NEW YORK—On a brutally hot day, it may not be factually true that Roger Federer didn’t break a sweat during his 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Fernando Verdasco. But the five-time U.S .Open champion didn’t have to venture very far from the epicenter of his comfort zone as he strolled into the fourth round.
Federer has beaten Verdasco in each of their four previous meetings, although the Spaniard did manage to take a set last time. That was back in 2009, however, the year that Verdasco reached his so far unmatched peak of relevance, and the Spaniard never looked like repeating that feat today.
The tactics for both men were pretty clear from the beginning, each aiming to pummel the other one’s backhand to elicit the error, but Federer enjoyed a clear advantage: He was happy, even eager, to play long, solid rallies, in the faith that his opponent would sooner or later commit an unforced error. It was a faith that was amply and frequently justified. Verdasco hung in well for the first six games of the first set, saving a break point to do so, but at 3-4 down he put himself in trouble with the second of 10 double faults for the match, then missed a passing shot as Federer closed down the net (another recurring theme). Verdasco gave up two forehand errors under sustained pressure and Federer broke, serving the first set out to love.
It didn’t get any better from Verdasco from there, and it was hard to see how it could as long as he: continued to double-fault; put shots into the net with a fair amount of frequency; was unable to make a passing or even testing shot with Federer at net; and was the first to make an error in every long rally—all of which featured in the game which saw him broken to start the second set.
Verdasco kept it to a single break in both the second and third sets despite several opportunities for Federer to push on. This was partly due to strong serving from Verdasco (when he wasn’t double-faulting), and partly to a general sense that Federer wasn’t willing to go all out in such brutal conditions, not when he was winning quite easily at less than full intensity. Verdasco started to make better use of his cross-court backhand to work his way inside the court in the second set, earning a break point at 3-2 in the with some strong forehands and some poor errors from Federer. But the Spaniard blasted his forehand wide in a genuinely unforced error to end a 20-stroke rally, and he did not see that kind of opportunity again.
As the match went on, Federer was increasingly picking Verdasco off seemingly at will, breaking at 1-1 in the third and ending the match soon afterwards with one of its rare highlight-reel-worthy moments, a sharply-angled high backhand volley off a Verdasco lob.
