New York’s romantics were in despair at the latest near-miss for their favourite European, Roger Federer. Yet no matter how pro-Federer the US Open crowd had been throughout Novak Djokovic’s 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory, they still rose at the end to applaud Djokovic’s indomitable performance in a high-quality final.
Federer looked crushed as he returned to his chair, and no wonder. It was clearly a harder defeat to swallow than the recent Wimbledon final, because this match was in his hands. He had 23 break points in all, almost twice as many as his opponent. Yet he won only four of them: a disastrous conversion rate of 17 per cent. “Surely I am very disappointed,” said Federer afterwards. “I had my chances on my racquet.”
On a physical level, Federer has shown a frankly bewildering ability to resist the ravages of time. In this business, however, it is the grey matter that tends to age fastest. When you know that you have a finite number of matches left ahead of you, it places an extra hundredweight of pressure on your shoulders.
Time and again, Federer responded to those break points by attempting to rally unadventurously with Djokovic from the back of the court, an area where he should have known he would come off second best. The only time he really took the bull by the horns was when Djokovic served for the match for the first time, at 5-2 in the fourth set, and Federer responded to a 30-40 opportunity by rifling a heavy approach shot into the corner and then killing the next ball with a perfect drop volley. By then, though, we were into desperation mode, and it proved to be too little, too late.
Djokovic used to have a problem with grand-slam finals, losing four out of five at one stage of his career. But then he also used to be the man who suffered inexplicable physical fade-outs in long matches, and that also seems hard to imagine since he became the sport’s iron man. All the way through his career, he has shown an exceptional ability to confront his weaknesses and find solutions.
In the second set, Federer became more assertive, unleashing the bold “SABR” net-rush against the Djokovic return. Although Djokovic dealt with the tactic well on a point-by-point basis, coming up with one delicious lob in response, this newfound aggression changed the whole tenor of the match. Federer was coming forward more and taking time away from his opponent, and eventually claimed the set with a beefy backhand drive — a rare case of a break point that he actually converted.
If only he could have done the same at 4-4 in the third set. At the end, Djokovic climbed up to celebrate with his player’s box, which included the Scottish actor Gerard Butler. The two men went so far as to deliver a joint rendition of Butler’s catchprase from the film 300. “When I went to my box and I looked at him I said, ‘This is Sparta,’” Djokovic explained afterwards. “It felt great. That’s one of the most inspiring movies I watched.”
Put a sword in his hand, and you could certainly imagine Djokovic guarding the path to Thermopylae. Never has a tennis player so embodied the spirit of “Thou shalt not pass.”