Federer claims Cincinnati Open in straight sets victory

Roger Federer bounced back from his Olympic final defeat in style as he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets to claim his 5th Cincinnati Open title yesterday.

The 31-year-old, who will attempt to win his 6th US Open title later this month, saved some of his best tennis for the final where he comfortably saw off his Serbian opponent 6-0 7-6 (9-7). 

“He was the better player and started off really well and I made a lot of double faults and unforced errors,” said Djokovic “I had my chances in the second set and missed them and Roger deserves the trophy.”

The victory made it six ATP tournament wins for the year for Federer, and having reached the semi-final in both the Australian and French opens as well as winning at Wimbledon, the world number 1 will again number amongst the favourites to take the title in New York.

Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Li Na needed three sets to defeat Angelique Kerber to claim the women’s title.

Having lost the first set 6-1 and trailing in the second 3-1, Na broke back and at 3-3 the Chinese world number 9 won 11 of the next 12 games to clinch victory. “I wanted to win this title because this year I got in the final three times but could not cross the last hurdle,” said Na. “I was really hungry for this win.”

Theo Chiles, Tennis correspondent