Roger Federer has reached the second round of the 2018 US Open: The second seeded Swiss defeated Nick Kyrgios 6-4, 6-1 and 7-5 and will meet his Australian compatriot John Millman on Monday.
By Jens Huiber from New York City
Brad Gilbert takes over the on-court analysis during the matches and the interviews afterwards for the broadcasting US-American TV channel ESPN. Andre Agassi’s ex-coach is also constantly available on Twitter. Gilbert, like most aficionados, had expected Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios’ match to be on air at prime time.
A classic night session, actually. Alone: The start of the season in college football seemed much more attractive to ESPN. But Federer versus Kyrgios this afternoon? Why not. And for the five-time champion, the fans also go where it hurts: In contrast to most matches with the roof open, the top rank, which lies in the blazing sun, was also very well filled.
What the spectators saw were two players working extremely fast. The Shot Clock is neither for Federer nor for Kyrgio, the towel is usually only used after a completed game.
Kyrgios was the first to set an exclamation point, took three break points at 3:3 after 17 (!) minutes, Federer defended himself successfully, even at the Australian’s fourth chance. Incidentally, there were no motivation problems with Kyrgios in the initial phase – the outsider regularly pushed himself after successfully designed points. Nevertheless, Federer won the first set point, Kyrgios fended off with a forehand shot. After 36 minutes the Maestro chipped the second with his backhand into the field. 6:4.
Federer really got going now, took Kyrgios off his serve twice, set after 61 minutes with three aces in a row on 6:4 and 6:1.
Before the match, Kyrgios had been asked what he sees Federer’s great strengths in. The slice return of the world’s number two came up for discussion. The spring was used from both sides. In the seventh game, the two opponents entered the highlight reel: First Federer played a ball past the net edge to the right into the field, at a height of ten centimetres. Kyrgios countered with a stop-praise combination with a final volley.
The decision was made in the eleventh game of the third act: Kyrgios sunk a forehand into the net at Breakball Federer, the second in the world rankings served after 1:44 hours to 6:4, 6:1 and 7:5. He would also have taken a five-set win, Federer explained after the match. But all the better that the story was over in three runs.
Roger Federer continues in Australian: John Millman is waiting for the 37-year-old in the round of 16. Millman had won against Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan in four sets. Federer also said that Millman had trained with him in Switzerland before the Wimbledon tournament. Now is the time to stop the Australian’s run for success. In the quarter-finals could then wait in a re-edition of the final of 2015 Novak Djokovic.
Here is the men’s single tableau at the US Open