When that first set ended, there were plenty of people looking on in disbelief — in Federer's guest box, certainly, around the stands, of course, and in front of TVs at home, surely.
"People expect a different result," Federer said. "I expect something else."
This was not, after all, Rafael Nadal, someone Federer has never faced at Flushing Meadows but trails 24-16 head-to-head overall.
Instead, it was Nagal, who is now 0-5 in tour-level matches for his career, trailing Federer by 1224 victories.
"It would have been a better story," said Nagal, who now heads to Genoa, Italy, to enter a low-tier Challenge Tour event on red clay, "if I had got another set or more".
Federer was a big part of what transpired in the early going: Of the 32 points Nagal won in the first set, only three arrived via his own winners. Of the other 29, 19 were thanks to unforced errors by Federer, and another 10 were forced errors off the Swiss star's racquet. One particular issue was Federer's serve: He won merely seven of his initial 20 second-serve points.
But he returned well throughout, breaking in Nagal's first service game of every set, and eventually, the rest of Federer's game came around, too.
"Maybe it's not a bad thing to go through a match like this," said Federer, who has now won his past 62 first-round slam matches. "It was very similar at Wimbledon."
That's true. He ceded his first set at the All England Club in July, then wound up making it all the way to the final — even holding championship points before eventually losing to Novak Djokovic in a fifth-set tiebreaker.
Nagal soon saw a better Federer than was present at the outset.
"He loves putting pressure on the other guy. The thing with him is you don't know what type of shot [he'll play]," Nagal said. "He's always making you think. ... You have no idea where the ball is coming back."
Earlier, Auckland-bound Serena Williams didn't let Maria Sharapova make a game of their match.
Facing a break point early in the second set, Williams conjured up a backhand passing shot so good, so powerful, so precise, that Sharapova had no chance to reach it. Williams watched the ball land in, then raised a clenched left fist towards the night sky.
In her first match at the US Open since last year's loss in a chaotic, controversial final, Williams stretched her winning streak against Sharapova to 19 matches with a nearly flawless performance that produced a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
Asked whether she could even imagine losing that many matches in a row across 15 years against one opponent, Williams paused for a moment, then replied: "Gosh, I never thought about it like that."
She now leads their head-to-head series 20-2.
"Every time I come up against her," Williams said, "I just bring out some of my best tennis."
The whole thing lasted 59 minutes.
Williams won twice as many points, 56-28. She saved all five break points she faced and lashed serves at up to 185km/h. She broke five times.
"I always said her ball somehow lands in my strike zone," Williams said. "I don't know. It's just perfect for me."
- AP
