Roger Federer has one of the weirdest (and toughest) wins of his amazing career in the US Open first round.

The match

The Maestro had to face rising star Frances Tiafoe in his opener in a match that shouldn’t have been a huge problem for him. Eventually, the Swiss looked off from the very beginning when he looked unable to control his shots even during the easiest rallies.  Roger lost the first game on serve (0-1), and that was enough to lose the opener 6-4 with the Swiss moving really badly.

Even if Roger won the second set 6-2, his footwork wasn’t convincing at all, but the American was extremely nervous to give an easy spell to his counter part.

Federer has finally started to move and play really well in the 3^rd set to win 6-1 in a blink of an eye. When everything looked set for a smooth 4^th set for the Swiss, Roger disappeared completely to lose 6-1 in no time.

 

 

Going to the 5^th, Roger surprised for not taking any medical timeout as it was clear that he was struggling, but all of the sudden the Swiss appeared regenerated to conquer a quick 4-1 lead. Once again, the match seemed to be over, but once again Federer stumbled when he failed to serve out the match on 5-3 scoreline (he also squandered a match point in the previous game).

After Roger was broken in the 8^th game (he was still 5-4 up), the Maestro could potentially have another heartbreaking loss similar to the ones he had with Donskoy in Dubai or with Haas in Stuttgart when he lost both contests after he was unable to convert a match point. Fortunately for the Maestro, Tiafoe crumbled to miss the first 2 points (0-30). Then Roger conquered 2 consecutive match points (15-40) and he finally converted the second one.

Federer won this weird match 4-6 6-2 6-1 1-6 6-4 in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Roger Federer did something he doesn’t have to often: win ugly.

Survives Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in a wild one.#usopen

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) August 30, 2017

“This is why I come back to New York, to experience these emotions.”@rogerfederer prevails in 5 sets in an epic R1 battle!#USOpen pic.twitter.com/HpWoByBvI2

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 30, 2017

 

What happened?

It is still unclear why Federer played such an erratic match. There are question marks about his back that forced him to withdraw from Cincinnati. Alternatively, Roger could have just experienced a bad day at the office.

 

 

The 2nd round

Federer will play either Kavcic or Youzhny in the second round. The good news for Roger is that they didn’t play their match. Therefore, Roger will face an opponent that has played a best of 5 match just the day before.