It been a while since I have been up all night watching a game of tennis. Last Saturday night/Sunday morning, I decided I would watch the Federer v Djokovic semifinal. I had not watched a single match at the US open this year. I had been reading reports of Federer's form this year at Flushing Meadows. There was a lot to write home about or so the newspapers would have me believe. The match report of the 1/4 final vs soderling was ample evidence that the great man had regained some sort of form.
2010 has been one of Federer's worst years on the tour. He really didnt have much to show after the Australian Open win in January. There was an injury setback in March which kept him off the tour for a while only to make a comeback three weeks before Paris.
Paris has been a place where more often than not he has come up second best to Rafa. Even though he had won last year, Nadal was in top form and the most optimistic of Federer fans wouldnt have backed him to win this time around. Federer's come back to form was halted rather early by Soderling who put in a sterling performance to erase his 0-12 head to head carrer record against Fed-Ex. The worst though was yet to come...
Day 1, The Championships,Wimbledon. Defending champion Roger Federer V unknown Colombian Alejandro Falla. 90 minutes of tennis and Federer is 2 sets down. Third set, everyone expects a federer comeback, instead he is down a couple of match points. The great champion that he is, digs deep and finds a way to win the game. Federer never looked so fallible. Come the 1/4 finals he loses to Berdych. Huge shock on Day 9 of the Championships. The All England Club is still coming to terms with the loss me thinks :-P
The vulnerability that has crept into his game this year was something that has never been seen. He dropped to number 3 in the rankings for the forst time in maybe 6 years.
Now why I think the era of the Roger is coming to an end.
1. His ground strokes are'nt as lethal as they used to be. They are still very good, but unforced errors have crept in.
2. The new guys, hit the ball so hard that at times it seems that during long rallies Federer can in no way get past the other guy. The defensive game of these players is again very very good. They run everything down.
3. If you observe closely that this on the rise smack of the ball has also ensured that he has had to resort to use the drop shot far too often. Fantastic change to his game and on his day people generally do not manage to get to the drops.
4. His single handed backhanded versus Nadal's top spinning curler, something that he has never managed to control.
5. The problem with ground strokes has led him to depend on his serve too much. Make no mistake he has one of the best serves ever but then there might be a day (last Saturday) where you manage to put in 55 percent of your first serves. The opponent dosent have much to do. Lots of second serves to attack and slice defense can be breached by some real hard hitting.
6. Too many unforced errors have crept into his game.
Federer dosent seem to be the master that he used to be. He is still one of the greats to have played the game and I just hope that he keeps winning more grand slams. I want him in more finals, playing Nadal in some awesome matches like the 2008 Wimbledon. It is the best game of tennis that I have ever watched.
Though I now doubt whether we would see matches of that quality in the near future..
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