Federer falls in straight sets at US Open

NEW YORK. September 3. KAZINFORM Roger Federer, a five-time champion here, is out of the US Open and, at 32, sliding steadily further away from the summit upon which he stood for so long. His straight sets loss on Monday night to Tommy Robredo - who two nights ago had to go four sets to stop Dan Evans's dream run in the third round - is the shock of the tournament, one of the shocks of the year.
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The score - 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 24 minutes - was as uplifting for the Spaniard as it was dispiriting for Federer and his legion of fans. The loser looked devastated as he left for the locker room, appreciative of the consoling applause but left again to wonder if he will ever return to the top of the mountain, or even close to it.

The defeat goes alongside Rafael Nadal's first-round exit at Wimbledon and Federer's own departure there two days later. So the hugely anticipated quarter-final showdown between Nadal and Federer - they have never met at Flushing Meadows, and probably never will - is no more.

Robredo, only a year younger than Federer and who has lost in the fourth round seven times in 12 visits to New York, broke and held at the start of a match switched from the main court to the Louis Armstrong Stadium in a rejigged schedule because of heavy rain during the day, dropped serve then rediscovered his composure under the weight of a sustained fightback by the world No 7, The Guardian reported.

Federer told friends before this tournament he was feeling the best he has done all year, although he held fears that back spasms might seriously limit him in longer matches. Federer does not lack for celebrity admirers, and Anna Wintour, the British editor-in-chief of American Vogue, was prominent in his team's box. As a New York face and the subject of two movies, The Devil Wears Prada and The September Issue, Wintour is nearly as famous in this town as Federer is.

But fame doesn't win points in a tennis match. One victory away from his 41st quarter-final here to match the record of Jimmy Connors (who was courtside), Federer stirred memories with some handsome strikes from the centre of the court, yet he could not tame the resolute Spaniard in the tie-break, unable to lay a racket on Tommy's closing serve, the second of only four aces.

Robredo had to win a tie-break to take the first set against the Birmingham shot-maker Evans, so he was battle-toughened for this considerably harder assignment. That night, also, Federer was imperious in dismissing the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino for the cost of only five games. He had not dropped a set, and nobody predicted the struggle to come against an opponent who was said to be carrying a leg injury and had just squeaked past a qualifier.

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