Roger Federer was shockingly banged 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4 by 19th-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain in the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time in a decade on Monday night.
Notably, Federer had won 17 Grand Slam singles titles before. Remarkably, in the opening game of his fourth-round match at the U.S. Open, he managed to pass at the net twice, then sailed a backhand long, further missed two forehands to get broken. In the second game, he who is ranked No. 1, dumped a backhand into the net, further shanked two other backhands several feet wide.
Federer, who has made 43 unforced errors and managed to convert just 2 of 16 break points expressed that it was a frustrating performance.
It is well known that Federer exited from the semifinals at the Australian Open in January, from the quarterfinals at the French Open in early June while the second round of Wimbledon against a player who is ranked 116th in late June. That concluded Federer's run of reaching the quarterfinals at 36 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. Federer has a new, unwanted streak due to Robredo : two consecutive losses prior to the quarterfinals at majors. Moreover, this is the first season since 2002 that Federer failed to reach at least one final at any of the four Grand Slam events. In fact, that year marked the last time when Federer was ranked lower than he is now at No. 7.
The 32-year-old has struggled with a bad back as well as experimented with a larger racket head. Remarkably, he had far more trouble winning matches compared to he usually does, mainly against the sort of players he barely broke a sweat against at his peak. The defeat against Robredo made it all the more shocking. On the other side, Robredo has been ranked as high as No. 5, albeit in 2006 and of course this is his seventh trip to the quarterfinals at a major. He made it clear that in this year's French Open, he won three matches in a row after dropping the first 2 sets of each.
Regarding Monday’s match, the buzz at the U.S. Open was in lines with looking ahead to a potential quarterfinal between Federer and his rival Rafael Nadal. They have won 29 Grand Slam trophies in combination as well as have played each other 31 times including in eight major finals but never in New York.
Federer's loss implied that they won't fill that gap in their rivalry this week. Meanwhile, when Federer's match was concluding, the second-seeded Nadal was just proceeding against No. 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber in Arthur Ashe Stadium. In fact, Federer originally was scheduled to clash with Robredo on that main, 23,000-capacity court, but heavy rain in the afternoon smashed the schedule. Ultimately, the tournament was postponed as two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka's match against 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic until Tuesday.
Subsequently, Federer-Robredo was shifted from Ashe to a much smaller Louis Armstrong Stadium, which accommodated around 10,000 spectators. He disclosed that it was not a factor in Monday's outcome. Instead, the blame rested on his inability to hit his strokes the manner he wanted. Particularly, Federer was ineffective when he had opportunities on Robredo's serve. Repeatedly, Federer would get an opening, an opportunity to start the long climb back into the match. But he continued to lose those opportunities.
A perspiring Federer flubbed a backhand to waste one of five break points which he had in the fourth game of what proved to be the last set. Later, he kicked the offending ball, which is a rare sign of frustration from the normal calm Federer.
Federer remarked that he certainly got to go back to work and come back stronger. He wants to get rid of this loss now as soon as possible, forget about it, because that's not how he wants to play from here on. He added that he wants to play better and he knows he can.
