Roger Federer

Well, that was fast.

The Roger Federer of old returned this evening and dispatched Andy Murray in a quick and breezy 1 hour, 51 minutes, in three sets, at 6-2, 7-5, 6-2

It was evident early on that Federer wasn't going to let Murray touch him tonight. He blitzed when he needed to, and showed that elegant game that he displayed to devastating effect against Novak Djokovic in the semis.

With Federer's triumphant return, men's tennis leaves this U.S. Open in its best shape in two decades. The parity is incredible: Djokovic grabbed a championship, Nadal found a way to win on clay and grass, Federer won, and newcomer Andy Murray has nudged his way awfully close to the first-tier of top tennis players in the world.

We've entered a new golden age, and Federer just capped off an incredibly stirring 2008 season for the game.

Andy Murray just came off the practice courts and is about two hours from the biggest match of his life.

If he plays anything like the way he played yesterday, Roger Federer might have a real test.

But then again, these matches often come down to big-situation experience (please see: Serena v. Jankovic last night, or Djokovic v. Federer, 2007 U.S. Open final). Prior to this tournament, the 21-year-old Murray had never done better than the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam; Federer has won 12, and has been in the finals in 12 of the last 13 Grand Slams.

Reporters in the press center will be writing B-copy for two story lines: Can Federer shut up all his critics and win his first Grand Slam of the year, his 13th of his career, and his fifth consecutive Open? And can Murray put his stamp on the game and nudge his way into the game's elite group of Federer-Nadal-Djokovic with a major upset?

Murray owns the head-to-head against Federer (he's 2-1), but Federer hasn't lost here since 2003.

New York can make you, and it can ruin you. Fast.

Case in point: Novak Djokovic.

Last year, in his two weeks at the Open, Djokovic transformed himself, on our stage, before our very eyes, from a gifted-but-little-known Serbian up-and-comer into a full-fledged star. Yes, it had much to do with his daring, nerveless play, but it was more than that.

Robert De Niro and wife Grace Hightower sat in the Djokovic player's box during his Open final against Roger Federer; they treated him to dinner at Nobu during the tournament and at Wakiya after he lost the final. Maria Sharapova cheered him on every step of the way, and rumors started running high that they began dating at the Open.  read more »

The grounds, at about 11:30 this morning. Not a soul in sight here, other than a few scattered security people.

In six hours, there will be more than 23,000 fans here.

The top tier of men's tennis has gotten so deep and so good in the last year and now it'll have to welcome a new member: Andy Murray.

Murray just defeated the 5-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal in four sets, winning the fourth set on the biggest stage in tennis with a 6-4 victory. He broke Nadal twice, and owned the entire game on his racquet. In the match, he had 65 winners, and 54 errors, compared to the 32 and 40 for Nadal.

Unfortunately, we will not have a Nadal and Federer final for a third consecutive Grand Slam. The good news is Murray is worthy of the men's finals--this is clearly his breakthrough tournament and he absolutely exhausted Nadal today.  read more »

Play for the rest of the day has been canceled.

This means the Rafael Nadal-Andy Murray semifinal--which Murray currently leads 6-2, 7-6, 2-3--will resume tomorrow at 4pm, with coverage on CBS. Women's tennis will have its biggest stage ever, with a primetime 9pm final tomorrow night on CBS. The winner of the Nadal-Murray match will play Roger Federer in the men's final on Monday at 5pm.

Roger Federer has found his game. He's playing confidently, elegantly and has reestablished himself as the player to beat in this tournament. With the rain holding off for just long enough, Federer outlasted Novak Djokovic in four sets, taking the last set 6-2.

Djokovic, who started to find his own game in the second set, uncharacteristically unraveled toward the end of the match; he started rushing his points, stopped chasing balls and had the look of a guy who couldn't wait to get out of New York. His post-match presser is going to be interesting.

At the end of the match, Mary Jo Fernandez asked 4-time U.S. Open champ Roger Federer who he'd rather see in the finals: Rafa or Andy Murray. He didn't dodge the question.

"I'll say Rafa," he said.

Please bring it on.  

Well, this is going to be an interesting day!

Today, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic square off at 11am (promptly!) at Ashe. Nadal and Murray follow, though the USTA allows the possibiltiy that they may play on Armstrong.

We thought we retired that court four days ago, but with the possibility of squeezing the men's finals and the women's finals on the same day is too tempting for the USTA. And they may play both men's semis at the same time.

This is something the USTA has never faced over the last four decades, and here comes a ridiculously insane day of tennis.

Will they get it through?

Boo, Hanna!

Roger Federer just finished wiping out Gilles Muller in straight sets. The victory means that Federer has now reached an ungodly 18 consecutive semifinals in Grand Slams.

"Yup, I'm playing great," he said on the court after his win.

And boy, is he ever: 42 winners, 19 unforced errors today. That's a little something extra for Novak and Andy to think about when they play in two-in-a-half hours; the winner of that match gets Federer.

We know Vogue editor Anna Wintour is a very big fan of Roger Federer, and we know she always shows up to his night matches, and his weekend matches. But apparently she doesn't want to miss his quarterfinals match, either--even if it is at 3 p.m. on the Thursday after Labor Day.

When Roger Federer finally dispatched Igor Andreev on Tuesday, the crowd went absolutely bananas. New Yorkers have always had a real fondness for the guy, but this time there was sort of a Shea Stadium-like shriek when he finally won in five sets. Jon Wertheim today makes the excellent point that the more vulnerable that Federer looks, like Pete Sampras at the end of his career, the more the New York crowd is going to rally behind him and finally give him the love that they've held off showing when he was dominating the game. We love an underdog, after all:

Federer clearly entered a new stage of his career, much as Pete Sampras did in the latter part of his career.

 read more »

It took him 3 hours, 33 minutes, but Roger Federer found a way to finally finish off the men's 23rd seed Igor Andreev at 6-3 in the fifth set. Roger received a prolonged standing ovation from the New York crowd that couldn't stand to see him leave.

For a guy who looks like agonized on the court when he's struggling, he sure doesn't let on afterwards.

"You always wish three sets, but honestly those five sets are pretty fun too," he said in an on-court interview afterwards.

"I'm really happy with the way he played, but God, the guy's a good player so I'm really, really happy," he continued.  read more »

Unbelievable. Like Novak Djokovic earlier today, Roger Federer has been pushed to a fifth set, but this match is even tighter.

We're in the stands, and we'll be reporting live with updates.

Federer has won 30 consecutive matches at the U.S. Open. The last time he lost was in 2003.

UPDATE: Federer is up 3-0 in the fifth set now. When he broke Andreev's serve in the second game, it's probably the loudest I've heard this stadium. Ever.

UPDATE II: It's 5-2 Federer. Andreev had four break points on Federer's serve in the seventh game at 4-2, but capitalized on none of them. On the last break point, Andreev hit a soft lob directly behind Federer, and as Roger scampered back to it and saw that it fell about a millimeter outside of the baseline he screamed, probably out of sheer relief,"IT'S OUT!"

Taken at face value, the fourth-round match of Marion Bartoli and Sybille Bammer on Aug. 31 had a lot going for it. Both athletes played the grinding, gutsy tennis that New Yorkers adore, and the 3-hour, 3-minute match that ensued was tied for the longest in U.S. Open’s women’s history. 

No one cared. 

Throughout Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing, where the epic match was being played, many—too many—of the attending fans were holding little digital American Express TVs, keeping track of a sleepy Roger Federer-Radek Stepanek third-round match being played next door at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The PA system at the Ashe match dominated the quiet sound-space of Armstrong with songs like “Still the One” and “Welcome to the Jungle” at top volume between the Federer match and the Andy Roddick one that followed.  read more »

Novak Djokovic got his first test of the tournament this afternoon, and now it's Roger Federer's turn. Federer and Igor Andreev have nabbed a set each (at 7-6) and Federer is up a break in the third. At this point, we'll start the women's match at about 8:30, Roddick's match at 10:30, and we'll all be going home well after 1 a.m.

Here's two-time Grand Slam winner and former U.S. Open champion Ilie Nastase talking about Rafa's game in light of Nadal's rather unextraordinary display of tennis against Sam Querrey yesterday.

"Nadal reminds me a little bit of Jimmy Connors," said Nastase. "He wants to win every point. I guess he likes to play the top guys; he plays his best against top guys. I think if he played Federer or Djokovic he would have played a different way [yesterday]."

Nastase said he's rooting for a Federer-Nadal final. "I'd like to see a final again of Nadal and Federer. It would be the best for that."

Correction: Due to pretty unbelievable stupidity, an original version of this post misidentified Ilie Nastase as Guillermo Vilas. We regret the error.

Roger Federer is a few hours away from his fourth round match against Igor Andreev, the 23rd-seed Russian. Federer is scheduled to be on the practice courts for about 90 minutes today. He's only played Andreev once, which was back in 2004 in a clay-court match in Gstaad. Federer won in four sets.

In other practice-court news, the Williams sisters both had sessions this morning, and they're all finished for the day in anticipation for their quarterfinal showdown tomorrow. Jankovic and Roddick, who both play later tonight, will be on the courts later this afternoon.

Everyone has been so down on Roger Federer over the last week. Yes, he hasn't won a Slam this year; sure, he lost to an aging James Blake in the Olympics; no question, he looks a little lost on the court this year.

But, as Andy Roddick said last weekend, "I know pretty much every player except for one that would take his bad year."

So today, he went out and destroyed Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 and the press afterwards starting peppering him with questions like: Is your confidence back?

Then Bud Collins asked him when he felt his worst this year.

"I never felt terrible, to be honest," he said.  read more »

In a stirring declaration of independence from Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer said today, "I schedule my life around my life, not his life."

Asked whether he had watched Nadal's two matches so far, he said that he had missed both, including Rafa's second-round disemboweling of Ryler DeHeart: "I was gone for dinner and he decided to do it quick, so I missed the -- I was expecting five sets. I was there for four and five, but he wasn't there anymore, so that was that was problem."

Venus Williams cruised past Samantha Stosur, 6-2, 6-3, and Roger Federer had just as easy a time with Maximo Gonzalez, winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 on the second night of the 2008 U.S. Open.

Mardy Fish, one of a crop of promising young American players, also moved on to the second round, defeating Australian Robert Smeets, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. He will meet Paul-Henri Mathieu, who won in another four-setter with two early tiebreakers against fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Roger Federer admits it. After a year in which he has struggled to maintain his former, effortless supremacy while Rafael Nadal surged to first in the rankings, the four-time U.S. Open Champion said at a press conference on Saturday, "Rafa has played great, you know, so he deserves the No. 1 position. I mean, he's in a way the favorite now all of a sudden, even on hardcourt, because he's played so, so well."

Which may not be the worst thing for Roger. He seemed almost relieved to have the weight of expectations lifted somewhat. "Rafa will now feel what I had to feel for a very long time," he said.

To celebrate the opening of its new stand-alone store at 21 Mercer Street, Nike threw a raucous block party on Mercer Street on Thursday, Aug. 21. The sportswear brand closed off the entire block between Grand and Howard streets and--much to the frustration of the block's residents--installed giant stadium screens, a clock that counted down the opening of doors at 9:21 p.m., and stadium food carts to serve corn dogs, cotton candy and French fries to the guests.

And of course Nike invited some of its old friends, including tennis stars Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, to help open the doors.  read more »

Two weeks of stunning tennis have transformed the Serbian phenom.  read more »

hen Novak Djokovic checked into the Barclay on 48th Street three weeks ago, he was a little-known tennis player from Serbia.

He’ll leave New York a star.

By the time Djokovic, 20, reached yesterday’s final, he had impressed a tennis world with his play and won crowds over with his emotive personality.

Off the court, the celebrity treatment started even earlier.  read more »

U.S. Open champion Roger Federer was asked tonight whether Novak Djokovic was ready to unseat Rafael Nadal as the second best player in tennis.

"I guess Nadal is still No. 2, but it's getting closer," he said. "It probably depends who finishes better at the end of the year."

"No. 2, No. 3, doesn't matter much," he continued. "It's No. 1 that matters."

And there's no one else close.

I tried it again, and nothing bad happened.

So here, for our third and final attempt at live-blogging the Open, I'll be presenting a running account of the men's final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic live from Arthur Ashe Stadium.

4:24: Liza Minnelli is seriously winded after performing "New York, New York" on a red carpet on center court. The crowd seemed entertained by her performance too.

4:46: Wow. Federer abandons his traditional Sunday blue in favor of the all-black "Darth Federer" look.

4:48: Maria Sharapova in Djokovic's box. Really?

For my live action click 'Read More'  read more »

Novak Djokovic's coach, Marian Vajda, said the game plan that led them to success in Montreal last month will be similar to the one they use against Roger Federer today.

"We know a couple things, a couple weaknesses that we talked about before the match in Montreal," he said. "It's not going to change a lot."

What kind of weaknesses?

"I don't tell you now," he said. "It's kind of secret before the match. Sorry about that."  read more »

Later today, the 20-year-old Novak Djokovic will become the third youngest man to ever play in a U.S. Open Final. The only ones younger were Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg.  read more »

“They’ve named it twice—New York, New York—but there can only be one winner at U.S.T.A.!” said U.S. Open veteran J.R. Reid, a “cool 36,” who was born and raised in Harlem.

“My favorite part is the finals. When we get down to the finals, when we get down to the bread and butter—who’s going to win, who’s going to go home,” Reid said. “It’s a beautiful match for two weeks, but this is New York, so there’s only one winner. That’s what I look forward to.”  read more »

I asked tennis’ most consistent overachiever over the last 15 years, retired American Todd Martin, what he would do to beat Roger Federer.

His answer: "For me, as somewhat limited as my game was, there’s only one option: to be as aggressive as I can—to get him on the first hit as often as possible. In order to do that there has to be a variety of attacks or an attack that makes Roger as uncomfortable as humanly possible.”

What advice does he offer today’s players?

“You have to understand that the most unique thing about our sport is the way we score. You don’t have to win more points than him. You don’t have to win more games than him. You have to just win them at the right time. If you want to break serve against a better player—and he’s better than everyone else—you have to accept losing games where you don’t make him play. Then hope you’ll win four out of six points, or five out of eight points and so forth. All you have to do is do that one time a set if you serve well.

“Sometimes you’re gonna look silly cause he’s more athletic than you and he’s more skilled than you. But you have to defend your serve and figure out a way—string a couple of points together here and there.”

Roger Federer once again proved himself unstoppable, but Andy Roddick played incredibly well.

Start with these total stats for both players:

Winners: 90

Unforced: 42

Doubles: 0

"It was great tennis," said Federer.

"I didn't make mistakes," said Roddick. "If he hits a 140, hits the back of the line, you know, whatever."  read more »

Tonight, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer will square off in what is perhaps the most uneven rivalry in tennis.(Federer leads the head-to-head, 13-1). Roddick said that he knows expectations are low.

But Roddick is looking good—he hasn’t dropped a set in the Open—and Federer has lost two first sets (wow!) in this tournament.

I asked one my favorite experts, Jon Wertheim, for his take on the match.  read more »

To listen to Andy Roddick over the last two weeks, you'd think he was closer to the end of his career than the beginning. He said before the Open began, "I still feel like I have another Slam in me. At least that's what I'm shooting for."

Then he said this today about his potential quarterfinal date with Roger Federer: "I'm excited. I expect a lot of myself. I don't think anybody else really expects much from me."  read more »

Labor Day Match of the Day: Andy Roddick versus Tomas Berdych. Neither player has dropped a set in this tournament and the winner will be rewarded with a quarterfinals match against Roger Federer. Tommy Haas and James Blake have both endured bloody lead-ins and they’ll clash this afternoon.

The women’s bottom draw will get clearer tonight: the upstart Israeli Shahar Peer will take on the upstart Pole Aggie Radwanska.

It’s the hotly anticipated match of the first week. Federer v. Isner: The giant of tennis versus the boy giant.

It’s not really a matter if Isner can beat Federer -- no one thinks that -- but about how good a fight the young American can put up. Everyone seems to agree that Isner could be a headache.

“John probably has a game that can make Roger a little bit more uncomfortable than most people just because you can go game sometimes without hitting a ball,” said Andy Roddick when asked about the match.  read more »

In addition to the big news of Rafael Nadal's injury, the big news out of yesterday's play was the number 7 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile lost in five sets yesterday, becoming the highest-seeded player to crash out of the tournament and potentially clearing a path for American Robby Ginepri to move into the third round.

Also last night, boy-giant John Isner won in straight sets, setting up a tantalizing third round match-up with Roger Federer to be played this weekend.
John McEnroe said of Isner: "This guy's gonna be a headache for Federer."

Match of the Day today: Impressive American prospect Donald Young takes on the super-talented and super-emotional Richard Gasquet at Louis Armstrong a little after noon.

Men's number one seed Roger Federer will play tonight and women's number one Justine Henin will play a little after 12 p.m.

Which is fine by each of them.

Here's how Federer on night matches: "I prefer them over the day sessions, to be honest... It's more special--electrifying. The crowds come out in big numbers."  read more »

At around 2:30 p.m., South African doubles player Jeff Coetzee dropped by the Julien Farel salon for a quick trim. (This year, for the first time, Farel has set up shop on the third floor of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, down the hall from the players lounge.)

"I just felt cleaning things up," said Mr. Coetzee, as stylist Stephanie Mille worked her clippers around his sides and neck area. "Some players are very superstitious about their hair. But I'm not."  read more »

Is former champion Lleyton Hewitt the dark horse of this year's open?

That's the talk around here this week and if today's match was any indication -- he rolled over University of Illinois grad Amer Delic in straight sets -- he's in his best form in years.

"When you feel confident within yourself, you're happy with where your game's at, you enjoy it a lot more," he said today.

Hewitt, a 26-year-old 16th seed, won his two Grand Slams when men's tennis was in a tattered state -- post-Sampras, pre-Federer.

Since the advent of Federer and Nadal, Hewitt was left in the dust.

"Roger or Nadal, they're consistent and they have the firepower," Delic said today. " I think that's where Lleyton gets lost a little bit."

But Hewitt has made the argument this year that his game -- he's arguably still the best serve-returner in tennis -- is coming back to form.

In his last Grand Slam at Wimbledon, he made it to the 4th round and lost a knock-down, dragout five-setter to Novak Djokovic. And in a tournament in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago, he brought Roger Federer the distance in a semifinal in which Federer needed two tiebreaks to win.

Hewitt, who last won at Wimbledon in 2002, thinks he's still got what it takes to win another Grand Slam.

"I believe that, yeah, it's in me, that's for sure."  read more »

I ran into celeb-coach Brad Gilbert -- the man who resurrected Andre Agassi's career and led Andy Roddick to his only Grand Slam -- and asked him for his thoughts on how to beat the rarely beatable Roger Federer.

"I coach [Andy] Murray, so the advice is in here," he said, tapping his head. "Won't give that away."

Was there anything he could tell us? Anything at all?

"No. Not about somebody that my guy can potentially play. I don't want [Federer] to read about it. Andy might have to play against him, so I don't want him to see or read nothing."

Okay!

I'm reading a transcript from the Roger Federer press conference, which I missed.

Q. What do you know about Althea Gibson?

ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. You're putting me on the spot. I don't know what you're talking about.

Q. She's being honored tonight.

ROGER FEDERER: It's before my time. Isn't much I can really say about it.  read more »

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Each morning here at the Observer's U.S. Open blog we're going to tell you what to look out for in the day's action. Today's tip: arrive early!

The heavy-hitters -- Jelena Jankovic, Justine Henin, Roger Federer -- will steal the spotlight at Arthur Ashe today. But you know how these first-round matches go: some of them are over in 40 minutes. If you have a pass that lets you into Arthur Ashe, don't be late.  read more »

According to the friendly tennis pro at Paragon, customers come in throughout the year looking for their favorite professional player’s racquet, but it’s nothing like U.S. Open season.

“It happens all the time!” said David Billings, who’s spent the last three years in the tennis department of the sporting goods store, located at 867 Broadway off Union Square. “People come in and ask, ‘What racquet does Federer use?’ ‘What racquet does Nadal use?’”  read more »

Last week, Serbian tennis sensation Novak Djokovic was speaking on the phone from the Barclay on 48th Street. It was close to 9pm and a group of friends were waiting patiently outside his hotel room waiting to party in Manhattan.

“Everyone is beatable,” Djokovic said. “No one is unbeatable.”

He was discussing Roger Federer, the 11-time Grand Slam winner who Djokovic had defeated in the Rogers Cup Final, a US Open tune-up, nine days earlier.  read more »

Welcome to the New York Observer's U.S. Open blog.

For the next 14 days, Spencer Morgan and I will be in and around the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing gathering stories, game analysis and observations from the tournament.

Stay with us, and please keep in touch (as often as you like) about what we’re doing and what else you’d like to see. We’ll do our best to oblige.  read more »

Roddick loves the nightlife! The prospect of beating his long-time nemesis, Roger Federer, is not the only thing Andy Roddick is looking forward to at this U.S. Open. It's playing ... under the stars! From Reuters:

"It's probably my favorite tournament as far as the electricity in the air," he said. "I've had a lot of night matches there and it's just something you look forward to."  read more »

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