Federer works for win
Davenport self-destructs in perhaps her final Open
NEW YORK – Roger Federer flicked a final winner, trotted to the net and started to shake hands. Then, there was one last challenge.
Playfully, Thiago Alves called for a replay review.
So the man trying for his fifth straight U.S. Open title and an overmatched qualifier shared a laugh, watching together as the giant scoreboards above Arthur Ashe Stadium confirmed the call: The ball landed squarely on the line, Federer had won 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 Friday.
Federer swept a guy ranked 137th, someone who spent this year in the minors and was playing his first tour-level event of the season. Still, it was hardly a breeze.
“The depth in men’s tennis is immense,” Federer said.
In a late match, Andy Roddick overcame a big deficit to beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 7-5.
Roddick, the 2003 Open champion, was down by a set and trailed 5-3 in the second when he won seven consecutive games to take control of a match that began Friday night and ended after 1:30 a.m. today.
On the women’s side, it’s shaping up as even more of a scramble.
A day after No. 1 Ana Ivanovic lost to 188th-ranked Julie Coin, third-seeded Svetlana Kutznetsova became the latest upset victim when Katarina Srebotnik beat her 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3.
“It can happen with everyone,” said Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, who moved into the fourth round.
Novak Djokovic, Jelena Jankovic and Nikolay Davydenko also won during the day.
In night matches delayed more than an hour by rain, No. 12 Marion Bartoli defeated No. 23 Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 7-6 (3), and No. 15 Patty Schnyder beat Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (4), 6-4. Also, former Open champion Marat Safin lost to No. 15 Tommy Robredo, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-0.
Finally having worked her way back into her third-round match at the U.S. Open, finally even in the second set against Marion Bartoli at 5-all, Davenport devolved into an amateur for a few rough minutes.
To put it in the simplest of terms: Davenport – a three-time Grand Slam title winner, a woman formerly ranked No. 1 – could not get a serve in. She hit seven consecutive faults, then later double-faulted a fourth time in the game en route to her loss to Bartoli at Flushing Meadows.
“I guess they call it ‘the yips’ on your serve. I don’t know where it came from,” Davenport said. “Probably came from all my years making fun of people that had it. That was my karma coming back.”
For the 32-year-old Davenport, this might have been her final singles match at the U.S. Open, which she won in 1998.