Though Federer Survives 2nd 5-Set Match, His Play Invites Questions

Federer again said his back was not hurting him, blaming a lack of preparation leading up to the tournament for his spotty play, which is casting some doubt on his pre-tournament status as a favorite here.

“I knew I was going to maybe struggle early on,” he said. “Maybe I struggled more than I would have liked to. But I’m still in the draw, which gives me a chance.”

In his 19 years of playing Grand Slam events, Federer has won 323 matches and 19 titles mostly through skill, but also sometimes through effort, intelligence, drive, and experience. He has also had his share of luck along the way.

To wit: Youzhny’s cramping, which did not necessarily come out of the blue. Because of rain on Tuesday, Youzhny’s first-round match against Blaz Kavcic was pushed to Wednesday, and Youzhny needed 3 hours 6 minutes to win. Federer, meanwhile, had a relaxing day practicing in Central Park on Wednesday because he had the good fortune to play under the roof on Tuesday.

“I am not a god,” Youzhny said. “I cannot control the weather.”

But he was controlling the match after the first set as Federer’s level of play dipped. Federer’s only loss in the second round of a Grand Slam event was at the hands of Sergiy Stakhovsky, in four sets at Wimbledon in 2013. A loss on Thursday would have been just as shocking because, even though Youzhny is a talented veteran known for his toughness and grit, this was supposed to be the summer of Federer.

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After capturing the Australian Open in January, he won Wimbledon without dropping a set and is 16-0 in Grand Slam matches this year. But he has already had to play 10 sets and spent 5 hours 45 minutes on court in the Open.

Youzhny won the second set in a tiebreaker and all but breezed through the third. But in the fourth, he began to cramp. He said it was his legs first, then even his hands. “Just everywhere,” he said.

He was limping at times, falling on the court, and he said he could not jump into his serve. That resulted in some first serves that reached only 85 miles per hour.

At one point Youzhny called for a trainer, but the rules prevent medical staffers from treating cramps.

“Even if I am going to die, he cannot do anything,” Youzhny said with a laugh. “Just say, ‘Bye-bye.’”

But for a while it was Federer who appeared to be the one on his way to bidding adieu to the Open. One of the most precise players in history, he went from dominating the first set to hitting shots well wide of the mark and hitting weak backhand shots. Even his serve, which Federer has long relied on when other things fail him, lacked force.

He hit 68 unforced errors and only 63 winners, a very un-Federer-like ratio. He also had only two aces against a player who was struggling with his movement in the final three sets. Youzhny broke Federer’s serve four times.

“If you get broken once or twice a set, it’s hard to win those sets consistently,” Federer said. “That’s what I was doing so well through Wimbledon, through other tournaments where I just protected my serve at will, and always in a nice way.”

Federer may need to get back to that form against his next opponent, the Spaniard Feliciano López, even if he is 12-0 against him. But he has already established two dubious new personal marks: This is the first time Federer has opened a major tournament with two five-set matches, and the first time at this event that he has played consecutive five-setters.

Despite all the flaws, another, more desirable first remains in play: Federer has never played Rafael Nadal, the top seed here, at the U.S. Open. But if they keep winning, they will meet in a semifinal. Nadal did his part on Thursday, fending off a surprisingly stiff challenge from 20-year-old Taro Daniel for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory in the final match of the night in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Still, there is a long way to go before that marquee matchup can happen.

On the final point Thursday, Youzhny was so impaired that he hit the ball with the frame of his racket. The ball sailed high and Federer slammed it home to end the match, fortunate to be the one raising his arms in victory.

For Youzhny, the only slim consolation was that for the first time, he won two sets from Federer.

“If it was best-of-three,” he said, again laughing. “I would have beaten him.”

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