It is 37 months since Roger Federer last had that winning feeling at a major, when he picked up the 17th of his career by coming from a set down to beat Andy Murray in the 2012 Wimbledon final.
There has been something admirable about Federer’s determination and drive to win No 18 since then.
This is a man with nothing to prove. He has won pretty much everything there is to win in the game, and he oversaw one of the most dominant eras of men’s tennis between 2004 and 2007, when of the 16 majors played for he won 11 of them.
Since 2008, majors have proven tougher to come by with the rise of Rafael Nadal on all surfaces and the arrival of Novak Djokovic as the best player of the next generation, but the tenacity of Federer has ensured he has not fallen away despite being at the age of 34.
The US Open, which starts today in New York, will be Federer’s 13th attempt to win the coveted 18th major, and he certainly cannot be accused of lacking form going into it.
He won his seventh Cincinnati title earlier this month. The manner of it was particularly impressive as he defeated Murray and Djokovic in successive days, both wins achieved in straight sets.
While Wimbledon is put up as Federer’s happiest hunting ground, and rightly so, given he has won there seven times and reached the final the past two years, his impressive record at Flushing Meadows should not be forgotten.
He won it five times in a row between 2004 and 2008, the most in succession by a player in the open era, was a finalist in 2009 and has reached the semi-finals three times in the past five years.
His worst performance since winning his first US Open title came in 2013, when he lost in straight sets to Tommy Robredo. It was easy then to write off Federer as a spent force, coming just weeks after he had lost in the second round of Wimbledon, too.
There would have been no disgrace if Federer had faded away at that point. He was in his early 30s, up against younger players, and his name no longer carried the ability to intimidate opponents as it had done in his dominant period.
But Federer regrouped and has been refocused since then, the input of six-time major winner Stefan Edberg as a coach helping him find new intensity.
The only thing that is missing in his rejuvenation is a major title, and he went close the past two years at Wimbledon, losing in five sets to Djokovic in 2014 and in four to the same opponent last month.
What is forgotten is that arguably his best chance of winning a major was at last year’s US Open. When he came out on court for his semi-final against 14th-seeded Marin Cilic, Djokovic had just been beaten in an upset defeat to Kei Nishikori.
Federer was the highest seed left in the tournament and was playing an opponent he had never lost to in five previous meetings, and who had never reached a major final before.
It should have been a slam dunk for Federer, right? Wrong. An inspired Cilic powered Federer off the court, with the Swiss player looking tired on court as he lacked the energy to dig deep against the Croatian.
A nervous Nishikori, who had never played in a major final before, either, would have been the prize for Federer if he had navigated a way past Cilic. It is difficult to believe he would not have beaten him, given how limply the Japanese player performed while losing to Cilic in their showdown.
Federer is playing well enough to be a contender again during the next two weeks, given he has only lost one of his past 17 matches in all competition, and that was the Wimbledon final.
His serve has been key as the accuracy and consistency of it has proven too good for most of his opponents.
His destruction of Murray in straight sets in the Wimbledon semi-finals was one of the great service performances of the modern era. Federer does not have one of the most powerful serves in the game, certainly not compared to the likes of Ivo Karlovic and Kevin Anderson, but his ability to put the ball consistently in unreturnable areas was superb.
Murray is one of the best returners in the game, but in three sets he managed to pick up only one break point.
The only question on Federer is whether he can do it in longer matches. He can clearly beat the top guys in best-of-three matches. His successes against Djokovic in Dubai and Cincinnati demonstrate that.
He played some great stuff against Djokovic at Wimbledon last month, but as the match went into a third and fourth set, the world No 2 faded and it was the Serbian, six years his junior, who took control.
There is a good chance the two will meet in the final in New York on September 13, and Federer is performing well enough to take him down. Whether he has the endurance to do so could be the defining matter.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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