Roger Federer, 36, lost his quarterfinal match to Juan Martin del Potro and the bid for a third Grand Slam title in 2017 and the 20th overall was over. Even so, he is expected to make few more appearances on the ATP professional tour as the season will enter into the last chunk of the calendar. The Asian leg on hard court and then the ending session in Europe will have the Swiss player in the middle of the action. 2017 Us Open may have delivered a bitter feeling, but he is still on an upward trend and theoretically, has a chance to end the season as the world No.
1. It'll depend on how Rafael Nadal will end his own bid in New York and how the Spaniard's schedule for the fall will look like. Unlike Federer, Nadal has accumulated more matches under his belt this season.
Federer lost some pace after winning the 2017 Wimbledon Championships
After capturing his eighth Wimbledon title earlier this summer, Roger Federer seemed unable to sustain the same surreal pace as he entered the North American outdoor session. He went on reaching the final in Montreal, but his overall tennis output was on a downward spiral. Some back issues and a decreasing level of confidence and sharpness prevented him from displaying the same level of aggressiveness as he did in Australia or at Wimbledon.
A clunky start of the 2017 US Open campaign was somehow expected. He did his best to reach the last eight stages, but del Potro was the better player in that encounter surpassing Federer in four sets.
Federer will aim at least a Masters 1000 title, the ATP 500 event in Basel and the ATP Finals in London
Despite losing at Flushing Meadows, he will surpass Andy Murray next Monday when the ranking will be updated.
As the uncertainty is still looming over the Brit's schedule, Federer can focus on keeping a small gap between him and Nadal. He is expected to play in Shanghai Rolex Masters in about four weeks. Then he will return to Europe for the ATP 500 event from his hometown Basel, Switzerland. The next stop on the schedule might be in Paris, the last Masters 1000 of the season.
The ATP Finals are set to close up a tremendous season for Federer. If he will win some of those tournaments and the ATP Finals will be a fertile soil he may even surpass Nadal by the end of the season.
Tradiditionallu, Roger Federer has a good tennis output towards the end of the season, especially at the ATP Finals where has reached ten finals winning six of them. Last year, he skipped this whole chunk due to a knee injury that sidelined him for about six months.
