US Open 2019: Waltzing Roger Federer swats everyone aside but can Baby Fed hold tight in tornado?

So here he is again — in the second week of a major, dancing the dance.

This 38-year old, father of four, scything, mesmerising, embarrassing combatants across the net with a magic wand he would have us believe is merely a sporting implement made of strings and metal. Four matches have come and gone and in a little over seven hours on court, Roger Federer has reached his 13th quarter-final in New York. Andre Agassi reached as many over his decorated career and only Jimmy Connors, that other ageless wonder, reached more (17) in his time. Federer has lost a couple of sets (one of those to an Indian) but in his last two matches, six straight sets have been won at the concession of a mere nine games.

“Sometimes these scores just happen,” he said after handing out a 79-minute fourth-round whiplashing to David Goffin, who happens to be ranked a not-so-bad 15th. “I found my groove after a while and was able to roll really. Never looked back. David wasn’t nearly as good as I expected him to be.”

When playing against Federer, not being “nearly as good” as they can be, is a regular professional hazard for rivals. Take the Goffin match as an illustration. The Belgian succeeded in merely getting 50 percent of his first serves in on the night, clearly pressured by the great man’s ability to pounce all over a sub-par delivery. He made 17 unforced errors, the same number as Federer, but could only hit eight winners across the three sets. In contrast, Federer pulverised him with 35, adding 10 aces to Goffin’s none to pack him off swiftly back into the locker room.

In essence, Goffin was the victim of peak Federer — a phenomenon witnessed, and relished repeatedly over nearly two decades now by countless devotees. Hustled by a relentless barrage, rattled by the task to even be competitive, defeated in the end by a reminder of the inadequacy that while he can play tennis better than most on the planet, this night he was up against a force touched with divinity. Goffin had surrendered well before he was beaten officially.

“Sometimes you’re like, ‘OK, I’m feeling maybe ready now to make a good match against him, try to make some good things on the court’,” he mumbled later. “But as soon as you are there, first match on Ashe against him, you can feel all the 20,000 people are behind him as soon as he hit the ball. All of a sudden every shot is 10 times tougher than usual.”

Goffin’s articulation of the threat posed by a fully functioning Federer in an arena throbbing with those in awe of his sparkle is a reasonable snapshot into the minds of his competitors on the circuit. While fellow modern-day geniuses Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have often succeeded in subduing a rampaging Federer’s threat, most recently in a gut-churning Wimbledon final, for the professionals that sit just a shade below that elite tier, a Federer confrontation on a heady night becomes the proverbial trial by fire. A fire that mostly singes them.

Federer schmoozes on the baseline, scorching winners, unperturbed by errors, waltzing to the net to vulture over opportunities to finish off points. Goffin, for instance, watched helplessly as Federer won 19 of 23 points at the net, a dizzying 83 percent success rate. In contrast, when the nearly decade younger Belgian employed the same tactic, he would win a mere 4 of 11 points, a dismal 36 percent success rate. In the end, it was familiar territory, the ninth time in ten matches that Goffin had fallen to the mighty Swiss, a ‘rivalry’ that dates back to 2012.

Right, so now that the dazzle quotient has been ratcheted up to full bloom, potentially three more virtuoso performances lie ahead. The first of those, scheduled early on Wednesday morning here in India, is against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who has earned the moniker ‘Baby Fed’ for a style of play modelled on Federer’s.

About the same age as the recently-tormented Goffin, Dimitrov has been in the top five though this has been a wretched season so far, with only 12 wins and 15 defeats. Federer hasn’t just won all seven matches between the pair dating back to 2013, he’s lost all of two sets.

Dimitrov, who has slumped to 78 in the world, arrives for this swordfight wielding a pocket-knife. He would be entirely expected to be slashed wide open and sent back bloodied.

“He had a bit of a slump,” mused Federer when asked of the impending clash. “This is the big quarters for him, obviously with an opportunity against me. I’m aware of the fact it’s a big match for him. I’ve done well against him in the past. But new match, new Grigor, new me again.”

New me, old me, does anyone really care? This will be the 56th time Roger Federer will feature in a major quarter-final. He will do what he does, in a by now patented — unhurried yet rapid — deluge of shot-making. And like Sumit Nagal, Damir Dzumhur, Daniel Evans and David Goffin thus far in New York, Dimitrov will face the tornado. And much like them, he too will likely be swept aside.