Wonder shot that left Roger’s Aussie opponent awe-struck
NEWYORK: The most pivotal part of Roger Federer’s win over Nick Kyrgios, both men agreed, came all of 17 minutes in, when the 20-time major champion was serving at 3-all, love-40 and got out of the jam.
The most spectacular part? That came, anyone who saw it surely would agree, much later. It was the on-a-full-sprint, dropshot-retrieving, flick-from-afew-inches-off-the-ground, forehand-around-the-net-post, jawdropping winner that Federer conjured up a few games from the conclusion of the match.
“Almost unreal,” said Kyrgios, who admired the bit of racket wizardry with eyes wide open and mouth agape.
“A special one, no doubt about it,” declared Federer himself.
There is no rule mandating that the ball travel over the net for a shot to count, but Federer said that this was not the sort of thing he would try in practice.
A LITTLE COMPULSIVE
John Millman, who will face Federer for a place in the quarter-finals, admitted he was a handful for his parents when he was growing up in Brisbane.
“When I was 12, I was crazy. I think I was super, super OCD, and I tried to kind of wipe that away. I don’t want to go back to when I was a little kid. I was really in my head back then. I was probably embarrassing my mum and dad and sisters too much, and they kind of stamped that out,” said the Australian.
FEELING TALL
Dominika Cibulkova, who measures up at 5ft 3ins (1.60m), has found a soulmate in tennis’s land of the giants in men’s player Diego Schwartzman who is just 5ft 7ins (1.70m).
“I respect him a lot, because for me, it’s very challenging to play the best tennis against all these tall girls. On the men’s side, I cannot even think about returning John Isner (6ft 10in/2.08m) or Kevin Anderson (6ft 8ins/2.03m) or somebody like this. He has my respect,” said the Slovakian, who beat Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber.