Roger Federer ready to return to being U.S. Open champion

It has been a decade since Roger Federer made history at Flushing Meadows by winning five consecutive U.S. Opens (before almost making it six straight).

A lot can happen to a tennis career in 10 years, and in Federer’s case, that span has meant back injuries and knee surgery, missing the Olympics in 2016 and turning 37 earlier this month. There were setbacks, and then there was his resurgence, as he temporarily returned to No. 1 in 2018.

Through all of that, one thing has stayed exactly the same: Federer knows how to win in New York, and he has every intention of doing it again.

“It would mean the world to me” to win another U.S. Open, he said Friday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center ahead of his match against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka on Tuesday night. “It’s even a bigger priority this year, the U.S. Open, than it [was] last year .  .  . I like playing here. I think the court speed is good for me. I’m happy in this country. I’m happy in New York.”

Federer, ranked No. 2 in the world behind Rafael Nadal, does have a difficult road ahead of him, one that might set him on a collision course with sixth-seeded Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Djokovic, the Wimbledon champion, defeated Federer in the Cincinnati Masters final last week.

“Sure, sometimes you wonder, is it easier to play guys with not such a resume like a Novak so early?” Federer said. “But in terms of the draw, I mean, we have so many draws that happened throughout my career that you just take on your chin .  .  . We can’t control it. I’m not in a quarterfinal match yet. I’m not in a second-round match yet. You just go back to .  .  . just the next few days are important.”

As he gets older, Federer appears intent on taking one step at a time. The last two years, which included knee surgery and a long recovery, “have just been difficult,” he said. When he finally healed enough to compete, his priority was winning his eighth career Wimbledon title, which he did in 2017. He had to skip the French Open just to get his body ready for it.

The U.S. Open last year was nothing but a dream, and something of an unrealistic one, he said. Federer made it to the quarterfinals but lost to Juan Martin del Potro, the same player who ended Federer’s streak of U.S. Open titles at five in 2009.

“I knew from the get-go it was not going to be possible for me to win,” he said. “Everything would have had to fall into place. Guys would have had to retire against me or played the worst match of their life against me, and maybe then I would have had a chance .  .  . Not feeling 100 percent last year was hard.”

Though his return to form is complete, he has dialed back his schedule in an attempt to play as long as he can. He understands the need for rest, of listening to his body. He skipped the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the Citi Open in Washington.

In Cincinnati, he was happy with how he played, though his showing against Djokovic was poor, he said. Djokovic won that match, 6-4, 6-4.

He specifically decided to compete when he did to ensure ample rest after Wimbledon while still being match-ready for the U.S. Open.

“I think what I did was the right thing,” he said. “I know I will be judged harsher because I don’t play so much, but I can handle it .  .  . [The final against Djokovic] was just a match — one you want to forget. But in the big scheme of things, [that was] actually a good tournament for me. [You] get all the matches under the belt, get match-tough again so when I do show up here, I actually feel I’m ready. And I am ready. And that’s what counts for me.

“I’m exactly where I want to be.”

In New York, at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, ready to reclaim a title that for five years was all his.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.