Devin Britton is ranked No 1,364 in the world, which means there are 34 British men with a higher status than the 18-year-old United States collegiate champion. If one of the 33 of them — other than Andy Murray — could have coped better playing Roger Federer on Arthur Ashe Stadium court than Britton did on his US Open debut on Monday, there may be hope for our future.
The match was proceeding along prescribed lines when, at 2-2 in the third set, Federer was 30-0 down on his own serve and rattled off the next four points without blemish. He was 30-0 down again at 3-3, and this time Britton held his nerve to break the great man.
As usually happens at these moments, the teenager was so delighted with a landmark that he relaxed and the Swiss broke him straight back, in punishment for such impudence.
Britton lost 6-1, 6-3, 7-5, but he caused the odd flutter in Federer’s stomach and that is a small victory in itself. The teenager had said that he would try to get forward as often as he could, he was true to his ambitions and we will hear more of him for sure.
“He serves unbelievably well and places it really well and his forehand is just crazy,” Britton said of Federer.
Advertisement
“I tried to keep it away from it, but sometimes I hit it there just so I could see it! I’m going to have great dreams about that forehand, it’s so pretty. It is heavy as well, I’m just not used to that kind of ball. I hit with \ Nadal the other day to give me a sense of what it is like, but Federer hits it just as heavy.”
Federer, 15 times a grand-slam champion, has taken the first of the seven steps towards a sixteenth title and Simon Greul, a German, next stands in his path. Greul won an 11-9 fifth-set tie-break against Giovanni Lapentti, of Ecuador, to secure his date with Federer.
Murray, the No 2 seed, finds himself with leading billing on Tuesday night, when he meets Ernests Gulbis, of Lativa, after Maria Sharapova, the former champion, opens the evening session. Gulbis, easily beaten by the British No 1 in the second round of Wimbledon, has not managed to win successive matches all year, so Murray is favoured to win well.
“The wrong way to play against him is to hit every ball as hard as you can and look like you’re playing with incredible aggression, because that’s what he likes,” Murray said.
“It’s important not to give him a rhythm and hit some slice, because he doesn’t like coming to the net and make him play a lot of balls because he gets impatient. It’s not about smashing winners all over the court.
Advertisement
“Obviously he’s got a big game and whatnot and he’s had some big results, but the consistency is something he’s struggled with a little bit. You never know when guys come through, sometimes they have good years and then drop back. I don’t know what his work ethic is like or how he trains, but some day it could just click and then, in six months, he’s playing great tennis.”