I don’t get special treatment
A DAY featuring little in the way of upsets at the US Open, it was Roger Federer who provided arguably the smallest amount of drama with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 win over Dan Evans.
Federer looked like his usual dominant self, serving up 10 aces, winning the majority of Evans’ service points and emerging victorious in less than an hour and a half.
One of the reasons the match was so noncompetitive might have been the fact that Evans had played the previous day due to a rainout, then had to go out and play the Roger freaking Federer in the morning. Following the match, Evans had some interesting words about the scheduling of the match.
“Just to try and beat him feeling tired, stiff, playing four sets yesterday, it’s near on impossible,” Evans said. “You think a guy who’s my ranking has any say in that? There is probably about four people in this tournament who has a say when they play. Maybe three.”
When asked about the scheduling of the match, Federer seemed to take exception to the idea that US Open officials deliberately gave him a favorable time slot.
I don’t remember that I asked for something. Yeah, yeah. It’s maybe nice to be out of the sun, as well, I don’t know, I thought. But I definitely didn’t do it intentionally. I don’t even know if the team asked for day. I know there was questions to have a preference.
But that doesn’t mean like, “Roger asks, Roger gets.” Just remember that, because I have heard this s--- too often now. I’m sick and tired of it, that apparently I call the shots. The tournament and the TV stations do.
We can give our
That’s what we do. But I’m still going to walk out even if they schedule me at 4:00 in the morning.
Federer is not wrong in that he’s heard this kind of stuff before. He’s been tennis royalty for the last decade and a half, it just comes with the territory.
Even another one of tennis’ greatest players had a complaint when Rafael Nadal questioned the Wimbledon seeding system that put him behind Federer this year. Federer ended up beating Nadal in the semifinals of that tournament.
Meanwhile, the earlymatch issues that plagued Federer in the first two rounds seem to be a thing of the past. The No. 3 seed appeared to be completely comfortable in his Round 3 match against Daniel Evans, beating him 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in just one hour and 19 minutes.
Federer wasn’t able to pinpoint why he was able to start quickly on Friday as opposed to his matches on Wednesday and Monday, when he dropped the first set both times. He granted that the warm, less breezy weather may have had something to do with it, or perhaps that the courts are playing faster. Regardless of why, he likely hopes the same conditions will appear when he faces his opponent in Round 4.