Roger Federer, via d.yimg.com

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Tennis is different from a lot of other sports in that you have to be the best player at the end of the match to win. You can outplay somebody for a huge stretch of the early going, but until you win the final point you are vulnerable.  There's no such thing as jumping out to an early lead and coasting like there is in just about every other sport.

This phenomenon was evident in Saturday's first semifinal in Cincinnati.  Roger Federer dominated the early going thoroughly, crushing Murray in the first set by the score of 6-2, though the play was nowhere near as close as that score would indicate.

But since tennis doesn't allow Federer to run out the clock and rest on early match laurels, he was forced to keep fighting until the end.  Murray's play improved greatly in the second, and the Scot even got with a set point of forcing a third before Federer prevailed, 6-2, 7-6(8), in a battle between the current ATP #1 and #2.

Federer's most scorching shot of the day came not off his racquet, however, but from his lips.  While being interviewed by Chris Fowler, Darren Cahill, and Brad Gilbert after the match, Federer took aim at ESPN's absurd coverage these past few weeks, especially the delayed airing of Djokovic-Nadal tonight.  Tennis Channel and ESPN have both shown a ridiculously small amount of live tennis these past couple weeks, both opting to show matches on delay for no particular reason.  In this age of internet, live scoring, and getting match updates immediately via cell phone, tape delayed coverage has no place whatsoever. 

Novak Djokovic also ran into tougher opposition after an easy first set.  Djokovic rolled through Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4, to face Federer in a final for the first time since the 2007 US Open.  Djokovic never let Nadal into the lopsided final, which proved a sharp contrast to their slugfest in Madrid, a war of attrition that left both of them crippled for the remainder of the season.

It's clear that Nadal is nowhere near the player he was before that Madrid semifinal, his knee grinding leaving him unable to get to the balls he once sent back for winners.  Unless he gets drastically more comfortable on it in the next couple weeks, it's impossible to call Nadal a real contender to win the US Open.

Djokovic, too, hasn't fared well on the biggest stages this year at slams, crashing out early at each one and failing to beat a top ten opponent at any.  A win over Federer in Sunday's could go a long way toward restoring his confidence.

But I don't see it happening.