I have been meaning to post about Roger Federer since his disastrous Australian Open. The draft post kept changing in form and content...after he smashed his racket in the Masters, after he won the French Open making mincemeat of Nadal's conqueror, Soderling. At all those points the title of the post was to be 'The Fallen Hero?'. But now, posting after that fantastic Wimbledon final day before yesterday, I can't even begin to reflect on how Federer might have fallen. He has somehow risen beyond himself, not because he beat Sampras's record..but because he conquered himself. The Fedrer we saw day before yesterday was similar to Federer at his peak in 2005-2006 ..winning the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian open continuously. The Wimbledon Website carried an excellent article on Federer's win yesterday, summed up in these lines "This may not have been Federer at his most artistic but it was Federer at his most ferociously determined". Its been a while since I have seen Federer play with such focus and calm (something which was characteristic of him at one point), pushing on doggedly and serving better under pressure than Andy Roddick himself. In the end, it was as much a mental and psychological game as a physical effort; a question of who would crack first; and Federer, regaining his poise of old, triumphed. And he didn't even cry! It still remains to see whether he can use this effectively against Nadal, who seems to get to him like no one else. But now with the 15 grand slam titles (and this Wimbledon, I personally think, is his greatest victory), he has the confidence and complacency to keep playing and winning. As for Nadal, I don't think its important for Federer to beat him anymore..personally at least, I feel he has proved all that he needs to prove!
A word on Roddick though - really improved game and fantastic playing under pressure. In the end I was actually hoping he would win; but as 'Veejay' Amritraj always says 'Don't doubt the champion!'
5 comments:
Nice piece..wrote one myself...A Rod really played out of his skins..felt terribly bad for him...but yeah the champ that Fed is...he played the points that mattered most better..
The only thing I hate about this victory is that he passed Sampras. Because I will always be a bigger Sampras fan.
Yeah I guess it sucks for Sampras fans. I don't have such hang-ups :) Anyways, I'm more into the players themselves than the records they beat.
I think the difference in Roddick's game is because of him now being "just an old married dude" - you can see how relaxed he is. He has a much sharper strategy (thanks to his new coach - we now know how much Connors sucked at coaching!) and the capacity to rally long.
But then, Roddick could last so long because Federer's game's also gone down terribly.
Yeah, it was quite weird that Fed couldn't break him. I don't think he came to the net enough.
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