when I was good in the match I played very well,” Henin-Hardenne told reporters.
“I think I lost a lot of my energy in the second set but I just kept fighting, tried to stay in the match. She pushed me very hard in the match, but I’m very happy to be back in the final again in Toronto.”
Mauresmo disputed a call during the third game and went on to lose the game. She appeared to wilt after that, never getting back into contention in the match that took just over two hours to play.
Henin-Hardenne now leads the career series between the two top players 4-3.
Clijsters took control of her match in the second set completely against Myskina, who battled an injury in the past few days.
Clijsters, who has won two of her last three tournaments including last week’s event in Los Angeles, took the opening set after breaking serve in the 10th game when Myskina hit a shot long
