Grandmaster Federer is still king of Queens
NEW YORK - From here on, his biggest rival in this town is a spectre in white flannels. Roger Federer has conquered all comers in this paved-over corner of Queens for the fourth straight time, and now the man to beat is Big Bill Tilden, who won six straight US tennis titles in the grass-stained Twenties.
"For me, Wimbledon obviously is always going to be No. 1," the world's best player said yesterday evening, after he'd squeezed past Serbian slugger Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 for the Open crown and a $2.4 million paycheck (including a $1 million bonus for finishing first in the US Open Series standings based on performances at recent hard-court tourneys). "But New York definitely has grown on me the last few years."
It was the 12th major title for the 26-year-old Federer, who also won the Australian and Wimbledon crowns this year, and it left him only two shy of Pete Sampras, who won 14, five of them here in a 13-tournament span. "To come so close already at my age is fantastic," he said, "and I really hope to break it."
This might have been Federer's most impressive Open victory, given how nimbly he walked the high wire for nearly 2 1/2 hours. The champ survived five set points after going down 0-40 on Djokovic's serve at 5-6 in the opener. He withstood two more on his serve at 5-6 in the second. Then he had to come from 0-40 to hold at 2-all in the third.
"Straight sets is a bit brutal for Novak, to be honest," conceded Federer, who hadn't managed it in an Open final since his 2004 victory over Lleyton Hewitt. "He deserved better than that."
But for 10 crucial points, the third-seeded Djokovic could have won in straights himself. But Federer prevailed on all of them, as he usually does when championships are on the line.
"We've seen it many times, it's played on one point," said Federer. "Who takes the right decisions, who doesn't make the big mistakes on big points. He did today and it cost him the match."
This was Federer's 10th straight major final, his 14th in all. It was Djokovic's first. Yesterday was about experience and all of the competitive qualities that come with it - confidence, poise, cunning, boldness, resilience.
"He knows what it feels like to be in that kind of situation," conceded the 20-year-old Djokovic, the youngest finalist here since Sampras won in 1990. "He knows how to cope with the pressure. For me, this is something new."
Still, this had been far from an easy fortnight for Federer. He dropped opening sets to wild card John Isner and 60th-ranked Feliciano Lopez. He needed to sweat out consecutive tiebreakers to beat Andy Roddick in the quarters and a couple of 7-5 sets to hold off Nikolay Davydenko in the semis. "The other guys missed their chances, you know?" Federer said.
Even before he took the court yesterday, he'd felt the weight of history, the squeeze of expectation. "Upset stomach the last few days, nerves, shaking, cold hands before the match - I've had it all," confessed Federer, who'd lost to Djokovic in their last meeting in Montreal last month.
Yet when he most needed to be steady, to be focused, to be patient, Federer was. After the Serb had broken him to serve for the first set at 6-5, Federer settled down, settled in and watched Djokovic hit balls long, then double fault to lose the game.
It was an eerie reversal of the opener of their Montreal match, when Djokovic fought off six set points at 5-6 and went on to win the tiebreaker. "That game was really bad for me," said Djokovic, who double-faulted again to lose the first tiebreaker. "I was rushing a lot. I didn't calm down."
Federer, who has the game's most effective antiperspirant, was unflappable throughout. After going down 1-4 in the second, he held serve with an ace (one of 11) amid a run of 10 straight points that brought him level at 4-all. Then he eluded two more set points at 5-6 and won the second tiebreaker without allowing Djokovic to put a ball in play on his serve. "My next book is going to be called '7 Set Points,' " the Serb joked.
Had his forehand on the final one not missed the baseline by a millimeter, Djokovic might have turned the day around. "Anything could happen," he mused. "It could go either way, you know."
But the game, the set, the match, the tournament went Federer's way, as it has four straight times now, just as it has at Wimbledon, where he's won the last five. Nobody else has ever done that. "To have won those two the most times [back-to-back]," Federer said, "it's just incredible for me."
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.
