All seven matches James Blake has played against Roger Federer have had the feel of exhibitions. Blake sprints, swings hard, and hits a few sparkling winners, while Federer barely sweats and seems to flick Blake’s shots back as he might during a casual warm-up with a college player. Within an hour, maybe a little more if it’s in a Grand Slam, it’s over. Blake, of course, never wins.

In Cincinnati yesterday, Blake lost 6–1, 6–4 and maintained his perfect record against Federer — now 0–7. The victory gave Federer the 50th title of his career and his first since winning Wimbledon. It’s also the first time he’s won the U.S. Open Series, which means the United States Tennis Association will owe the 26-year-old world no. 1 an extra $1 million if he wins his fourth consecutive U.S. Open title on September 9.

If these last two weeks are any indication, Federer is the favorite to do just that, though for different reasons than in the past. More and more these days, Federer relies on his serve to win matches. Perhaps he picked up something while practicing with Pete Sampras in Los Angeles earlier this year. Perhaps he’s decided to hit bigger serves, win more cheap points, and save his legs as he enters his late 20s. Whatever the case, it has saved him from a few bad losses.

At Wimbledon, Federer’s serve turned back a superior performance by Rafael Nadal. In Cincinnati this week, it bailed him out of two matches and made sure that Blake, in the final, posed no threat. After he lost the second set of his quarterfinal match to Nicolas Almagro, Federer made 89% of his first serves in the third set and lost only one of those points. He won the set 6–2. Against Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals, he served 18 aces in a three-set victory. Blake endured nine aces and couldn’t convert any of his five break points. Federer aced him with a second serve to end the match.

A few more noteworthy stats about Federer: He’s the fifthyoungest player to win 50 titles, though he remains a long way from Jimmy Connors’s all-time record of 109, a figure that might outlive Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. He’s now 43–0 this season after winning the first set, but 2–6 after losing the first set. He’s won his last 35 matches against American players, dating back to August 2003, when Andy Roddick defeated him in Montreal (Roddick has since lost nine straight to Federer).

Maybe the streak against Americans explains why Blake never seems too disturbed after losing to Federer. Still, he couldn’t have been too pleased with his performance yesterday considering that he had played his best tennis of the season leading up to the final. The first set was among the worst he’s ever played against Federer: too much flash, too much power, too many dumb mistakes. It ended after just 26 minutes. Blake looked like he might settle down after he managed to hold his first service game of the second set despite four double faults, but he couldn’t keep pace for long.

Blake probably won’t ever beat Federer. His weaknesses — a tendency to make errors in bunches and a weak second serve — are particularly troublesome against Roger, who attacks second serves and thoroughly enjoys the hard, flat shots Blake hits. Yet Blake shouldn’t lose sets at love, as he has done twice before, or 6–1, as he did yesterday. One wonders whether Blake might take a lesson from Rafael Nadal and worry more about defense rather than offense when playing Federer. Lleyton Hewitt, who is playing his best tennis in quite some time, has something to offer, too. Sure, the Australian has lost 11 consecutive matches to Federer, but he doesn’t go out there with the same plan and expect a different result, as Blake seems to do. Hewitt nearly defeated Federer on Saturday, and truth be told, Federer didn’t play that well, by his standards, all week.

It’s been a disappointing season for Blake following the best one of his career, largely because he remains much as Andre Agassi described him in 2005, after Agassi prevailed in their riveting U.S. Open quarterfinal: “high octane.” When Blake is going well, he can hurt anyone. But if his strokes are the slightest bit off, he struggles mightily.

Perhaps Blake can find some middle ground before the Open begins. He’s scheduled to play in New Haven, Conn., this week, though he might be wise to withdraw as a precaution. He had to leave last week’s Masters tournament in Montreal with an abdominal strain; now that Blake is playing better, the last thing he needs is to aggravate an injury that would prevent him from serving. Other than that, it would be nice to stay clear of Federer’s half of the draw in Queens.

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Justine Henin is not as imposing an obstacle in the world of women’s tennis as Federer is to the men, but don’t tell that to Jelena Jankovic. After yesterday’s final at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, the 22-year-old Serbian, ranked no. 3 and having her best season as a professional, has lost to world no. 1 Henin in all seven of their meetings. Most of those defeats have been of the excruciating variety; five have spanned three sets and Jankovic has won the first set in four of them. She should have won the first set yesterday, too, but she squandered a 4–1 lead.

Though both women played unevenly at times, the match ranked among the best on the tour this season. Jankovic, the best athlete among the women, defended exceptionally well, while Henin, the most complete player, didn’t let a few uncharacteristic errors stop her from smacking aggressive forehands. She spared no effort in preventing the match from moving into a third set. At 5–5 in the second set, Henin held serve after a 21-minute game and took a 0–40 lead in the next game. Jankovic, who had saved a match point two games earlier, saved four more before Henin ended it.

Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@nysun.com.