He may not be the player he once was but when it comes to Roger Federer and Masters 1000 events, the Swiss Maestro continues to find a way to raise his level play when it matters most. After earning his record-setting 300th career win at the 1000 level against Canada’s Vasek Pospisil during their second round match, the seventeen-time Grand Slam champion pushed that total to 301 with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Gael Monfils at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Both Federer and Monfils were at their athletic best, delivering one jaw dropping shot after another, during what was an extremely entertaining match. However in the end, it was the No. 2 seed who came up with a service break at 4-3 in the final set, allowing him to serve out the match and punch his ticket to the quarter-finals and a showdown with long-time rival Andy Murray.
While the talented Frenchman has always had a tendency to become completely unraveled with next to no notice, fans were treated to the “Good Monfils” on this night. The twenty-seven year old was in fine form and frankly did all he could to pull off the upset but the “old man” would have none of it.
With the win Federer has now reached the final eight in five of the six Masters 1000 events he has been a part of in 2014 and is hoping to duplicate his appearance in the final at last week’s Rogers Cup in Toronto, one in which he ultimately fell to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets.
Should the five-time Cincinnati Masters winner find a way to make it past Murray and Milos Raonic hold up his end of the bargain against Fabio Fognini, those in attendance on Saturday afternoon/evening will be treated to a rematch of this year’s Wimbledon semi-final. With that said, Mr. Federer will likely have his hands full, as the two-time slam winner is arguably playing his finest tennis since that historic run at the All England Club in 2013.
No. 6 seed David Ferrer earned the final spot in the quarter-finals with a dominating performance over Mikhail Youzhny, 7-5, 6-0, and will now face Tommy Robredo who upset top seed Novak Djokovic earlier in the day to set-up the all-Spanish match-up. Australian Open champ Stan Wawrinka will take on Julien Benneteau in the other quarter-final in the top half of the draw, as the world No. 4 hopes to find his top form prior to heading to New York for the US Open.
