NEW YORK, Sept 1: A bad back prevented Roger Federer from getting ready for the U.S. Open the way he prefers to prepare for a Grand Slam tournament. And it’s showed so far.

Federer blamed a lack of proper practice after making an uncharacteristic 68 unforced errors and being forced to go five sets again before coming back to edge a cramping Mikhail Youzhny 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 on Thursday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

It is the first time the 36-year-old Federer has played five-setters in both the first and second rounds at a major tournament.

“I knew I was going to maybe struggle early on. Maybe I struggled more than I would have liked to. But I’m still in the draw, which gives me a chance. I still believe I’m going to pick up my game and become just more consistent because I’m not playing all that bad,” Federer said. “It’s just that I’m going a bit up and down in waves throughout the match.”

Given that Federer entered the day with a 16-0 career record against Youzhny and a 16-0 mark in the U.S. Open’s second round, one might have thought that their match would be a mismatch.

Think again.

“He’s also a real man who plays tennis,” Youzhny noted. “He’s not a god.”

Well, OK, that’s true. But remember: Federer did not drop a single set en route to his record eighth Wimbledon championship in July. And that he is 37-3 with five titles, including two at majors to raise his record total to 19.

Second on that list, with 15, is No. 1-seeded Rafael Nadal, who trailed by a set and a break before figuring things out and beating 121st-ranked Taro Daniel of Japan 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in Ashe at night. That followed 20th-seeded American CoCo Vandeweghe’s 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory over Ons Jabeur of Tunisia under the lights.

What already was a wide-open women’s bracket became more so when 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was upset by 116th-ranked Kurumi Nara of Japan 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. The No. 8-seeded Kuznetsova’s exit means five of the top eight women are already gone.

Two other seeded women lost to Americans in the afternoon: Shelby Rogers edged No. 25 Daria Gavrilova 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (5) in a tournament-record 3 hours, 33 minutes, and Jennifer Brady eliminated No. 23 Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-1.

A couple of seeded men departed, too: No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 15 Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up.

The No. 3-seeded Federer won five consecutive U.S. Open championships from 2004-08 and also was the runner-up twice, including two years ago. But he missed last year’s tournament while taking off the second half of the season to let his back and surgically repaired left knee fully heal.

That back, an off-and-on issue for years, flared up again while Federer was losing in the final of the Montreal Masters in August. He didn’t get to fully work on returns or serves, in particular, as the U.S. Open approached. That lack of training and the resulting lack of timing — rather than pain from his back — is what Federer said caused him problems Tuesday night in the first round against 19-year-old American Frances Tiafoe and again against Youzhny, a former top-10 player who reached the 2006 and 2010 U.S. Open semifinals but is now ranked 101st.

“I’m pretty confident that I’m only going to get better from here. That’s a good thing,” Federer said. “Because I’ve played a lot, I definitely found some rhythm now.”

He did falter repeatedly Thursday, though.

Federer let a lead slip away in the second set and got broken while serving for it at 5-4.

“He helped me to come back,” Youzhny said.

Federer stumbled again while serving for the fourth set at 5-3, but responded to a break there by breaking right back.

Still, Federer’s unforced errors continued to mount in the fifth set — 11 in the first four games alone, including a badly shanked forehand on his first break point at 2-1, a netted backhand on his second, and a long forehand to let Youzhny hold there. Eventually, Federer nosed ahead, aided by the considerable dip in the 35-year-old Youzhny’s level of play.

While Federer played his first-round match Tuesday under the roof in Ashe, Youzhny’s opener was postponed until Wednesday because of rain, and he blamed that for his fatigue. His legs started cramping late in the third set Thursday and then reached other parts of his body, even his fingers, by the end. That made it hard to move forward or to jump normally while serving.

At 1-all in the deciding set, Youzhny collapsed to the court, grabbing at his right leg after whiffing on an attempted swat at Federer’s lob. Youzhny stayed down for a few moments, then grimaced and limped around for the rest of that game.

Afterward, Youzhny chuckled at the mention of having lost all 17 matches against Federer, even leaning back in his chair and joking about how he would have completed the upset if Grand Slam rules were different: “I beat him in three sets now — but we played five sets. But come on, if we played three sets, I already beat him!”

Federer, naturally, preferred to look at matters from a different perspective.

“I find my way,” he said. “I don’t panic.”

NEW YORK, Aug 30: The question was rather simple after Angelique Kerber became only the second defending U.S. Open champion in the professional era to lose in the first round.

The surprisingly lopsided 6-3, 6-1 loss to 45th-ranked Naomi Osaka of Japan under the closed roof in Arthur Ashe Stadium at a rainy Flushing Meadows on Tuesday was former No. 1 Kerber’s latest in a long list of disappointing performances in 2017, so she was asked what she thinks went wrong this season.

She sighed, shrugged her shoulders and began to answer: “I don’t know.”

Moments later, her eyes darting around the room, she added, “This year is a completely different year.”

Talk about an understatement. In 2016, Kerber broke through to the top of tennis in a spectacular way. A player with only one previous Grand Slam semifinal appearance reached the first three major title matches of her career, winning two of them: She stunned Serena Williams in the Australian Open final, lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final, and then beat Karolina Pliskova in the U.S. Open final to rise to the top of the WTA rankings for the first time.

Her follow-up has been quite a flop. Kerber, a 29-year-old German, hasn’t won any title of any sort this season. She is only 25-18 overall, 0-9 against opponents ranked in the top 20, and Tuesday’s loss assured her of falling out of the top 10 for the first time since October 2015. At Grand Slam tournaments she is 6-4, including another first-round loss in May at the French Open, where she became that tournament’s first No. 1 seed to lose so early.

“I know that I’m strong and I know that I will come back stronger, for sure. I know that I will not (be) giving up,” said Kerber, the first defending champion to lose in the U.S. Open’s first round since Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2005.

Showers showed up before noon Tuesday and led to the postponements of dozens of matches. The only court used in the afternoon and evening was Ashe, thanks to the retractable cover constructed ahead of last year’s tournament.

The only men’s matches completed were there, and Roger Federer overcame a slow start and then a late lapse to edge 19-year-old American Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in a compelling first-rounder at night.

Federer’s footwork and strokes were off in the first set, and he repeatedly gave Tiafoe points via miscues. Federer then appeared to take control by grabbing eight of nine games en route to taking a 2-1 lead in sets. But Tiafoe rediscovered his own powerful shots to force a fifth set. Federer went up 3-1, then got broken while serving for the match at 5-3. But he broke right back, finally converting his third match point.

Federer earned his 79th career victory at the U.S. Open, equaling Andre Agassi for second-most behind Jimmy Connors’ 98.

Federer’s possible semifinal foe and chief rival for the title, No. 1 Rafael Nadal, overcame a first-set hiccup of his own before overpowering Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-2.

The women’s No. 1 seed, Pliskova, easily advanced by beating Magda Linette 6-2, 6-1, French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko got past Lara Arruabarrena 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 in a match that started on Court 17 then was moved indoors at Ashe, and No. 23 Barbora Strycova defeated Misaki Doi 6-1, 6-3. Yet another seeded woman was eliminated when No. 28 Lesia Tsurenko lost to Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-1.

At night in Ashe, No. 15 Madison Keys of the U.S. compiled a 32-9 edge in winners and moved into the second round by beating Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 7-6 (6). Keys got broken while serving for the match at 6-5, and then faced a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. But Keys delivered a big forehand to force a backhand error by Mertens, starting a three-point run for the American to close out the victory.

“I would say I was probably one of the luckier people all day,” Keys said, “to just kind of know I was going to get a match in today.”

Kerber’s exit further thins the women’s bracket, which was missing 23-time major champion Serena Williams to begin with because she is expecting a baby. Three of the top seven seeded women were gone before dinnertime on Day 2, with No. 6 Kerber joining Monday’s losers, No. 2 Simona Halep — beaten by Maria Sharapova in her first Grand Slam match since a 15-month doping suspension — and No. 7 Johanna Konta.

While Kerber’s quick departure was stunning in and of itself, that Osaka would be the one to do it might not be quite so remarkable, even if she is just 19 and never won before against a top-10 woman.

Osaka is comfortable around the grounds at Flushing Meadows, where she has been spending time, and even occasionally practicing, since she was a kid: She was born in Osaka, Japan, so represents that country, but moved to the U.S. when she was 3, has dual citizenship, and used to live on Long Island.

“The site,” Osaka said, “feels really familiar to me.”

She nearly upended Keys in the U.S. Open’s third round last year, leading 5-1 in the third set before losing in a tiebreaker, a collapse on her mind in the latter stages Tuesday.

This time, Osaka held steady, using her powerful baseline game to bully Kerber.

Osaka accumulated a 22-9 edge in winners, broke in half of Kerber’s eight service games and saved all four break points she faced.

“It was not my day,” Kerber summed up. “Completely not my day.”

Hasn’t been her year, either.  AP

LONDON, July 17: After Roger Federer closed out a Wimbledon final that was more of a coronation than a contest with an ace, he sat in his changeover chair and wiped away tears.

That is when it hit him: His wait for record-breaking No. 8 was over. Until then, Federer wasn’t focused on the notion of winning the grass-court tournament more often than any other man in the history of an event first held in 1877. All he’d been concerned with, consumed with, was being healthy enough to compete at a high level and, he hoped, to win a title, regardless of what the total count would be.

Capping a marvelous fortnight in which he never dropped a set, Federer won his eighth Wimbledon trophy and 19th Grand Slam championship overall by overwhelming Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 in merely 1 hour, 41 minutes Sunday.

“Wimbledon was always my favorite tournament. Will always be my favorite tournament. My heroes walked the grounds here and walked the courts here. Because of them, I think I became a better player, too,” said Federer, who will turn 36 next month and is the oldest male champion at the All England Club in the Open era, which began in 1968.

“To mark history here at Wimbledon really means a lot to me just because of all of that, really,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

His first major title came at Wimbledon in 2003, and was followed by others in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He won again in 2009 and 2012. But then he lost finals in 2014 and 2015 to Novak Djokovic.

He couldn’t be sure another final, let alone title, was possible a year ago, when he lost in the semifinals, then took the rest of 2016 off to let his surgically repaired left knee heal.

“It’s been a long road,” he said.

Sunday’s outcome was only in doubt for about 20 minutes, the amount of time it took Federer to grab his first lead.

Cilic said afterward he developed a painful blister on his left foot during his semifinal Friday, and that affected his ability to move properly or summon the intimidating serves that carried him to his lone Grand Slam title at the 2014 U.S. Open, where he surprisingly beat Federer in the semifinals.

This one was all Federer, who had been tied at seven championships with Pete Sampras and William Renshaw in what’s still officially called Gentlemen’s Singles. Sampras won all but one of his in the 1990s; Renshaw won each of his in the 1880s, when the previous year’s winner advanced automatically to the final.

With clouds overhead and a bit of chill in the air Sunday, Federer’s early play was symptomatic of jitters. For everything he’s accomplished, for all of the bright lights and big settings to which he’s become accustomed, the guy many have labeled the “GOAT” — Greatest of All Time — admits to feeling heavy legs and jumbled thoughts to this day.

It was Federer, not Cilic, who double-faulted in his first two service games. And it was Federer, not Cilic, who faced the initial break point, in the fourth game. But Cilic netted a return, beginning a run of 17 points in a row won by Federer on his serve. He would never be confronted with another break point.

“I gave it my best,” Cilic said. “That’s all I could do.”

In the next game, Federer broke to lead 3-2. He broke again to take that set when Cilic double-faulted, walked to the changeover and slammed his racket. Cilic sat and covered his head with a white towel.

With Federer up 3-0 in the second set, Cilic cried while he was visited by a doctor and trainer. He said that was not so much a result of his foot’s pain as the idea that he could not play well enough to present a challenge.

“Very tough emotionally,” said Cilic, whose foot was re-taped by a trainer after the second set. “I knew that I cannot give my best on the court.”

It might not have mattered. Federer was, as he’d been all tournament, flawless, the first man in 41 years to win Wimbledon without ceding a set. Against Cilic, he had 23 winners, only eight unforced errors.

This caps a remarkable reboot for Federer, who departed Wimbledon a year ago with a lot of doubts: His body was letting him down for the first time in his career. He skipped the Rio Olympics, the U.S. Open and everything else in an attempt to try to get healthy.

It worked. And how.

Feeling refreshed and fully fit, Federer returned to the tour in January and was suddenly playing like the guy of old, rather than like an old guy.

In a turn-back-the-clock moment, he faced rival Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final and, with a fifth-set comeback, won. It was Federer’s 18th Grand Slam title, adding to his own record, and first in 4½ years. Those who had written Federer off needed to grab their erasers.

The formula made sense, clearly, so why not try it again? Federer skipped this year’s clay-court circuit to be in top shape for the grass courts he loves so dearly. Sunday’s victory made Federer 31-2 in 2017, with a tour-leading five titles.

“On one side, yes, it surprises me. On the other side, I know he’s able to do so many things. So it’s not surprising,” coach Severin Luthi said. “But when it happens, it’s amazing.”

Yes, Federer is back to being supreme in tennis, lording over the sport the way no man has.

He’s not, of course, the same 21-year-old kid who had a ponytail and scruff when he beat Mark Philippoussis in the 2003 Wimbledon final. Or the teen who, two years earlier, beat Sampras himself at Centre Court in the fourth round, their only tour-level meeting.

Federer’s hair is cropped, his face clean shaven. He’s a father of four, and both sets of twins — boys, 3, in their light blue blazers; girls, 7, in their dresses — were in the guest box for Sunday’s trophy ceremony.

One son stuck a couple of fingers in his mouth until a sister grabbed his hand.

“They have no clue what’s going on. They think it’s probably a nice view and a nice playground. But it’s not quite like that here, so one day, hopefully, they’ll understand,” Federer said about his boys.

As for the girls, he said: “They enjoy to watch a little bit. They come for the finals, I guess.”

When Dad is Roger Federer, you can wait until the last Sunday to show up.

And you just might get to see him cradle that gold trophy.

LONDON, July 15: They love their history around these parts and they love Roger Federer and, above all, they love watching him make history.

Now he stands one victory from an unprecedented eighth Wimbledon men’s singles championship after qualifying for his 11th appearance in the final, breaking a record he already held.

Just weeks from turning 36, and a father of four, Federer continued his resurgent season and unchallenged run through this fortnight at the All England Club by conjuring up just enough brilliance to beat 2010 runner-up Tomas Berdych 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the semifinals Friday.

“It’s great, but it doesn’t give me the title quite yet. That’s why I came here this year,” Federer said. “I’m so close now, so I just got to stay focused.”

He has won every set he’s played in six matches, and while he did not exactly dominate against the 11th-seeded Berdych, Federer was never in much trouble. On Sunday, Federer will face 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, who reached his first Wimbledon final by eliminating 24th-seeded Sam Querrey of the U.S. 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-5 with the help of 25 aces and some terrific returning.

“This is his home court,” Cilic said about Federer, “(the) place where he feels the best and knows that he can play the best game.”

Since equaling Pete Sampras and William Renshaw (who played in the 1880s) with a seventh trophy at Wimbledon in 2012, Federer has come this close before to No. 8. But he lost to Novak Djokovic in the 2014 and 2015 finals.

Here comes another chance.

Federer would be the oldest man to win Wimbledon in the Open era, which dates to 1968; as it is, he’s the oldest finalist since Ken Rosewall was 39 in 1974.

“I mean, I don’t see anything that would indicate really Roger is getting older or anything like that,” said Berdych, who wore sneakers with a silhouette of Djokovic’s face on the tongue because his own usual shoes were uncomfortable. “He’s just proving his greatness in our sport.”

Also noteworthy: This is Federer’s second major final of 2017. After losing in the Wimbledon semifinals last year, he took the rest of 2016 off to let his surgically repaired left knee heal. He came back fit and refreshed and won the Australian Open in January for his record-extending 18th Grand Slam title and first anywhere in 4½ years.

“Giving your body rest from time to time is a good thing, as we see now,” Federer said. “And I’m happy it’s paying off because for a second, of course, there is doubts there that maybe one day you’ll never be able to come back and play a match on Centre Court at Wimbledon. But it happened, and it’s happened many, many times this week.”

And most of the 15,000 or so people in attendance were pulling for him. That was evident throughout Friday, from the cries of “Go, Roger!” to the roars of approval and thunderous applause that greeted some of his best efforts on a day when he was not necessarily at his vintage, wondrous best.

The down-the-line forehand passing winner that landed right on the opposite baseline in the second set, leaving Berdych slumping his shoulders. Or the no-look, flicked backhand winner several games later that not many players would even try, let alone manage to do.

Or the way he extricated himself from a sticky situation down 3-2 in the third, facing break points at 15-40: 107 mph (173 kph) ace, 116 mph (187 kph) ace, 120 mph (194 kph) service winner, 119 mph (192 kph) ace. In the very next game, he surged to a 4-3 lead by breaking Berdych. That was pretty much that.

“I was able to come up with the goods when it mattered,” Federer said.

The No. 7-seeded Cilic was not able to do that in the opening tiebreaker against Querrey, the first man from the U.S. in any major semifinals since 2009.

At 6-all, Cilic seemed distracted by a delay of a couple of minutes when a spectator who appeared to feel ill was helped from her seat and out of the stands. When action resumed, Cilic flubbed two backhands to cede the set.

But from there, he steadied, handling Querrey’s big serves rather well. A trio of superb returns earned a key break in the fourth set, the last a massive forehand off a 79 mph (127 kph) second serve that drew a shanked backhand and a yell of “No!” from Querrey.

The next test for Cilic is the toughest of all: beating Federer at Centre Court. They met in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year, when Cilic took the opening two sets and even held a match point before Federer came all the way back to win, improving to 6-1 head-to-head.

That lone win for Cilic was by straight sets in the semifinals in New York three years ago, on the way to his one major title.

“I still know that it’s a big mountain to climb,” Cilic said. “Roger is playing maybe (some) of his best tennis of his career at the moment.”-AP

LONDON, July 13: Chants of “Roger! Roger! Roger!” filled the early evening air at the All England Club, so after his post-match stretch, Roger Federer paused on a bridge connected to Centre Court and waved to his adoring public.

“When you see that they’re there for you, it’s a bit of an unusual feeling. I’m very touched, actually, to have so much support,” Federer said. “I never would have imagined when I was younger that I would have experienced this.”

Less than a month from his 36th birthday, Federer is still giving ’em what they want. When Wimbledon began, Federer and the rest of the Big 4 — Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal — had accounted for each of the past 14 men’s singles championships. Now, as the tournament heads to the semifinals on Friday, only Federer remains.

Call him the Big 1.

“It’s nice to see different guys, maybe, but I’m happy that my dream run continues,” Federer said, “and we’ll now see what happens next.”

Federer’s path through the draw has been impressive, to say the least.

He has won every set he’s played this fortnight, the only semifinalist who can make that claim.

He has won 63 of 66 service games. He has faced only 14 break points. He has made only 49 unforced errors, fewer than 10 per match.

So the first question put to 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic after his 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (4) loss to the seven-time Wimbledon champion in the quarterfinals Wednesday was: What does a guy have to do to beat Federer?

“You know, you have to do a lot. It’s a stiff task,” said Raonic, who defeated Federer in the semifinals last year before losing to Murray in the final. “I guess you can know what you have to do. It’s a lot harder to do it than just to know it.”

He’s hardly the first to realize that, of course.

After being eliminated by Raonic a year ago, Federer took the rest of the season off to allow his surgically repaired left knee to heal properly. He already had missed last year’s French Open in May, ending a record streak of 65 consecutive appearances at Grand Slam tournaments, and then skipped the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and U.S. Open, too.

When Federer returned in January, he was fit and full of energy, and won his 18th major championship at the Australian Open.

That was part of a 19-1, three-title start to 2017, before he took another break, sitting out the clay-court circuit and the French Open again.

“I could never really play quite so freely last year just because (now) I’m more focused on how the knee’s behaving, rather than how I need to hit my forehand or backhand or what’s not going to be good for my opponent,” Federer said. “This year, I’m just a normal tennis player again, where I can focus on tactics. I think that’s the difference. I’m playing very well. I’m rested. I’m fresh. I’m confident, too. Then great things do happen.”

Such as becoming the oldest Wimbledon semifinalist since 1974.

Perhaps his rivals at the top of the game should take note.

Djokovic, a three-time champion at the All England Club, did say he would think about taking time away from the tour because of an injured right elbow that became so painful Wednesday he stopped in the second set of his quarterfinal against Tomas Berdych.

Murray, who won Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, will consider an extended absence, too, after his sore left hip clearly hampered him while being beaten 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals by Sam Querrey.

“We both had a very long, very tough year, a lot of matches, a lot of emotions, a lot of things in play,” Djokovic said. “Our bodies have taken a lot physically.”

While No. 3-seeded Federer will face No. 11 Berdych next, and No. 24 Querrey — the first US man in a Grand Slam semifinal since 2009 — meets No. 7 Marin Cilic, No. 1 Murray and No. 2 Djokovic are done at Wimbledon this year.

So is No. 4 Nadal, a two-time champion who lost in the fourth round.

“Of course I’m surprised,” Federer said, “to see them going out.”

No one should be surprised that he is sticking around.-AP