For Federer, U.S. Open Could Portend the End -- or Not

In 1984, John McEnroe was at his volcanic best as he won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, and reached the final of the French Open.

He had already knocked Bjorn Borg from atop the men's game -- a changing of the guard preceded by their legendary Wimbledon final in 1980. But, as he recalled last week: "The following year it started to unravel." Just as quickly as he had risen, McEnroe was finished as the sport's dominant player.

Perhaps that's why McEnroe, now a television analyst, felt compelled to hug Roger Federer shortly after his devastating loss to rival Rafael Nadal in this year's marathon Wimbledon final.

"You don't ever know when you're going to see the beginning of the end," said McEnroe, who never won another Grand Slam singles title.

To associate Federer with such talk would have been ludicrous at the start of this year, his fourth atop the rankings. His run at No. 1 was so dominant that some experts deemed the champion's surpassing Pete Sampras's 14 Grand Slam titles a foregone conclusion.

But everything changed on that afternoon-turned-evening at the All England club, when Nadal outlasted Federer and triggered a chain of events that has led to the first U.S. Open contested under the game's new world order: Nadal No.1, Federer No. 2.

Federer, who has 12 Grand Slam singles titles, is the four-time defending champion while Nadal has never made the semifinal round. Nevertheless, after having officially bumped Federer as the world's top-ranked player, Nadal is favored to win his third slam of the year.

"I just think that Wimbledon final meant so much, not only to Nadal winning it but to Federer losing it," U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said. "I think him losing that match, he has not gotten over it. This is a chance for him to do that. It has been all the difference in how they played this summer. Because of that, you have to put Nadal as a pretty clear-cut favorite."

Even Federer himself -- to a point -- has conceded as much.

"I mean, he's not completely wrong," Federer told reporters on Saturday. "Clear favorite? I don't know about that. But [Nadal] seems like the favorite, even though I've won here the last four times."

While the favorites have been narrowed down on the men's side, the women's draw remains wide open, with Russia's Maria Sharapova sidelined with a shoulder injury and the Williams sisters in the same quarter of the draw, ensuring that only one could reach the semifinals.

Nevertheless, it is the potential for another installment of Federer-Nadal -- or is it Nadal-Federer? -- that has added a level of intrigue to the Open.