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Robredo knocks out Federer as Nadal stays hot
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The long awaited, first-ever US Open matchup between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will have to wait at least another year after the Swiss star was bundled out in an upset, fourth-round loss on Monday in New York.
Nadal kept up his end of the bargain, maintaining his undefeated record of 19 matches on hard courts this year to return to the quarterfinals. The second-seed, who won the 2010 US Open, came back to dismiss 22nd-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.
But Federer didn’t deliver. And he sounded unusually despondent after his surprisingly straightforward 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4 loss to 19th-seeded Tommy Robredo.
“Confidence ... takes care of all the things you don’t usually think about,” Federer said. “But I just think it’s been a difficult last three months, you know. Maybe ... my consistency is just not quite there.”
This caps a poor — by-his-standards — Grand Slam season for Federer, whose record collection of 17 major trophies includes five in a row at the US Open from 2004-08.
This is the first season since 2002 that Federer did not reach at least one final at any of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Federer was critical of his own play against Robredo, against whom he’d been 10-0.
“I struggled throughout, which is not very satisfying, to be honest,” Federer said. “I kind of feel like I beat myself.”
No. 4 David Ferrer of Spain also reached the quarterfinals. He dispatched No. 18 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3). Ferrer will next play No. 8 Richard Gasquet, who erased a match point and withstood 39 aces from No. 10 Milos Raonic of Canada to win 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (9), 7-5 in an epic encounter that lasted 4 hours and 40 minutes.
Raonic hit a staggering 102 winners but paid the price for coughing up unforced errors, more than twice as many as Gasquet.
“I had to stay patient,” said Gasquet. “I took a lot of aces today.
“I got lucky in the fourth set tiebreaker when I saved a match point, then I played an incredible fifth set.”
Through four matches in New York, Nadal has not lost a single service game. That’s 56 consecutive holds.
Against Kohlschreiber, he faced only one break point, in the opening game of the fourth set. But Kohlschreiber threw away that chance by badly missing what should have been a routine overhead, drilling the ball into the net.
“I was very lucky that Philipp had a big mistake with his smash,” Nadal said. “That’s why I didn’t lose my serve.”
Nadal was not pleased with the way he served early in the match, but said it improved as the match progressed.
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