Roger Federer didn’t so much weather the storm Sunday as get saved by it.
The No. 2 seed was being outplayed by Marcel Gronollers before thunderstorms forced a delay at the U.S. Open. But once play resumed, Federer overcame his early malaise and overwhelmed Gronollers 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 to roll into the Round of 16 with his most dominant display of the tournament.
“Marcel started really on fire. The break helped me, and I came out and played some great tennis,’’ Federer said. “I definitely played better after that. But the first seven games all happened very quickly. … The biggest difference was the wind. It was quite windy when we got out. When we came back, it was gone. It felt quite different. The wind has that effect of air-conditioning.
“When it’s not windy you really feel the humidity and heat, that was a big change. The court might have played a bit slower because of it cooling off from the rain. Personally, I just tried to play solid, figure things out a bit, because he did come out and play really aggressive. He served well. He was doing a lot of things really well. It was just, for me, going to be one of those things to weather the storm.’’
Federer weathered both storms like a five-time champ. It’s just a shame many of his fans didn’t get to see it.
After watching Granollers blitz through the first 10 points and grab a 3-0 lead, it reached 5-2 before play was halted because of impending rain. With flash-flood warnings in effect, the USTA cancelled the day session, and delayed the match into the night session. The day crowd of 38,129 was ushered out of Arthur Ashe Stadium, their tickets not honored in the evening, long gone by the time Federer rallied.
After a 2-hour rain delay, Granollers held on to win the first set, but Federer clearly had his feet back under him, and was better prepared to deal with the Spaniard’s aggressive play and forays to the net.
Facing a break-point on his opening service of the second set, Federer held with an ace, one of 13 on the night. He twice broke Granollers’ serve — the former on a forehand, the latter on a passing shot — to go up 4-1, and he’d taken control. Federer won nine straight games at one point, breaking again to open the third set. He nailed a forehand volley winner on match point to clinch.
“The sky totally changed so you figure something was going to come. I didn’t think they’d take us off at 5-2. It almost never happened to me that they’d take me off before it started raining; but it was the right decision,’’ said Federer. “They said we had an hour to play, 1 ½ maybe, when we went on the second time, which has an effect on you mentally. You’re like “Where is it?” It feels like a shadow over you.’’
Federer will play Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut for the first time, with a potential date against No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria looming in the quarters.