Federer Is Slightly Set Back in Win

When a TV reporter was interviewing defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland after his victory against Nicolas Kiefer of Germany at the U.S. Open, Federer must have spotted Kiefer exiting Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Federer interrupted his thought, in his unfailingly polite manner, and said, “Nicolas.” The crowd cheered accordingly. After all, Federer is used to controlling the action during a match, so why not after it? And certainly, Kiefer earned his proper due in their fourth-round contest.

He was the only player to win a set against Federer at Wimbledon, and he is the first to take a set against the top-seeded player in four matches at the Open, and it took a tiebreaker to do so. Federer defeated Kiefer, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, in 3 hours 2 minutes Tuesday.

“We [are] on Earth, but he’s playing on different planet,” Kiefer said.

Federer liked hearing that, but handled the compliment with modesty. He was probably thinking of some of his Earth-bound shots in the tiebreaker.

“Yeah, and he beat me three times,” he said. “I thought he wasn’t that far away after all from this planet. It’s nice to hear. I get many praises these days. Good guys.”

Challenges interest him, which is why he said he preferred to meet No. 11 David Nalbandian of Argentina in the quarterfinals rather than Davide Sanguinetti of Italy.

“I don’t have a great record against him, so it would be nice to play him,” said Federer, who is 2-5 against Nalbandian.

Federer got his wish. Nalbandian and the 33-year-old Sanguinetti, who played college tennis at UCLA, slogged through a 2-hour 58-minute match with Nalbandian winning, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-2. It took them 2:22 to play the first three sets.

The other two men’s fourth-round matches were more straightforward. Third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Argentina beat No. 15 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain, 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Verdasco had 66 unforced errors to 14 for Nieminen.

Nieminen, 24, became the first Finnish player to reach the final eight of a Grand Slam event.

“Finland is a small country, so we don’t have too many sportsmen competing around the world,” he said. “I feel very proud also to play for my country.”

Asked about French President Jacques Chirac’s supposed insult of British and Finnish cuisine in July, Nieminen’s response was unintentionally funny.

“We have a lot of fish,” he said. “Yeah, I think fish is very good in Finland. Actually, I’m allergic to all the seafood, so I can’t eat fish. But I think it’s good.”

Hrbaty wore his now-famous pink and black shirt with the two cutouts in the back.

“I wouldn’t wear it,” said Hewitt, who will play Nieminen in the quarterfinals. “But it made it a lot easier for me to beat him today....I just couldn’t lose to a bloke wearing a shirt like that.”

Though Hrbaty won but seven games against Hewitt, he was hardly impressed, saying, “He beat me easy, but I don’t have a feeling with this kind of game that he can beat Federer. He has to play something different. I mean, he lost I don’t know how many times.

“Eight. You can see that if he doesn’t come up with something really different, it’s gonna be nine.”