They battled for 160 minutes over 34 games and 238 points and in the end it came down to just 1 break of serve as Mardy Fish played the match of his life in front of a vociferously appreciative crowd, but could not stop former world no.1 Roger Federer from chalking up his 17th Masters Series title and his 63rd tournament win on another historic day of Tennis. The win moved Federer level with Andre Agassi on no.2 in the all-time Masters winners list and equal with Bjorn Borg on tournament wins, but perhaps today was all about the future as the three-time former champion's successful title defence meant that he will head into the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open, as the second seed and will hence avoid bumping into world no.1 Rafa Nadal anytime before the final. Equally important for Roger was that he ended a title-less run which extended all the way back to the Australian Open in January.
The match itself was all about the serve, with Mardy Fish coming into this match on the back of having lost his just thrice all tournament long, with two of those breaks coming in yesterday's semi-final against Andy Roddick. Both men had shown a penchant for racing to the net in the tournament thus far, but were surprisingly not quite as aggressive today. The first set was predominantly dominated by Federer, but unusually for the Swiss legend, he failed to take his chances. Roger had four break points on the Fish serve, but like he had done all week, the American produced the goods when he needed them the most. In sharp contrast, Federer was rarely tested in his service games and didn't face a single break point all set.