Federer Creates History in the Desert
Top seed Roger Federer became the first player in tournament history (since 1976) to win three consecutive Pacific Life Open titles when he defeated new Top 10 member James Blake 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 in Sunday's final. Federer has now won seven of the past nine ATP Masters Series tournaments he has contested. The World No. 1 won a joint-record four ATP Masters Series titles last year and three in 2004. He now has won nine career ATP Masters Series titles. Federer trailed 1-4 and a double break in the first set before winning 18 of the next 22 games. Federer won 80 percent of points on his first serve and broke Blake seven times. Blake missed his chance to put Federer under sustained pressure when he served for the first set. On the first point at 5-4 Blake missed a floating forehand volley when Federer was dead in the court. He fell behind 0/40, rallied to get back to deuce, saved a third break point but then threw in back-to-back double faults to drop serve. Federer later said: "I know there is no need to panic when I'm behind. I have confidence in my ability." Federer held confidently and then broke Blake to love to close out the first set. Blake hung with Federer for most of the second set before Federer converted his fourth break point of the game to go ahead 5-3. In all, Federer won the last nine games of the match. During his three-year title run in Indian Wells, Federer has dropped just two sets in 18 matches, including one set against Olivier Rochus in the third round this year. Federer has compiled a 177-11 match record since the beginning of 2004, winning 11 titles in both 2004 and 2005. He already has three titles in 2006: Doha, Australian Open and Indian Wells. He has reached 10 consecutive finals and has not lost in consecutive tournaments since August 2004 (Cincinnati and Athens Olympics). Federer improved to an ATP-best 22-1 match record on the year, with his only loss coming against Rafael Nadal in the Dubai final two weeks ago. Blake, who took out second seed Nadal in the semifinals, will move to a career-high No. 9 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Rankings - his first time in the elite Top 10. The American was appearing in his third final of the year, having won the Sydney and Las Vegas titles. He is 19-5 on the season. Federer said: "It was a hard-fought battle in the beginning. Really got the better of me in the beginning, so I had to react and not panic. I did a good job there. In the end, I played fantastic tennis with some great shots once again... the form is excellent right now. "(Early on) he played better, as simple as that. He played aggressive, took the ball early, put away his forehands when he could, didn't miss on the backhand, made me run around. That's usually what I do. He gave me a little bit of my own medicine.
"I was getting ready for a long day. That was absolutely my thinking. Hopefully I win in four…. (But) after getting the second break back when I leveled the score, I knew it was going to be a tough one for him now."
Blake said: “A couple of shots he was swinging at, you could tell, just he had that confidence where he feels like he's not going to miss. Everything was going in… There are a lot of guys that can go through little runs like that, three or four games where they feel like they can't miss, you wait it out, wait it out, then you get your chance. I couldn't wait any longer. “He's one of the guys that can keep it up. He kept it up for that whole set, probably set and a half really. Actually, from early in the second set, he was playing like that. It's tough to combat that. “It's been a great week. This stings right now. I think as long as I'm a competitor, as long as I'm on tour, it's always going to sting after a loss. But I'll just reflect on the fact that it's a good week, I moved up in the rankings played some great tennis, had some fun out here. “That's something that will be a positive that I take out of this week, is that I know I can maybe one of these days get one of these Masters Series shields."
Saturday: Federer Reaches 10th Consecutive Final Friday: Blake Cracks Top 10 by Reaching Semifinals Thursday: Federer Closes on Three-Peat
Yesterday, in , California, Roger Federer, the top ranked tennis player in the world, defeated  7-5, 6-3, 6-0 to win his third consecutive , part of the . Blake held an early lead 4-1 in the first set, but Federer came back and dominated the last two sets. Federer is the first player to win three Pacific Life Opens in a row since 1976. Federer remained at number 1, while Blake moved up from 14th to 9th in the world rankings.

Federer struggled to find his game at first, but he caught on to Blake's playing style during the start of the game. "He played aggressively, took the ball early, put away his forehands when he could, didn't miss on the backhand, made me run around," Federer said. "That's usually what I do. He gave me a little bit of my own medicine." Federer has now won three titles this year, one of them being the . He has a 22-1 record, with his only loss going to Rafael Nadal at the Dubai Tennis Championship. His final statement was, "It was a hard-fought battle in the beginning. Really got the better of me in the beginning, so I had to react and not panic. I did a good job there. In the end, I played fantastic tennis with some great shots once again ... the form is excellent right now."

Blake took out 2nd seeded Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and nearly cruised through the first set. Unfortunately, he made just enough mistakes in the end of the set for Federer to pull through after a 5-4 lead. Blake is now 19-5 for the year, with wins at the Sydney International and the . After the match, he said, "A couple of shots he was swinging at, you could tell, just he had that confidence where he feels like he's not going to miss. Everything was going in ... here are a lot of guys that can go through little runs like that, three or four games where they feel like they can't miss, you wait it out, wait it out, then you get your chance. I couldn't wait any longer. He's one of the guys that can keep it up. He kept it up for that whole set, probably set and a half really. Actually, from early in the second set, he was playing like that. It's tough to combat that. It's been a great week. This stings right now. I think as long as I'm a competitor, as long as I'm on tour, it's always going to sting after a loss. But I'll just reflect on the fact that it's a good week, I moved up in the rankings played some great tennis, had some fun out here."