Federer Adds to His Snap Count

David Nalbandian’s most impressive shot of the night involved timing, power and precision.

Kids, don’t try this at home.

He snapped the offending instrument -- his racket -- in two pieces after losing the second set to defending champion and top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland. Really, not an easy thing to do. The racket head looked rather lonely just sitting there.

And so did Nalbandian.

Federer has a way of isolating and then dismissing his opponents, and it was no different in Thursday’s quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open. Federer defeated No. 11 Nalbandian, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1, in 1 hour 40 minutes.

“Today, I think he played much better than the other days,” Nalbandian said. “Federer today is one step up from the other guys.

It’s hard to believe Federer, who had 18 unforced errors and just three in the third set, still has a losing record against the Argentine. Nalbandian won their first five matches, and has dropped the last three. He has not defeated Federer since the fourth round of the 2003 U.S. Open.

Back then, Federer was pretty good, having won his first Wimbledon title, rapidly progressing along the path to greatness.

Next is another familiar victim, No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, who has been something of a tennis punching bag for Federer, losing the last eight times they’ve played.

Hewitt struggled mightily against unseeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, but rallied to prevail, 2-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, in 2 hours 26 minutes. Hewitt had six aces and double-faulted five times.

“I was struggling a little bit with my movement. Just felt a step slower, a bit sluggish out there,” Hewitt said. “It was just a matter of trying to stay tough mentally out there and put myself on level terms.”

Nieminen, best-known for beating an injured Andre Agassi at the French Open this year in the first round, added a few more lines to his resume in New York. He became the first Finnish player to reach the final eight of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open era.

In regard to Hewitt vs. Federer in the semifinals, Nieminen said: “I would say Hewitt has to play his best game, and then it’s up to Federer. Because if he’s playing his best game at the moment, he’s best in the world.... If he plays well, he has been unbeatable.”

Despite his eight straight victories, Federer said Hewitt would not be wise to adopt a serious change in strategy, and his comment drew laughter in the post-match news conference.

“He could, you know,” he said. “But then again he could even run into the knife more brutally.”

Blood everywhere, either way?

“Might be if he changes it up,” Federer said, smiling.

There was something of a flat feeling around the place -- perhaps a byproduct of the sensational Agassi-James Blake five-set quarterfinal on Wednesday night, which finished after 1 a.m. locally. It was like going to work the morning after a holiday.

Federer even made an indirect reference to the epic, won by Agassi in a fifth-set tiebreaker, during his on-court TV interview. “Maybe we had enough men’s tennis the last few days,” he said.

Leave it to Federer to restore some order with his abrupt dismissal of Nalbandian.

But the enthralling match between Agassi and Blake even pulled the No. 1 player into its orbit. Federer said he returned from dinner and watched the quarterfinal until its wee-hours conclusion, though he had his own big match on Thursday.

“I was -- my pulse was just like ...” said Federer, pounding his chest. “I couldn’t believe it, how the match turned out, because it was looking so one-sided. It’s definitely nice to play them, but I almost prefer to watch them, to be honest.

“It’s not that late for me. I always go to bed around 2 or 3 in the morning. So for me, that was perfect timing.”

He was blunt in his assessment of how Agassi managed to pull it off.

“In my eyes, James gave it away,” Federer said. “James should have locked it up many times. But it happens.... Andre did incredibly well to come back, that’s for sure. And staying cool, you know, all the way through, that was incredible. But I thought James had him and let it go.”