Andy Murray vs. Roger Federer: Score, Reaction from 2015 Western & Southern Open

Roger Federer's recent dominance over Andy Murray continued Saturday at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati as the second-seeded star cruised into Sunday's final with a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory.

The Swiss legend is a six-time Cincinnati Masters champion, and he will have a chance to make it seven if he can get past world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who eliminated Alexandr Dolgopolov in three sets earlier in the day.

Murray has now dropped five consecutive matches to Federer, which brings the 28-year-old Brit's all-time record against the 17-time Grand Slam champion to 11-14.

Based on Murray's recent inability to beat Federer, BBC's David Law stressed the importance of a fast, in-your-face start Saturday:

Unfortunately for Murray, though, he was coming off a pair of three-set wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Richard Gasquet, which he admitted had taken a lot out of him, according to the ATP World Tour website.

"(I'm) obviously tired. Played a lot of matches, a lot of late nights where my recovery hasn't been perfect either," Murray said. "So I'm just happy I managed to fight through a lot of tough matches, difficult situations, and hopefully that will keep me in good stead."

Murray's fatigue was somewhat apparent during the opening stages as Fed broke him early and quickly gained an advantage in the opening set.

After that, Law anticipated that the match could have potentially gotten out of hand:

Although Murray was able to avoid any further damage on serve during the first set, one break was all Federer needed as the 34-year-old veteran took a 6-4 advantage into the second set.

With that first-set triumph, Federer had remarkably won 11 of his past 12 sets in matches against Murray, per Bryan Armen Graham of Guardian US:

While both men were able to hold their respective serves early in the second set, Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times observed that Federer seemed to be anticipating his opponent's moves remarkably well:

Neither player was able to break the other in the second, which has become a disturbing trend for Murray during his matches against Federer.

As pointed out by ESPN's Mark Donaldson, Murray's inability to break Federer has been present for a year:

Despite Murray's woes in that department, he gave himself an opportunity to force a third set by pushing the second to a tiebreak. Federer took a 3-1 advantage, but Murray battled back and was able to get it to 6-6 on serve.

The subsequent point turned out to be the decisive one as Fed took it to go up 7-6 in a manner that caused Law to marvel:

Federer then closed the contest out on his second match-point attempt, which sets up a tantalizing final clash against Djokovic.

While Djokovic has never won the Western and Southern Open, he is on a remarkable roll this year, as evidenced by this tweet courtesy of ESPN Stats and Info:

Per the US Open Series on Twitter, Federer is well aware of what lies ahead of him:

"

"It's the ultimate test to play Novak right now," #Federer says on ESPN2. "Cincinnati has been very kind to me over the years" #CincyTennis

— US Open Series (@USOpenSeries) August 22, 2015"

Djokovic has been nearly unbeatable this season, and he defeated Federer in the Wimbledon final, but Fed is arguably playing better tennis right now.

Nole needed three sets to get past Dolgopolov, while Federer took care of one of the world's best in just two. Also, there is no question that the Swiss veteran has more winning experience in Cincinnati.

This is a huge tournament in terms of building momentum for the U.S. Open, and while Federer clearly did that Saturday with a convincing win over Murray, he has a golden opportunity to cement himself as the favorite if he can knock off Djokovic.  

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.