Yes, the favourite if not for his back. And? So? Your point? Where does that say I said he'd win if 100% healthy? I'll tell you where. Nowhere. Favourites don't always win as we all know but he still would have been the clear favourite if healthy given his form this year, the fact that he's won it 5 times (consecutively, no less) and had a winning h2h over the next best player in the draw this year. Who's making an injury excuse? This wasn't a case of the emperor's new clothes with an imaginary injury that only certain fans could see. Did you even watch how stiff, rigid and downright poor his movement was against Youzhny and Tiafoe? 5 sets with Youzhny in 2017 who hasn't been a good player for probably a decade should tell you something was wrong with Roger.
And as for your bolded part above, you're wrong again because, no, I would not have expected him to beat Rafa if he'd beaten Del Potro because Roger was clearly hampered and playing like crap and he won't beat the top players if not healthy. I don't really consider Del Potro 2017 a top player (he was better last year) and Roger only narrowly lost even with a bad back but stop with the nonsense about excuses when everyone could actually
see he was injured. This is different than just some silly web page claiming player X is injured and nobody can tell any difference from watching them. He was sluggish, lateral movement was off and eventhough he's been slower running to his forehand side for years now, it's even more apparent when he's got back issues and can't stretch out properly. Oh and in case you missed it (clearly you have since you think Federer fans are making "injury excuses"), Roger's been serving like dog $h1t since Montreal. Wonder why. Could it be you need to arch and twist your back while serving? Excuses my ass. Anyone could see there was something wrong as he hasn't been playing remotely well for months now. Night and day difference from the start of the year when he was rested and healthy but feel free to keep telling yourself and others here that Federer fans are just making excuses.