Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal stay on track for historic U.S. Open semifinal
NEW YORK — All eyes at the U.S. Open are on world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who are now only two matches away from playing each other for the first time at this tournament.
Yes, it’s true. One of the longest and most durable rivalries in tennis, that has spanned 37 matches to date, has never been showcased at the final major of the season.
That surprising fact certainly hasn’t escaped the third-seeded Federer, who spoke about it after his 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 third-round win over Nadal’s countryman, Feliciano Lopez, late Saturday night.
“I think for many years Rafa and me, we’ve tried to play against each other here, and it just didn’t work out,” Federer said. “I think I was a match point away once against Novak (Djokovic) … we were one point away from it happening.”
The 36-year-old Federer’s memory is clearly still sharp.
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The year was 2011 and he held two match points on Djokovic, but the Serbian ended up taking the encounter 7-5 in the fifth set. As for Nadal, he bypassed Andy Murray in the semifinals, but fell to Djokovic in a four-set final.
Federer, however, is too smart to be thinking ahead to the dream semifinal possibility against the 31-year-old Nadal at this juncture, although he is feeling more confident after his straight-set victory in the third round, following two tough five-set wins over American Frances Tiafoe and Russian Mikhai Youzhny
“Now this week, I don’t feel necessarily the pressure’s there,” Federer said. “We’ll see. We’ll see if it (a Federer-Nadal semifinal) gets done or not. I’m curious to see myself.”
Federer arrived in New York with a bothersome back, and when he was waxing poetic after the Youzhny match, surmising he’d gotten the rust out of his game and was improving, most walked away from that post-match news conference shaking their heads.The prevailing opinion was he was struggling, mistiming his shots and couldn’t really be feeling that positive.
Alas, once again, Federer was a step ahead of the pundits. He looked confident and competent playing against Lopez under the Arthur Ashe convertible rooftop on Saturday.
“It was clearly nice to go up two sets to love for a change,” Federer said. “Feels different from there. I was happy I had good energy because I think that was my biggest worry, that somehow after the two five-setters that I had, I was going to feel a little slow, hard to throw the engine on, that I would have to force myself so much, I would get tired from that.”
As for Nadal, he’s gotten by with consecutive four-set encounters against Taro Daniel of Japan and Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. While his performances might not be clear-cut perfection, his intensity level is pure Nadal high octane, which is always a good sign for the Spaniard.
“(It) was a slow start for converting break points,” said Nadal, of his first-set loss against Mayer. “When you have that many break points, you created the opportunities, more than usual.
“Now I have the opportunity to compete again, to try to do it well. I am in the second week, that’s the important thing. Already won three matches in a row. That’s important news for me.”
Nevertheless, before a 38th installment of the popular Nadal-Federer rivalry can take place — Nadal leads 23-14 overall and 9-3 in Grand Slam matches — there’s plenty of work to get done.
Nadal will square off against underachiever Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine in the next match for a quarterfinal option against either ninth seed David Goffin of Belgium or 19-year-old Andrey Rublev of Russia, the 2014 French Open junior boys’ champion.
“I know I have a tough opponent out there now, tricky one, because he’s going to play aggressive, he’s very tough, he has a lot of talent, and he’s playing well,” Nadal said of Dolgopolov.
For Federer, a trip to the semifinals finds him teeing off against 33rd seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany for a quarterfinal appointment against either sixth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria or 24th seed and 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.
“I know Philipp very well,” Federer said. “I’ve practiced with him a ton. He’s a good player. Great rotation on the ball. Plays with a lot of topspin. Has a nice one-handed backhand, which I love to see, of course.”
There’s no denying that while players claim to think one match at a time, both champions are aware of the excitement that could be ahead for the semifinals.
No matter how it all goes down there is one absolute: The year 2017 has belonged to these two incredible superstars of the game.
Federer won the Australian Open trophy in a five-set final thriller over Nadal, then added the Wimbledon title to his historic record collection of 19 Grand Slam trophies.
In June, Nadal became the only player in the Open Era to win the same Grand Slam title 10 times, which he did at the French Open for his 15th Grand Slam victory — that puts him in second place behind Federer for major titles won.
Not so bad for two 30-something guys considered to be senior citizens on the tour.