ROGER FEDERER DONE WHAT NO ONE ELSE HAS

John Isner was helpless in the face of Federer’s class. Source: AFP

AS ROGER Federer so correctly noted, the exact score of a tiebreaker is not all that important. All that matters is who wins it.
Still, it was noteworthy that Federer became the first player to shut out John Isner in a tiebreaker — and later added a rare service break of the big-serving 208cm American — while winning
their fourth-round US Open match 7-6 (0) 7-6 (6) 7-5 on Monday night.
According to the ATP, Isner had never lost by a 7-0 score in 428 previous official tour-level tiebreakers.
“You’ve got to get a little lucky,” Federer said in an on-court interview, “but seven love is a very good score, obviously, against John. As long as you win the ‘breaker’, it doesn’t matter what the score is.”
Federer also broke to close out the match, ending the 13th-seeded Isner’s streak of 110 consecutive service holds at Flushing Meadows over the past two years.
“John has one of the best serves in the game. Especially the pace on his second serve is unreal,” Federer said. “And, yeah, you’ve just got to hang around and make sure you don’t drop your own serve.”

Federer did just that, saving all five break points he faced, while finishing with an impressive ratio of 55 winners to only 16 unforced errors.
The second-seeded Federer, who has won five of his 17 grand slam titles in New York, has not dropped a set on the way to a quarter-final against No. 12 seed Richard Gasquet of France.
Gasquet got past sixth seed Tomas Berdych 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-1.
With losses by Isner and Donald Young on Monday, this is the 16th consecutive grand slam tournament without an American man in the quarter-finals. Isner and Andy Roddick made it that far at the 2011 US Open.
Isner did have his chances against Federer. Six times, Isner was two points away from grabbing the second set.
But Federer was at his best down the stretch in that tiebreaker too, after trailing 5-3.
Federer won one point by returning a 225km/h serve before smacking a forehand passing winner. On another, he produced a forehand return winner off a 206km/h serve to earn a set point.
And he capped the set by flicking a down-the-line backhand winner.