Federer Keeps Rolling with Title Number 101
Just 4 months shy of his 38th birthday, Roger Federer stormed his way to his first Masters 1000 title since Shanghai in 2017, beating defending champion John Isner 6-1 6-4 in the Miami Masters final.
Coming into the final, Federer’s form had been imperious. After a shaky start against Radu Albot, Federer breezed past Filip Krajinovic, Daniil Medvedev, Kevin Anderson and Denis Shapovalov without losing more than 4 games in any of the sets he played. Isner came in on a 10-match winning streak in Miami, having won the title last year, and had not dropped a set the entire tournament leading up to the final.
However, Federer quickly corrected this by breaking Isner in his opening service and then twice more in his 3rd and 4th service games to take the first set 6-1. Isner did not give up however and came out in the second set playing some much better tennis and began to hold his serve once again and get footholds in Federer’s service games. But at 3-3, disaster struck. Isner seemingly aggravated a foot injury during that game and from that moment on, his movement started to deteriorate. Isner could be seen saying to his box that he couldn’t move. Federer took advantage of this, and broke Isner at 5-4 to claim victory.
“It was a dream start, relaxing my nerves [to break in the opening game]” “What a week it’s been for me. I’m just so happy right now. It’s unbelievable. I played here in 1999 for the first time and here I am in 2019. It means a lot to me” said Federer on court after the match.
Federer claimed his 28th Masters 1000 title by beating Isner and further cemented his place as the greatest player of all time. If you were to add together all the Masters 1000s, Grand Slams and World Tour Finals won by everyone in history, Federer comes out on top, with a total of 54 ‘Big Titles’. Djokovic comes in 2nd with 52, while Nadal has 50. Federer also surged into the lead in the ATP Race to London, seemingly and indicator that Federer is the most in-form player on the ATP tour at the moment.
Written by Emre Saridogan