Roger Federer remains as inventive as ever in his 35th year as he searches for new ways to extend his garlanded career. Over the past two years he has changed his coach and his racket and tweaked his schedule to accommodate the arrival of a second set of twins, not to mention a minor back injury and legs that have slowed ever so slightly.
His latest experiment as he heads from the quiet of Cincinnati to the roar of New York with reasonable expectations of winning a record sixth US Open might be called The Charge.
On his way to Sunday’s final of the Cincinnati Masters against Novak Djokovic he has tried to catch opponents off guard by occasionally rushing to within five or six feet of the net on their second serve. He did it to Kevin Anderson and Feliciano López and tried it again on Saturday
He said after the Murray semi-final: “I’ve done it against basically everybody [in this tournament]. I did it in practice more as a joke and I tried it again and again and again and it just seems like it’s not that hard for me to do. Plus, it makes you play very committed. Up there, there is no room for not being committed, otherwise you’ll lose the point every single time. It’s very much all about timing and reaction.
“It was fun for me today. I’ve still got to understand when I can do it, when I should and shouldn’t do it. But it can break somebody’s rhythm, maybe can play with their mind a little bit. Plus, if the success rate all of a sudden is more than 50%, why not use that quite often as well? I’m happy that when I’m doing it I’m not looking ridiculous up there. It’s fun for me to do.”
Murray, one of the game’s finest strategists, had a slightly different take on it.
“I saw he did it quite a bit earlier in the week,” Murray said before leaving for New York. “He didn’t do it loads today. I think the times he tried it didn’t work so well.
“But it’s an interesting thing to try. Obviously if you get a decent contact on the return it’s not that easy for the guy who’s serving to get back up after the serve and hit the passing shot. Equally, if you hit a good second serve – and mine was very good today – it is then not very good for him as the returner. I’ve seen him step in before, but not quite like that.”
Was he surprised to see Federer trying something this radical late in his career?
“No. I don’t know how successful it is. I didn’t feel like it was off-putting or anything today, but it’s definitely different. I’ve not seen him try that before. It’s probably a bit easier to do on hard courts than on grass or clay because it bounces a little bit truer. To do it off Kevin Anderson’s second serve is not an easy thing to do. He’s obviously hit some good ones this week.”
Federer, who turned 34 this month and had not played since losing a competitive Wimbledon final to Djokovicfor the second year in a row, has been in sublime form here. There will be a growing number of his fans who believe even more fervently than they normally do that he has an excellent chance of passing the records of Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors to win his sixth US Open title.
If he does it employing The Charge, they will be doubly thrilled.
