Federer gave fans something to cheer for in US Open win over Nishioka

Court Report: Roger Federer gives a master class at the year's final major

NEW YORK—Roger Federer has said that the fans at the US Open tend to “sit there,” until you can do something to pique their interest. But once you have that interest, you’ve got them for the rest of the match.

Was Federer thinking of a way to grab the distractible New York crowd’s attention as quickly as possible on Tuesday night? It certainly looked like it when he fired two down-the-line backhands from far back in the court in the opening game. That’s not a shot Federer tries lightly, but the second one rocketed past his opponent, Yoshihito Nishioka, for a winner. The crowd perked up immediately, and Federer was on his way.

Not that he needed much help in this first-round match. The 22-year-old Nishioka, who had moved up to No. 58 in the rankings last spring when a knee injury ended his season, is a talented shot-maker who never found a way to show off those talents to the night-session crowd in Ashe. Whether it was the stage, or the opponent, or a little of both, Nishioka, who at 5’7” gives up eight inches to Federer, was on his heels for virtually the entire night.

Anita Aguilar

Federer put him there by playing even farther up in the court than normal; he started rallies on top of the baseline and moved in from there. In the early going, Federer controlled the points with heavy topspin forehands, and then followed them forward; he finished 31 of 45 at the net, and won 12 of 18 serve-and-volley points. Instead of countering with pace and angles of his own—which he has the ability to do—Nishioka served up high-bouncing mid-court balls that sat up in Federer’s strike zone.

It was tennis’ version of batting practice. Approach shots, drop shots, outright winners: Federer had his choice. By the end of the second set, he had entered the exo zone. Up 6-2, 5-1, Federer flipped a forehand crosscourt pass for a winner, flipped a backhand volley in the opposite direction for a winner, and capped his artful shot-making spree by tapping a volley as lightly as humanly possible, for yet another winner. At the end of the second set, Federer had hit 40 winners to Nishioka’s six, and had won 40 of his 69 points with winners.

What’s the highest winner-to-winning-point ratio in history? Whatever it is, Federer appeared to be on the way to challenging it, until he lost concentration and staggered a little down the stretch. Up 5-1 in the third set, he finally held at 5-4 for a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win in an hour and 52 minutes. Mostly with brilliance, and then with a little drama-producing sloppiness, Federer kept the New Yorkers’ interest the whole way. I’m guessing they’ll be just as interested in his next matchup, with Benoit Paire.

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