Roger Federer cruises into 4th round after slow start at U.S. Open

Roger Federer overcame a slow start and a heavy thunderstorm to produce some of his best tennis of this US Open as Marcel Granollers was dispatched 4-6 6-1 6-1 6-1 in the third round.


The world No.3 responded to his first dropped set of the tournament with a nine-game streak that swung the momentum firmly in his favour, wrapping up the match in one hour, 58 minutes to set up a last-16 clash with Roberto Bautista Agut, who beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5 6-2 6-3.


Less than an hour after Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova had taken a 10-minute heat rule break during their fourth-round encounter, the No.2 seed and his Spanish opponent were ushered from the Arthur Ashe Stadium court as tournament officials called for the stadium to be evacuated with lightning in the area.


Mentally, Federer had barely left the locker room by then. Granollers claimed the first 10 points of the match to open up a 4-1 lead inside 15 minutes before play was suspended with the world No.42 leading 5-2 in the first.


With flash flood warnings in place, the USTA cancelled the day session but juggled the night session schedule to get the match back on Ashe. Federer broke back when play resumed after the two-hour break, but Granollers broke once more with a pair of backhand passes to grab the first set.


As he had before the delay, Granollers committed himself to taking time away from Federer, refusing to take a backward step from the baseline and venturing forward when possible. The strategy had caught Federer cold in the first set but the five-time US Open champion was all too aware from thereon out.


What had been a compelling game of cat and mouse was rapidly reduced to a duck hunt; from 0-1 in the second set, Federer claimed 18 of the next 20 games and hit 57 winners in total from all corners of the court.

Asked about dealing with the delay, widely expected at the start of the day's action, Federer said: "You don't know what's going to happen. The conditions changed a lot, it was windy and quick and when we came back it was humid.


"Marcel started really on fire," Federer conceded. "The break helped me, and I came out and played some great tennis."

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Well it was not an ideal start losing the 1st set, but he certainly made up for it in the 3 sets that followed.


I think he still has some slight issues with transitioning from day to night.


As soon as the day match turned into night, it seemed to almost wake him up and he went on a rampage.


Let's hope his next one is a nice and simple straight set win (especially given what happened last year). No more drama please Rog.