As if he was still convulsed by the two party balls that separated him from conquering his ninth Wimbledon and twenty-first Grand Slam title, Roger Federer suffers in every game of this United States Open. Five-time champion of a tournament that won for the last time in 2008, the Swiss again left a set, this time against Damir Dzumhur, 99th in the world, before winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and 6- 4, in two hours and 21 minutes.

After the traumatic defeat with Djokovic in the All England Club, the world number three fell in the eighth of Cincinnati against Andrey Rublev and let out a partial in the New York debut against the Indian Sumit Nagal, from the previous phase. The start of his match yesterday against Dzumhur generated stupor among the audience of Arthur Ashe, who saw him commit nine unforced errors in the first three games and see himself very soon 4-0 down on the scoreboard.

He was a sad, dull, slow, unrecognizable Federer, to the grief of his wife Mirka and his coaches, Ivan Ljubicic and Severin Lüthi, who did not give credit to what was happening from the rostrum. After giving up the first set, he raised an adverse break ball in the initial game of the second. Then, based on the impulses of a player of his talent, rather than a solid proposal, he managed to reverse the situation and carry out a game that, however, emboldened Dzumhur, did not feel out until the last ball.

Soon at a disadvantage in each of the last three sets, Bosnian was a constant concern for Federer, who found it hard to endorse the breaks. He managed to create up to a total of 10 'break' balls, but only converted two. The 58 winning shots of the Basel player prevailed, for only 26 of his rival. Kei Nishikori, who won Bradley Klahn, and Grigor Dimitrov, for lack of Borna Coric, also surpassed the round.

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  • Roger Federer
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