It started well for David Goffin, but went downhill — fast.
After breaking Roger Federer’s serve in the third game of the match, Goffin proceeded to get pancaked by the 20-time Grand Slam winner, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 win in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Sunday afternoon at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
This was the round Federer surprisingly lost a year ago to John Millman, but he needed only 79 minutes to whup Goffin, who played terribly and hardly seemed to be paying attention during a 21-minute third set that looked like a side-court practice session. It moved the ageless Federer — actually 38 years old — on to his 13th U.S. Open quarterfinal, tying Andre Agassi for the second-most quarterfinal appearances in Flushing Meadows behind only Jimmy Connors’ 17.
“It’s definitely very special to be playing for these records,” said Federer, who has now made 56 Grand Slam quarterfinals in his historic career. “Being in my 56th quarters now of a slam is definitely a nice feeling. That was obviously the initial goal here at this tournament, try to make it so far.”
It has hardly been a clean tournament for Federer, who lost the first set in each of his first two matches — the first time he has done that in 19 U.S. Open appearances. But he quickly made the 15th-seeded Goffin look unworthy to share the court with him, finishing with a 35-8 edge in winners while converting nine of his 10 break-point chances.
“Of course [Federer] was great, but I gave [away] the whole match,” said Goffin, a 28-year-old Belgian who has beaten Federer once in nine tries. “Probably my worst match against him I played.”
Federer now moves on to play Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who got past Alex de Minaur on Sunday to reach his fifth career Grand Slam quarterfinal. Federer is good friends with the Dimitrov, but all eyes are looking ahead to a possible semifinal matchup against No. 1-seed Novak Djokovic, who was set to play Stan Wawrinka on Sunday night.
Continue looking down the line, and Federer could be eyeing a record sixth U.S. Open victory, which would give him one more than Connors and Peter Sampras.
But records are not what is foremost in Federer’s mind as this tournament rolls into Labor Day.
“I think I use [records] at the right times for motivation, I guess. That’s how far it goes,” Federer said. “I don’t like to think about it or talk about it all the time with the team or the press just because I want to remember what it was supposed to be when I started.”
At this point in his career, Federer is asked a lot about big-picture ideas, about his lofty place in the game’s history. But he never wants that to be a distraction.
“Back in the ’90s when I started, people were not only talking about records all the time. This is a new phenomenon with social media, with the press,” he said. “Everything being more professional, everybody talks records and numbers. I get it, especially in this country where statistics and numbers are everywhere, we talk even more about it. I get it.
“It’s helped me at times. At the same time I always try to remind myself it’s just a side story. What happened on the court today was more important.”
