Federer Impresses Again in Montreal

Despite losing in the final to Alexander Zverev, it was yet another impressive tournament for Roger Federer.

The Swiss continued on what can only be described as a world dominating season so far by comfortably advancing to the Rogers Cup final.

His first round was against one of four Canadian wild card entries, Peter Polansky, who could only muster three games against the all-time great, losing 6-2 6-1.

The second round would be Federer’s toughest up to the final as he overcame David Ferrer 4-6 6-4 6-2, next her would face a similar challenge against Bautista Agut but this time was more prepared for a defensive minded Spaniard and advanced 6-4 6-4.

Robin Haase stood across the net in the semi-finals, who had beaten Grigor Dimitrov earlier on 7-6 4-6 6-1. Federer overcame the Dutchman 6-3 7-6 to reach the final against Zverev which would eventually be his undoing.

Despite losing in the final, Federer will undoubtedly see this week as another positive. The 36 year old continued his dominant year by making another final whilst his closest rivals of the ‘big four’ sat out injured or lost in the second round.

Novak Djokovic announced after Wimbledon he would be sitting out the rest of the season to nurse an injury along with Federer’s fellow Swiss, Wawrinka. Meanwhile Andy Murray also suffers with injury and Rafael Nadal struggles to reach the level Federer has been able to maintain throughout the year.

The only down side to Federer’s week was that he undoubtedly looked a little slow in the final. It appeared the transition to playing matches on the hard surface hampered him on the final hurdle. I would be surprised if Federer plays Cincinnati given the very obvious success he has seen this year from taking rests before major tournaments.

The US Open starts just two weeks from now and Federer will be the favourite to earn an impressive third grand slam of the year.  I for one hope the great can do it again in New York!