We call him the perfectionist, the greatest of all time, the maestro and swiss genius. But there is factor in roger federer which we haven't seen until recently, his ability to play the tennis with out dropping pace against the young guns when he gets older.
I am a fan of this man from the year 2004 when he ruled all courts with his strong base line play and powerful forehand. Meanwhile tennis has produced other greats such as the king of clay and the greatest returner - Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Federer was unstoppable during 2004- 2007. he was getting better and better every year, suddenly one man with muscles came up and thrashed his dream of winning the career slam. Later his defeats to nadal extended to hardcourts. Eventhough he lost more matches to nadal during that period, he achieved Nadal couldn't at that time. After finishing four years as number 1 in world rankings Federer lost his throne to Nadal when he lost wimbledon final to the later. It was the match defined the years to come in men's tennis and it pushed federer to bring his best in next year. In the year 2009 Robin soderling defeated Rafael Nadal at paris which everyone still believes as the mission impossible and federer grabbed that opportunity to complete his career slam. In 2010 US open federer lost novak djokovic after having match point, then in the next year he lost to the same guy after winning first two sets. Federer's loss to novak and nadal initiated a debate over his decline in sports. John McEnroe said he was not going to regain the number one ranking again. Men's tennis became three dimensional after 2011 - federer with all time grandslam record . nadal chasing federer's record and novak not allowing nadal to accomplish his dreams.
Wimbledon is the place where Federer started to believe that anything is possible for him in tennis and his faith helped him to win seventh crown at wimbledon at the age of 31. He regained number one ranking from djokovic and proved everyone age is just a number for him. but in the next year he dropped to a ranking of 6, apparently Rafael Nadal continued to be unchallenged in clay courts.
Injuries are always a part of dedicated player , federer was no exception, but the back injury he got in 2013 pulled him down in the rankings. He finished that year as world number 6. There were doubts in our mind that he could finish out of top 8 for the first time after a decade. But he made good efforts in season ending indoor tournaments. Next year we got a new grandslam champion - stanislas wawrinka or stan the man. He had beaten rafael nadal for the first time in his career to win the first slam. Federer became a shadow to his country man after his loss to stan at monte carlo. Meanwhile he hired one of the best volleyer Stefan Edberg as his coach. He made many changes in federer's game, primarily he changed his racket size to 95 sq inches from 90 sq inches, this shift gave him a strong backhand. we can see more consistency and more down the line winners from that backhand because of this radical shift. To beat the best returners you need a good serve and volley game. Stefan's advice helped roger to play more aggressively at net and so far it has been showing results. After hiring stefan in to his coaching team, roger has a positive h2h against Novak djokovic. Last year he was the only player to have a positive winning record against world number 1 from the top ten players.
Injuries are always a part of dedicated player , federer was no exception, but the back injury he got in 2013 pulled him down in the rankings. He finished that year as world number 6. There were doubts in our mind that he could finish out of top 8 for the first time after a decade. But he made good efforts in season ending indoor tournaments. Next year we got a new grandslam champion - stanislas wawrinka or stan the man. He had beaten rafael nadal for the first time in his career to win the first slam. Federer became a shadow to his country man after his loss to stan at monte carlo. Meanwhile he hired one of the best volleyer Stefan Edberg as his coach. He made many changes in federer's game, primarily he changed his racket size to 95 sq inches from 90 sq inches, this shift gave him a strong backhand. we can see more consistency and more down the line winners from that backhand because of this radical shift. To beat the best returners you need a good serve and volley game. Stefan's advice helped roger to play more aggressively at net and so far it has been showing results. After hiring stefan in to his coaching team, roger has a positive h2h against Novak djokovic. Last year he was the only player to have a positive winning record against world number 1 from the top ten players.
Pundits said he wont win any more grandslams, Last year wimbledon final was one example which has shown that heart of a champion never stops to pump. I would like to quote the words from Novak after the match towards roger "thanks for letting me win today". May be he is fading in the heights of djokovic and Nadal, but he is not quitting. because he is not playing to prove a point, he playing because of the love towards game and that is why we always say tennis is not perfect with out federer.
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