Federer Denies Roddick in ATP Cincinnati Final

For world No. 1 Roger Federer it was business as usual Sunday in the final at the ATP Masters Series-Cincinnati, beating Andy Roddick for the 10th time in 11 career meetings 6-3, 7-5, with the end of the match marred by a toe injury to the American.

Roddick's nerves kicked in early when at 2-2 in the first set when the American spun a second serve long to give Federer the break. Roddick was broken again to end the set after the American got a little crazy with the Cheese Whiz on the serve-and-volley, making some ill-timed swinging volleys and rushed pop-ups that Federer subsequently crushed for passing shots.

In the second set Roddick got an early break, but immediately gave it back via his struggling net play, ending the game with an easy forehand volley into the net.

At 5-6 on serve Roddick took a time-out for an injury to his toe, receiving therapy without a lot of relief but electing to play on.

Roddick appeared gimpy in taking the court to serve at 5-6, immediately going down 0-30 then delivering two huge serves before making a final forehand error to give Federer his ninth title of 2005.

"This is a great comeback for me," said Federer, coming off a six-week layoff. "I'm really pleased that I could beat such a quality player like this in the finals. These are the big moments. This is how it's going to be at the US Open basically every match. It would be nice to win as many Masters Series as possible because they are for me very prestigious."

Federer became the first player in ATP Masters Series history to win four Masters Series titles in the same season, and is the third player to win all four North American ATP Masters Series events (Indian Wells, Miami, Canada, Cincinnati) in a career, joining Michael Chang and Andre Agassi.

"I think (Federer's) the guy that all of us are chasing," Roddick said. "He's the main guy and then there's probably four or five of us that are -- I don't know. Maybe we need to do just a tag team effort or something, join forces, you know, like Power Rangers or something."

Roddick remained upbeat on his foot healing before his first match next week at the US Open.

"I didn't hear anything click, I didn't hear anything snap," Roddick said. "I didn't hear anything like that, which is a good sign. The good thing is I don't have to play in three days, you know, I have a little bit of time. We can kind of treat it appropriately."

In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi won their third Masters Series title of the year and fourth title overall, defeating No. 4 seeds Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe 7-6(3), 6-2.

"You'd be surprised, but there are about 10 or 15 teams that are very competitive and play full-time (doubles) schedules," Mirnyi said. "Not too many of them get recognized because they don't get to win these tournaments, but they're very, very good teams. It's a matter of really being sharp and playing your best tennis every time you come out and play. But the Top 15 teams are very, very dangerous on any given day."

Bjorkman/Mirnyi overtake Bob and Mike Bryan as the No. 1 squad on the ATP Team Rankings.