Federer Wins Title and Merchandise Royalties in Cincinnati

Before I get to the match, I feel the pressing need to point out the man in the blue shirt in the picture to the right. 

No, not the defending French Open and Wimbledon champion, but the blurry guy behind him.  The guy who went out and bought the same blue shirt with the black inner collar that Federer wore all week in Cincinnati, so that he could show his support for the world #1 and his "RF" monogram, the same way another fan on the other side of town might wear a #85 jersey in support of Chad Ochocinco. 

Tennis fans, who custom says are supposed to applaud good play by either competitor, don't have a lot of official apparel avenues for expressing their fandom.  Even in Federer's hometown tournament in Basel, there would never be a section of hooligans clad in whatever shirt he was wearing.  While that void is somewhat filled by patriotic attire on Davis Cup fans, there's still a lot of room for more money to be made. 

Putting names on the back of the shirts, maybe with ranking numbers underneath, would be a great way to brand outfits, and make the wares more marketable.  It would also prevent players from walking out on court in identical attire, a problem that occurs frequently in Adidas vs. Adidas matches, and can be hell for television viewers.

As far as I can remember, the only player to attempt anything like this previously was Nicolas Kiefer, who wore the number "69" under his name a few years ago.  As you might suspect, Kiefer wasn't ranked 69th in the world at the time.  Kiefer later explained his love for the integer by saying it was in support of Hannover 96, his favorite football club.  I hope no one buys that for a second.

There's a big opportunity for tennis here.  Selling name-bearing attire would open up the doors for millions of dollars in revenue and licensing.  It would also give tennis fans a way to express their fandom unambiguously at the tournaments and elsewhere the way most any other sport's fan can.  The rumble that a "Safina #1" shirt sitting next to a slightly more vintage "S. Williams #1" shirt could cause would be great for the sport.  It could even give a fan of the lesser-knowns like me a chance to proudly wear an "Ondraskova #176" get up.

As for the actual match that preceded the spotting of the Federer dress-alike, it was fairly dull.  Djokovic was nowhere in the first set, before briefly threatening early in the second.  Federer righted the ship soon after, saving a set point before closing out the match in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5. 

With this second Masters win adding on to his two previous slam titles in 2009, there's no debate over Federer's place as the favorite at the US Open.  The only thing left to wonder is how many people in Arthur Ashe Stadium will be wearing his shirts.