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Roger Federer successfully defended his Cincinnati Masters title today, beating Mardy Fish 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in the final. It’s the 17th Masters title of his career (tying Agassi, one behind Nadal) and his second title of the year, the other being the Australian Open. This victory snaps his mini losing streak in finals, Roger having lost his last three in Madrid, Halle and Toronto.

No wonder he’s been feeling so good. Here’s Roger after the match:

“I had huge belief that I was going to win today from the first point until the end. That sometimes can make a bit of a difference. Then I was positive all the way through because I felt I was playing well, even though I lost the first set. So I never got down on myself and doubted myself. I think that reflected in the game as well.”

Putting aside last Sunday’s loss to Andy Murray, Roger has enjoyed a near perfect warm-up to the US Open this summer:  confidence building three set wins over Berdych and Djokovic in Canada, some unexpected and much-needed rest in the early rounds of Cincy capped off by some mojo-bolstering victories this weekend over Davydenko, Baghdatis and Fish. After a mostly successful roll out of the aggressive game plan he devised with Paul Annacone during his training break, Federer goes into NYC as the No. 2 seed and a – if not the – firm favorite for the US Open title.

Talk of that steep decline just bottomed out, eh?

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I was bummed that the CBS broadcast cut to golf before the trophy ceremony. Here’s some footage of it:

Fed’s post match interview:

Fish’s post match interview:

Some highlights:

Other weekend winners: Congrats to the Bryan Brothers for taking the doubles title over Bupathi/Mirnyi in Cincinnati.

The women are marooned in Montreal, rain having pushed back both the Rogers Cup semis and finals until Monday. Per the Rogers Cup website, the semifinals Caroline Wozniacki vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Victoria Azarenka vs. Vera Zvonareva are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. local time on Monday, with the final between the two winners scheduled for 1:30 pm that same day. So two of the women will be playing at least four sets on Monday. I’m thinking Wozniacki may not be flying straight to New Haven afterwards, where she’s the top seed at the Piolt Pen Tennis tournament. Cute shots from Saturday night’s rain delay. At least Caro and Sveta are having fun: