Djokovic Retires, Federer In Full Flight At US Open; Nadal v Cilic Mon.
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Roger Federer was nothing short of ruthless Sunday at the US Open. Playing his second straight match on Ashe at noon, Federer destroyed Cincinnati finalist David Goffin 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in his 79 minutes. The win came after the Swiss whipped Dan Evans 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 on Friday.
“Sometimes these scores just happen,” Federer said. “You catch a good day, the opponent doesn’t, then things happen very quickly. Maybe he struggled a bit early on. But I found my groove after a while and was able to roll really. Never looked back. David wasn’t nearly as good as I expected him to be. He was struggling a little bit today. I was able to take advantage of it, and I think that’s the key.
“In a fourth round like this, if you can keep it nice, short, simple, you have to take them. I’m very happy.”
Goffin actually led by a break at the start of the 2-0.
“I started with a break. But, you know, I was not feeling that great. He gave me the break,” Goffin said. “It’s tough because against him you don’t know why you miss easy shots. You have 20% of first serve. You don’t know why you missing everything, easy balls. All of a sudden he’s playing well. As soon as he’s ahead, he has a set, then another set, then it’s getting tough.”
The 38-year-old Federer advanced to his 56th career Slam quarterfinal. Up next will be Grigor Dimitrov who dismissed Australian Alex De Minaur 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
Federer has won all seven meetings with the Bulgarian.
“I’ve done well against him in the past,” Dimitrov said. “But new match, new Grigor, new me again. I don’t know where we’re going to be, if it’s day or night, all that stuff.
“But I like watching him. I like playing against him. Of course, when we play, it’s as close as it gets to being a similar playing style. I think for both of us it’s cool to play one another.”
Daniil Medvedev kept pace coming from a set down to deny qualifier Dominik Koepfer 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(2). After the win, Medvedev again thankfully mocked the crowd for rooting against him.
“Talking about last match, I was an idiot, to be honest,” Medvedev admitted. “I did some things that I’m not proud of and that I’m working on to be a better person on the court because I do think I’m a good person out of the court.
“Talking about today, I think, I mean, I was just, during my match I was completely focused. After the match, I engaged a little bit with the crowd. But we all know how New York crowd can be. It’s probably the most electric crowd in the world, I think.
“Especially, I mean, playing this week on big courts, I could feel it. Today I was just engaging with the crowd and hopefully — hopefully it was fun for them and for me. As I said, it gave me a lot of energy to win.”
The Russian who is now 18-2 this summer will head into his first Slam quarterfinal against 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka who advanced when Novak Djokovic retired down 6-4, 7-5, 2-1 due to continued issues with his left shoulder.
Djokovic led 4-1 in the second and seem to have found his mark after a poor opener, but Stan upped the level, stole the set and with a break lead, Djokovic, who had earlier treatment on the shoulder, had had enough. A chorus of boos erupted as Djokovic left the court.
“I’m sorry for the crowd,” Djokovic said. “Obviously they came to see a full match, and just wasn’t to be. That’s all it is. I mean, a lot of people didn’t know what’s happening, so you cannot blame them. It is what it is.
“The pain was constant for weeks now. Somedays higher, some days with less intensity and obviously taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t.”
On tap Monday, the hot Rafael Nadal looks to return to the quarterfinals against 2014 champion Marin Cilic. Nadal beat Cilic last summer in three after Cilic won by a retirement in the fifth in Australia.
Alexander Zverev and Diego Schwartzman will bid for a spot in their third Slam quarter. And Gael Monfils and Andrey Rublev are a set for a quarterfinal collision.
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