On Sunday, Roger Federer defeated David Goffin easily in straight sets, 6-2,6-2,6-0 to advance to the quarter-finals of the 2019 US Open. The Swiss maestro had looked off his A-game early on in the tournament when his first two matches required four sets to be completed. But with this victory, Federer has now registered his name firmly as one of the favourites.
After the win, a happy and relaxed-looking Federer was interviewed on court. The interview went well but had a rather interesting turn. It featured the 20-time Grand Slam winner using, at one stage, a profanity.
The main passage of the interview featured him saying: "Now it's easy to see the joy in all that stuff. But you also need the success. Just saying, like, I love playing tennis and getting my a** kicked every day is not a great thing. So, you need some success, you know. And I did have that along the way, which helped."
This caused a lot of cheers and laughter in the crowd and even the great champion himself couldn't hold back a chuckle. The questioner also saw the funny side of things.
Always looking on the bright side ?
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 1, 2019
??? @rogerfederer | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/lA0M2vUQQY
It is quite surprising for the Swiss to suddenly use colourful language as he is well known for his gentlemanliness and gracious behaviour on court.
The fans would now expect to see him make his way into the final as his nemesis and the man who defeated him in an epic final at Wimbledon – Novak Djokovic – is out of the tournament after retiring from his match against another Swiss player, 2016 champion Stanislas Wawrinka and won't be, as expected, facing Federer in the semis.
But the 38-year old will have to be careful. Wawrinka won't be an easy prey. Not only does he have Grand Slam titles under his belt, including one at the Flushing Meadows, being a former doubles partner of Federer, he would know the five-time US Open champion's game well.
A victory at US Open would be a good recovery for Fedex after having lost at his favourite Grand Slam – Wimbledon – in a very close final match where he even had match points. It also seems that after looking a little off-colour in the first two rounds, the man who last won the US Open in 2008 is starting to reach peak form.
Whether this form translates into success or leads him to once again fall short is a question whose answer we will definitely have only by the beginning of next week. Winning this Grand Slam after a gap of 11 years would be quite an achievement.
