‘Surreal’ year for Federer could improve at US Open
NEW YORK — Even Roger Federer finds it all a little surprising.
After going 4 ½ years without collecting a major championship, now firmly in his mid-30s, he heads into Monday’s start of the U.S. Open with a chance to win his third such trophy of 2017.
“I mean, I have a hard time thinking I could win three Slams in one year. It just sounds totally surreal to me,” Federer said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I’ll prepare myself the best way possible, so that I will have the best chance to really excel there in New York.”
Yes, Federer is most certainly back. All the way back. He’s back in the field at Flushing Meadows after sitting out the hard-court tournament a year ago while taking off the last half of the season to let his surgically repaired left knee heal. And he’s back in the role of Grand Slam title favorite after winning the past two majors he entered, the Australian Open in January and Wimbledon in July.
Is he playing as well as — or perhaps better than — ever?
“I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. It doesn’t really matter to me. I would hope that I’m a better player today, just (by) virtue of time that’s gone by and I’ve had time to practice and train and all that stuff,” he said with a sigh. “But better? In a way I would hope so.”
Federer turned 36 on Aug. 8, making him older than all but two men to have ever won the most important tennis tournament held in the United States, an event first held in 1881.
He will be facing a depleted draw in New York as he seeks his first title there in nearly a decade.
Three of the top five players in the ATP rankings have withdrawn from the U.S. Open with injuries.
The day before claiming his eighth Wimbledon championship and 19th at a major overall — both records for a man — Federer sat down with Luthi to discuss preparation for the U.S. Open.
Yes, time marches on, even for Federer, although it doesn’t really seem as if that’s the case at the moment.
“He’s been playing amazing tennis,” said 20-year-old Alexander Zverev, considered the sport’s “Next Big Thing.”
“He pretty much won every single big tournament he played this year,” added Zverev, who defeated Federer in the hard-court final at Montreal this month. Murray withdraws
His voice choking, Andy Murray unexpectedly announced Saturday that he was withdrawing from the U.S. Open because of a hip injury, adding to the lengthy list of top players who will miss the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.
Murray was seeded No. 2 at Flushing Meadows.
“Did pretty much everything that I could to get myself ready here and took a number of weeks off after Wimbledon. I obviously spoke to a lot of hip specialists. Tried obviously resting, rehabbing, to try and get myself ready here,” said Murray, who won the 2012 U.S. Open for the first of his three major championships.
“Was actually practicing OK the last few days,” he added, “but it’s too sore for me to win the tournament. And ultimately, that’s what I was here to try and do.”
Murray, who yielded the No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal this week, has not played a match since July 12 at Wimbledon, where he was the defending champion and clearly was hampered by his hip during a five-set quarterfinal loss to Sam Querrey.