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Federer to meet Roddick in Cincinnati final
CINCINNATI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - World number one Roger Federer had to dig deep to beat American wildcard Robby Ginepri 4-6 7-5 6-4 on Saturday to reach the final of the Cincinnati Masters.
The Swiss top seed looked out of sorts as he dropped the first set. He snatched the second before breaking serve once more in the third to reach his fourth Masters Series final of the year. "It was definitely a hard battle but I didn't underestimate him. That's why I came back and won," said Federer, who has won eight titles and lost only three times this year. "I felt I was winning my own service games very easy. But up until the moment where we should have been in a (second-set) tiebreak I didn't really have that good a feeling on the return," he told reporters. "It was only in the third when I really started to relax a little bit." Federer was strangely flat in the early stages on a hot but breezy day and the unseeded Ginepri, playing error-free tennis, broke to love in the ninth game before serving out for the opening set. Light rain forced the players off at 5-5 in the second. The interruption lasted eight minutes and it seemed to galvanise Federer as he held serve before breaking for the first time to level. Ginepri matched Federer until he was 5-4 down in the decider. With thunder
rumbling in the distance, a volley error handed the Swiss his 21st consecutive
victory against an American player.
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