The last couple months many critics have been dropping bombs on World No. 2 Roger Federer (pictured), saying he might never win a grand slam title again. They were completely wrong about that. The 27-year-old defeated Scotland’s Andy Murray, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, to win his 5th straight US Open title and 13th grand slam title overall. The win marked his 34th straight victory in Flushing Meadows and earned him a place in history as the only man to win five successive grand slam titles at two different slams (US Open and Wimbledon).Federer came out firing as his younger and less experienced opponent showed signs of nervousness and fatigue. Entering the match with a 12-4 record in Grand Slam finals, Federer was able to smash 36 winners, including three aces, while the 21-year-old Scot managed to hit only 16 winners. Federer broke Murray’s serve on seven occasions, while Murray only broke serve twice, one coming at 5-1 in the final set. Federer’s finals experience was shown as he moved towards the net 44 times and won points there 31 times.
The only time in the match where Murray gave Federer and his fans a scare was at 6-2, 2-0. Murray went on to win 11 of the next 12 points to even things at 2-2 and was up 0-40 on Federer’s serve before the No. 2 seed turned things up a notch. After saving the first break point, Murray missed a backhand that appeared good, but TV replays confirmed that earlier in the rally one of Federer’s shots was hit long. Murray did not stop the point to challenge and Murray eventually lost the game to go down 3-2.
"That was key," said Federer, the first male player since Bill Tilden in the 1920’s to win five straight US Open titles. "After that, I began to play freely, the way I usually do."
After losing that long game, everything continued to go down hill for Murray, a three-time singles champion on tour in 2008. In the next game, Murray seemed to aggravate his knee, but managed to continue fighting. Federer eventually won the second set and got out to a commanding 5-0 lead in the third set before getting broken at 5-1. Federer quickly got his focus back when leading 5-2 and was able to break Murray and win the match when Murray missed a shot into the net on Federer’s second championship point. Federer fell to the ground in excitement, a tradition for him upon winning a tournament.
"One thing's for sure," Federer said in an on-court interview. "I'm not going to stop at 13. That would be terrible."
The victory was Federer’s third title of the season, with his first two coming on red clay and grass. With the victory, Federer keeps his streak alive of winning at least one grand slam title for six straight years.
Murray—the new No. 4 ranked player—will earn his biggest pay check with his finals appearance, which made him just the third British player to make a grand slam final in the Open Era – Greg Rusedski and John Lloyd being the others.
Federer’s win today happened on the same day that legend Pete Sampras beat Andre Agassi in four sets to win his 5th US Open and 14th overall career Grand Slam in what was ultimately his final ATP match. Federer has now won 13 Grand Slam titles in just 38 career Slam events, five fewer than it took Sampras to win No. 13.
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2 comments:
omg federer was back at his best.
He played amazing and I'm so happy he got one grandslam win this year. Hopefully this will give him the confidence to have a good end of season!
Roger Federer put his name back on the tennis winner's map after yesterday's US Open victory. It showed the tennis world that he still has the desire to win tournaments. Despite many media critics saying he wasn't hungray enough anymore to win titles like he had been doing for the last 4 years, this shows everyone that the 27-year-old still has plenty of great tennis left in him.
This win should definitely give him a lot of confidence going into the four fall tournaments he is entered in, as well as the Masters Series events and year-end championship.
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