Federer beats Djokovic for sixth title this year

World number one Roger Federer underlined his dominant position in the game by securing his sixth ATP title of the year with an impressive 6-0, 7-6 win over Novak Djokovic in the Cincinnati Open final yesterday.

Federer’s 21st Masters 1000 title equals Rafael Nadal’s record in the elite series and his win against the Serbian world number two showed he is in optimum form heading into the US Masters later this month.

Federer barely broke sweat in a first set which took just 20 minutes but it was a tighter affair in the second which Federer eventually won 9-7 in the tiebreak.

The tone was set by the first game of the match when Djokovic double faulted to give Federer two break points which he gratefully accepted.

That was the first of four double-faults in the first set and Federer took full advantage of them all to record his first 6-0 set against Djokovic in 28 meetings between the top two ranked players in the world.

“He started off really well and I made a lot of double faults and errors,” said Djokovic, who has now lost in all four of his Cincinnati finals.

“I had my chances in the second set and I missed them and he deserved the win,” added the Serb.

There were no service breaks in the second set as Djokovic finally found his touch but Federer’s outstanding backhand defence made for some entertaining rallies.

The Swiss missed out on match-point in the tiebreak but made no mistake at the second attempt, a superb forehand winner putting an end to the contest.

Djokovic was bidding to become just the fourth player since 1990 to win the Canada-Cincinnati double after defeating Richard Gasquet in last week’s final in Toronto.

Federer converted three of his four break points, while Djokovic tossed in four double faults to lose the first bagel set in 28 meetings with Federer (82 sets).

It is the fifth time Federer has won the Cincinnati event and the third time in four years.

At the age of 31, Federer also became the oldest Cincinnati winner since Andre Agassi who was 34 when he won in 2004.

Federer had already won Masters events this year at Indian Wells and Madrid and is 6-2 in finals in 2012, a year highlighted by a seventh Wimbledon title, his 17th career major.