Black Tennis Pros

Alas, it 'twas not to be. World No. 1 Roger Federer earned his 50th career title by defeating James Blake-- the new world No. 6 -- 6-1(ouch), 6-4 in the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters Series final on Sunday.

"It's not a goal I set for myself in my career, but it's definitely a nice number to get to, especially in terms of titles," Federer said.

Ever the diplomat and all around nice guy, Blake stated "just about everything he does is pretty impressive. Fifty titles at 26 is incredible."

Now I was dead in there with Patrick McEnroe when he proclaimed on Saturday evening that Blake was going to win on Sunday. I just knew it was true, I just knew it. The fire that Blake played with against Davydenko had to burn straight through the finals on Sunday. But, the pilot slowly burned out during Sunday's game. Not that I think that Blake blew it, because Federer was focused and "Federer". And when Federer is on the money, we all know that there's very little that many of the other players can do against him. Plus I think Blake had to suffer for Federer's loss last Sunday to Djokovic.

Nevertheless, Blake had an incredible run last week and I do believe that he'll jump back on the Blake train and take it for a nice ride in New Haven, Connecticut this week. I'll definitely be watching and posting all week.