Dimitrov stuns tired Federer
Betrayed by his forehand, and maybe his body, too, Roger Federer is out of the US Open.
Federer gave away a lead against someone he’d never lost to and was beaten 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 by 78thranked Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals before a stunned crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday.
“He started slowing down a little bit,” Dimitrov said. “For sure, in the end, he was not 100 per cent of himself.”
Chasing a 21st Grand Slam title, and sixth at Flushing Meadows, the 38-year-old Federer took a rare-forhim medical timeout after the fourth set, leaving the court with a trainer. It was not immediately clear what might have been wrong with Federer, although he did appear to be flexing his back after some points.
When play resumed after a break of nearly 10 minutes, Federer’s form never picked up.
He kept contributing to Dimitrov’s cause, missing shots this way and that, long or wide or into the net.
The stats were staggering and showed exactly how off Federer was: 61 unforced errors, 33 on the forehand side. Compare that to his 40 total winners.
Federer had been 7-0 against Dimitrov, taking 16 of their previous 18 sets.
And Federer could have become the oldest man to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Jimmy Connors was 39 in 1991 at the US Open. He could have claimed a berth in his record 56th career major semifinal.
Instead, it is Dimitrov who will participate in a Slam final four for the third time, facing No 5 seed Daniil Medvedev on Saturday.
Medvedev has drawn plenty of attention at Flushing Meadows for the way he sarcastically thanked booing crowds, trolling them by suggesting their venom was why he kept winning.
Now maybe they will pay more attention to the 23-year-old Russian’s unusual brand of shape-shifting tennis, which carried him past three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 despite 12 double-faults and a body that’s just short of breaking down.
Dimitrov has struggled for much of 2019, failing to even get to a quarterfinal anywhere since the first week of the season. And it’s been nearly 11⁄2 years since Dimitrov reached a semifinal at any tour-level event, let alone a major.
His Grand Slam results have been trending in the wrong direction, too: from a loss in the fourth round at the Australian Open to the third round at the French Open to the first round
at Wimbledon. So his ranking, as high as No 3 a couple of years ago, is nowhere near that now. His coaches, Andre Agassi and Radek Stepanek, aren’t anywhere near Flushing Meadows, either.
They opted to stay away from the tournament. Asked why, Dimitrov hemmed and hawed. It’s certainly working so far.
The last quarter-finals are today: Rafael Nadal v No 20 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, and No 13 Gael Monfils, of France, v No 24 Matteo Berrettini, of Italy.
One thing that could benefit Medvedev is that both men’s semifinals are Saturday, so he gets two full days to recuperate before he needs to play again.