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The hangover of Wimbledon?
It was hard not to wonder after seeing Roger Federer leave the court to get his back treated before losing for the first time against Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday night.
This unexpected scene at the Arthur Ashe stadium occurred 48 hours after Novak Djokovic gritted his teeth and retired from his fourth round match while he was standing behind Stan Wawrinka due to A problem in the left shoulder.
Federer received a series of extended applause during the defeat; Djokovic has unfortunately been mistreated by fans who should have remembered all the courage he has shown in recent years.
But the common thread of their two losses was the Wimbledon Grand Final in July. It was the game of the year and one of the games of this golden age: a test of concentration on grassy ground that sizzled the meditation before turning into a thriller since Djokovic has saved – or Federer blew two match points, and Djokovic then defeated a tiebreaker for the fifth set in his last 12 games.
But there will be no revenge in New York, which now has a difficult task to follow without the same distribution.
Maintaining excellence and health throughout a tennis season remains a daunting challenge, and although Federer today has 38 years and plays for the juice, he is actually in a deficit in New York for more than a decade.
Clay is perhaps his weakest surface, but he won his only title at the French Open more recently (in 2009) than he won the United States Open, where his five wins were won between 2004 and 2008 .
Since then, he has reached two finals here: defeats in five sets against Juan Martin del Potro in 2009 and four sets against Djokovic in 2015, another occasion where the crowd of Ashe Stadium has become mean with Djokovic.
Since then, Federer has not surpassed the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows despite all his success on the hard circuits in Melbourne, Cincinnati and other parts of the world.
It's like it's lacking air and inspiration here even though the public is doing their best to be his muse.
"I think hard-haul is more difficult for him more ahead of the year," said Paul Annacone, former Federer coach, in an interview last week. "It's hard to be cool because of the cumulative effect. It's his age and the fact that it's three out of five sets, and that nine months have passed since the start of the season. All this stuff plays there.
"I also think the courts have not been very fast in recent years, so it gives him more work. They speed up during the tournament, but they are serious and spinning. The nicer they are, the better they are for Roger.
But they were fast enough for Federer to blow up David Goffin, 15th seed, a player capable of handling a torrid pace, with only four defeats in the fourth round.
Federer seemed to be gaining momentum for the run, but the American Open has long been a source of unpleasant surprises.
There was also the brilliant winner of the forehand return of Djokovic, who saved the match point in the semifinals of 2011.
"Losing against someone like that, it 's very disappointing because one has the impression that he was already mentally out of there," said Federer in a moment that does not help. was not one of his best moments after the match. "Just get the stroke of luck in the end, and it's gone."
Last year, the wet and unexpected climate at Ashe Stadium changed his image as a man who did not sweat during the fourth round collapse against the 55th-ranked Australian veteran John Millman.
"It may come from one of the wettest places on the planet, Brisbane," Federer told Millman. "I knew I was in it. I was just happy that the match was over. "
Tuesday was the back: a recurring weak point that Federer has to manage for more than a decade. Federer acknowledged that something was wrong in his back when he was preparing to face Dimitrov. But Federer was still functional enough to win two of the first three sets and threatened to win in the fourth, while maintaining a near-average service speed of his tournaments.
But Dimitrov was determined to prolong exchanges and games to physically push Federer. He succeeded and Federer collapsed after leaving the field for treatment, after losing the first four games of the fifth set, then the match, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
"I've tried a lot of things, but I would have done the same thing, whether I'm hurt or not," Federer said, pointing out that he sometimes played too far from the basics.
"This is Grigor's moment, not my body's moment," he said.
If you can blame Djokovic, it's that his decision to retire at mid-match has ensured that it was his body's moment more than Wawrinka's.
But Djokovic, 32 years old and back in the forefront, has suffered too much from elbow pain for too long: this has contributed to the fall that made him fall from the top of the game in 2016 and 2017 before that. he finally decides to have surgery in early 2018.
Federer has not retired from a match of his professional career: one of the most outstanding statistics in the sport. His last retirement was in his youth.
But he retired at professional tournaments, most recently at the Italian Open this season. He, too, understands how important it is to think long-term, and no one in men's football has been so successful for so long since Ken Rosewall won major titles in his late thirties or early twenties. 1970.
Federer intends to continue. He indicated that he would stick to his calendar plans for the remainder of 2019, including the Laver Cup in Geneva later this month, then that he would be traveling again to Australia in January.
But it's harder and harder to imagine him hoisting another trophy in the US, and to think that he and Rafael Nadal will extend their rivalry to the only Grand Slam tournament they have ever played.
General admission tickets for their charity match on February 7th at the 55,000-seat Cape Town Stadium in South Africa, sold out on Wednesday. But New York fans are still waiting.
It seemed like it was finally the year until Dimitrov, ranked 78th but so much more talented, finally managed to summon the chutzpah to defeat the champion who inspired and shaped his elegant style. and resolutely short.
Nadal, the last of the Big Three still present at this Open, will have to content himself with running 19th singles title, which would reduce the gap with Federer's record.
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