By Chris Oddo | Thursday August 30, 2018
Roger Federer booked his spot in the third round of the U.S. Open on Thursday with a straight-sets shellacking of Benoit Paire, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
Federer improved to 84-12 lifetime at the U.S. Open and 338-53 at the Grand Slan level with his 35th win of the season.
Now the real work starts.
Federer has been saddled with a difficult draw and he’ll run into that full steam ahead on Saturday when he meets Nick Kyrgios in the third round. Federer and Kyrgios have played nine sets with eight of them going to a tiebreaker, and all three of their previous battles have gone to a third-set tiebreaker, with Federer winning two.
On Thursday Federer prepared for the match by taking down another mercurial yet talented force in Paire. The Frenchman had held two match points against Federer in their last meeting this summer at Halle, but on this day Paire was no match for Federer in the New York heat.
It wasn’t the squeaky-cleanest of Federer performances but he was never in danger and kept his nose in front of Paire pretty much the whole way, despite 39 unforced errors and two breaks surrendered.
Something to build on, if not a work of perfection.
“I think it was a bit sort of up and down maybe,” Federer said. “I think it's always tricky against Benoit, because I think one another, there's a lot of tactics going on. Never quite the same point. Sometimes he plays very deep in the court, then he plays up in the court. That's maybe why you draw errors out of each other rather than winners at the end. The match maybe doesn't look at good. Plus he covers the court very well.”
Federer improved to 7-0 lifetime against the bearded Paire. He has dropped only one set against him in all of their meetings.
“Sometimes you have a tendency to overplay, as well,” Federer added. “ But overall I'm happy. I think it was not a bad performance by any means by me. I can be pleased, so it's all good.”
Kyrgios, meanwhile, was making headlines by accident on Thursday, as umpire Mohamed Lahyani was widely criticized for coming off his chair and giving the Aussie a pep talk when Kyrgios was looking listless and trailing by a set and break. The chat was perfectly synced with Kyrgios’ turnaround. He won 19 of the final 25 games to defeat Pierre-Hugues Herbert in four sets.
“He knows what he needs to do to get to winning ways,” Federer said of the Aussie. “He's won his two matches here, so things are going well for him.”
Federer also weighed in on the controversy, saying that what Lahyani did—it can’t happen again.
“He was there for too long,” Federer said. “It's a conversation. Conversations can change your mindset. It can be a physio, a doctor, an umpire for that matter. That's why it won't happen again. I think everybody knows that.”