NEW YORK—With his third-round match scheduled for Saturday afternoon, Roger Federer decided to go to bed during the fourth set of the Rafael Nadal-Fabio Fognini third-round match, which began on Friday night and ended at 1:26 a.m.
Federer returned from a Broadway show to find Nadal seemingly in control of the match.
"I came back and saw some of the third and then the break in the fourth. So I came I think when Nadal had just broken to go up 3-1 in the third maybe. I didn't see that much," he said. "When I went to bed clearly thought Rafa was going to bring it home and that was it. Then I heard the news when I woke up."
The No. 2 was of two minds about whether it was the right decision. "I didn't expect it to be this thrilling, but that would have been bad preparation for my match today. So sometimes you have to take those decisions, you know," he added.
"Yeah, tough for Rafa, but what a great win for Fabio, you know. He's a great shot maker."
Federer won his match over Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets.