David Goffin said right arm troubles hampered him in his straight sets loss to Marin Cilic in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday, both mentally and physically.
The Belgian lost 7-6, 6-2, 6-4, struggling to remain competitive in the final two sets after leading throughout the opening frame and holding a set point in the tiebreak.
Goffin lost just three points on serve through his opening four service games and only five on his second serve in the first set. By the end of the match, however, he had won just 59 percent of service points and was broken on five occasions, as many times as in his previous two matches.
He said in his press conference that physical limitations affected him most on his serve.
“It’s tough. I tried to do my best,” Goffin said. The third [set], I started to feel my arm a little bit again. It was tough for me to serve 100 percent.”
He indicated that his serve form declined after he was broken at 5-4 in the first set; Cilic said in his on-court interview that Goffin told him at net that his shoulder bothered him in the later frames.
The US Open marked the second consecutive tournament Goffin has struggled with his right shoulder. He suddenly retired against Roger Federer in the Cincinnati semifinals, two games after seeing the trainer for a shoulder ailment, and subsequently withdrew from Winston-Salem.
He was generally untroubled in his first three rounds in New York, but the generally light server then hit just four aces — his fewest in a match three sets or longer since early August. Just 16 days removed from his retirement against Federer, Goffin indicated that his struggles on Monday were not only physical.
“It was not easy to give everything on every point,” he said. “When you start to think about your arm, you’re not focused 100 percent.”
The Belgian, ranked No. 10 in the world, was noncommittal about future effects of the injury. He is next slated to play at the Laver Cup, which begins Sept. 21 in Chicago.
“Now just the priority will be to recover from this tournament and to be ready as soon as I can,” he said.