Can Roger Federer discover a remedy for his US Open blues?

NEW YORK — Roger Federer stood astride tennis like a colossus early within the night of Sept. 13, 2009, the shadows lengthening on Arthur Ashe Stadium and a 20-year-old upstart, Juan Martin del Potro, the ultimate barrier to a document sixth consecutive singles title.

By dusk, as spectators tried to blink away their shock, del Potro lay on his again victorious, limbs outstretched just like the factors of the compass. Federer’s five-year reign on the US Open had come to an finish. To most, this appeared an interruption. No person would have predicted that within the decade since, Federer can be unable to win one other US Open.

However right here we’re, 10 years down the street, and Federer nonetheless hasn’t discovered a method to put collectively the items of the puzzle shattered by del Potro. And to this point at Flushing Meadows in 2019, he hasn’t been fully convincing.

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“That is imagined to be the straightforward one,” Federer stated of the wrestle to seek out his sport after Wednesday’s Three-6, 6-2, 6-Three, 6-Four victory over Damir Dzumhur. When requested why he has had a lot bother jump-starting his genius on the final main of the yr, he merely replied: “I haven’t got a solution to [give] you.”

Theories about Federer’s US Open blues abound, principally anchored within the themes of age and fatigue. Even then, developing with a convincing clarification is a largely unsatisfying drill.

“This fourth main of the yr is all the time seen because the hardest in tennis,” ESPN analyst Pam Shriver stated in an interview. “The late nights, the warmth, the chaos of the whole New York scene. You do not know it is draining you, however it’s taking a bit bit extra from you every day.”

Roger Federer has seemed shaky within the early phases of the 2019 US Open, which continues a development on the occasion. Chryslene Caillaud/Panoramic/Icon Sportswire

Few would argue with Shriver’s evaluation. However Paul Annacone, Federer’s coach for 2 extremely productive years (2010-11) and now a Tennis Channel analyst, is skeptical.

“For most individuals, I might say, ‘Sure, the distractions are a risk.’ However for Roger? He is all the time dealt with distractions higher than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert lends credence to the notion of a bodily drain on the US Open, contrasting the occasion with the Australian Open — the place Federer reignited his profession in 2017.

“The courts [here] could also be much like these in Australia,” Gilbert stated. “However that early within the yr , Roger is coming off a bit break, and he is had a coaching block. The US Open is eight months later, after lots of tennis. He is not 28, he is 38.”

YearDefeated By…Spherical2018John Millman4th2017Juan Martín del PotroQtr2016didn’t seem (injured)—2015Novak DjokovicFinal2014Marin CilicSemi2013Tommy Robredo4th2012Tomas BerdychQtr2011Novak DjokovicSemi2010Novak DjokovicSemi2009Juan Martín del PotroFinal

Lots of the components that made the US Open probably the most infamous Slam have been tempered. A participant can nonetheless really feel the new breath of the demanding New York followers on his neck, however the various, cosmopolitan crowd is tamer now than in these early years of Federer’s ascendancy. The roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium has eradicated the problem — at the very least for Federer — of getting to play five-set matches on successive days due to rain. The grueling “Tremendous Saturday” format, the place the lads performed semis on Saturday with the ladies’s closing sandwiched between them, was lastly deserted in 2013 — thanks partly to the calls for of Federer and Rafael Nadal.

The desk has lengthy been set for a Federer renaissance on the US Open, however it hasn’t occurred but. And time is working out.

Though anomalous losses by Federer to the likes of Tomas Berdych (quarterfinals, 2012), Tommy Robredo (fourth spherical, 2014) and John Millman (fourth spherical, 2018) are to not be diminished, the actual key to Federer’s 10-year drought appears to be crucial back-to-back losses to the nice disruptor of the Federer/Nadal rivalry — Novak Djokovic. It nonetheless strains credulity that within the two tournaments after his 2009 loss to Del Potro, Federer fell to Djokovic within the semifinals — regardless of having two match factors in every match. You do not have to imagine in wizards to see how which may forged a hex over a participant’s subsequent efforts.

Essentially the most painful of these failures occurred in 2011. Djokovic swept away the primary match level with an atomic forehand winner, which he celebrated by parading in entrance of the group, arms flung excessive. That blast triggered a response in Federer that has been as uncommon as his Grand Slam losses from match level up. Afterward, he took a swipe on the writer of the fantastic shot.

Requested if the forehand winner was maybe borne of Djokovic’s confidence, Federer snapped: “Confidence? Are you kidding me? I imply, please.”

Federer’s decade-long title drought on the US Open will be traced on to Novak Djokovic. Clive Brunskill/Getty Photographs

Clearly referring to Djokovic, Federer sniffed: “Some gamers develop up and play like that — being down 5-2 within the third, and so they all simply begin slapping photographs. I by no means performed that means. I imagine exhausting work’s going to repay, as a result of early on, possibly I did not all the time work at my hardest. For me, that is very exhausting to know. How are you going to play a shot like that on match level?”

In Annacone’s eyes, the second of these 2011 match factors was the actually painful one. He nonetheless remembers in vivid, agonizing element how a kind of trademark, inside-out Federer forehands smacked the online twine, solely to fall again on his personal aspect.

“You do not prefer to see that occur to anybody,” Annacone stated. “So, yeah, there was some dangerous luck. After the loss, Roger instructed me, ‘Look, there are a few Slams that possibly I should not have received, both.'”

These matches, it seems, might in the end be the important thing to how the hunt to turn into the all-time singles title winner seems. Djokovic, a 16-time Grand Slam champion (two behind Nadal), is the youngest of the Huge Three and the highest seed right here. He is closing in on Federer, however probably the most prolific champ (Federer has 20 majors) hasn’t given up hope in New York. Federer and Djokovic would face off within the semifinals right here ought to they each advance that far.

Federer stated final week that he additionally has been wrestling along with his current difficulties at this event. Might or not it’s that, along with his straightforward genius and knack for skating over the floor of adversity and triumph with equal aplomb, Federer simply does not get these essential, tournament-shaping breaks in New York?

“Look, I’ve no clarification for why it did not go in addition to it may,” he stated. “I believe a bit unfortunate for positive, additionally. That was a part of it, yeah.”

Federer appeared at Flushing Meadows for his first match with a steely glint in his eyes and, with a number of days of stubble on his usually clean-shaven face, the look of a grizzled veteran. The sign was clear sufficient: Federer meant enterprise. However he was pushed again on his heels early in his match with qualifier Sumit Nagal.

Federer survived that problem in 4 units, however the stubble was gone for his second-round match with Dzumhur. One factor is for certain: Federer is making an attempt each trick within the guide. However the guide is simply so lengthy.