A Tribute to Roger Federer

So, I mentioned in a recent post that I had been meaning to write a tribute to Roger Federer, who right now, still has to rank as the greatest men's tennis player in history, even if two men, Nadal and Djokovic, have surpassed him and taken his number one ranking.

The fact of the matter is that no other man has held the number one ranking for as long as Federer has overall, and no man has as many Grand Slam distinctions to his name. The list goes on and on. The most consecutive weeks as world's number one, at 237 consecutive weeks (that's approximately 4 1/2 years consecutive). He has won an unprecedented sixteen Grand Slam championships, which places him atop everyone else, and two ahead of the previous record holder, Pete Sampras, who managed to get fourteen overall. He reached 23 Grand Slam Finals overall, also a record, surpassing Ivan Lendl's old mark of nineteen Grand Slam Finals appearances. He is the only man in history to have gone to the Finals of each Grand Slam at least five times each, and one of still only seven men in history to have won the career Grand Slam - something that neither Pete Sampras nor Bjorn Borg managed to do. He made it to the Semifinals for 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, which means he won at least his first five matches for every Grand Slam tournament that he played in during that time, and at one point, from the Wimbledon Final in 2005 until the the US Open Final in 2007, he made it to every single Grand Slam Final during that span, ten in a row, and compiled an 8-2 record during that time in those Finals. Right now, having reached the Semifinal of the French Open this year (he lost to Djokovic), he has reached the quarterfinals of the last 32 Grand Slams -which is to say, eight consecutive years without once failing to win at least his first four matches  in any of the Grand Slam tournaments. There is simply nobody, not one single man in history, who has shown such an impressive measure of consistency. Even if Nadal and Djokovic have managed to surpass Federer presently, they have not reached numbers like those, and that is why you have to rank Federer as the greatest men's player in history. 

I wrote the following piece a few years ago, and received some favorable impressions by someone who loved to read, but who was not into sports, and that person commented that though she did not actually care about tennis, or usually about sports in general, she had enjoyed this piece, and I had captured the emotions and the story quite well. That made me feel proud, and so I wanted to share that with you, which is my tribute to Roger Federer, written at a point in his career when he was beginning to show some weaknesses, and the question marks that he had managed to avoid for so long were finally beginning to plague him. This focuses specifically on his rivalry with Nadal, the man who finally managed to wrestle away his number one ranking, and the only man, for a while, who seemed capable of defeating Federer with any kind of consistency:

Nadal seems to have a mastery over Federer that no other tennis player can boast. A few have managed an impressive record against him, but almost never in the Grand Slams and other matches when it counts the most.

Nadal, on the other hand, has a certain style that seems to be quite conducive to defeating Federer in the biggest matches.

We look at the history, and we see Nadal upsetting Federer in the 2005 Men's Semis at the French, en route towards winning his first ever Grand Slam at Roland Garros, at the ripe old age of nineteen.

They would next meet (in the Grand Slam) again at Rolland Garros, this time at the French Open Final, where Federer took the first set and seemed poised to win his first French Open, thus completing a career Grand Slam, only to see Rafel Nadal come storming back and take over the match in a big way. He would cruise to victory, and it was clear, with his second consecutive French Open title, that Nadal was already number two in the world behind Federer, and making strides towards improving his overall standing, to boot.

This was especially clear when he surprised everybody a month later by making it all the way to the Wimbledon Final, where he again met Federer. But this time, Federer was in his element where he was most dominant, and showed it, handing a convincing victory against his suddenly strongest nemesis. It was just another notch under Roger's belt, but everyone was very impressed with Nadal's play.

The next year would be when things would begin to show a pattern that clearly favored Nadal. After once again making it to the Final against Nadal and, once again, taking the first set, Federer dropped three straight, handing Rafael his third consecutive French Open Final. A month later, Nadal followed up on the tremendous promise of his previous trrip to Wimbledon by making it back again, then playing incredibly well, pushing Federer to a tough fifth set before finally succumbing to Roger, giving him his fifth straight Wimbledon.

Federer won, but it was clear that Nadal was catching up. It seemed a matter of time before Nadal would rank number one.

But there were some doubts, and the unprecedented dominance of Federer was, and is, obviously hard to dismiss. So people assumed that Federer was closer to winning the French Open, and in the process, presumably, solving Nadal on clay, than Nadal was to winning another Grand Slam outside of the terre batu.

But Nadal managed to sustain an impressive record against Federer and, unlike other opponents, this was also reflected in the biggest matches, like the Grand Slams. Except for Wimbledon, of course. At least for the time being.

And then, of course, came 2008. Nadal and Federer once again had a date with destiny at the French Open Final, for a third year in a row, and for the fourth consecutive time. By now, many people assumed that Federer, making his third consecutive French Open Final, was showing a mastery of clay that might, just might, top Nadal. He was showing persistence, if nothing else, with a third consecutive Rolland Garros Finals appearance, and looked to finally solve the mystery of Nadal. He had come so close before, it was just a matter of time, right?

Wrong.

In a rather intimidating display, Nadal won the French Open with one of the most dominant, and surprisingly easy, victories of his career. It was also probably the worst defeat the Federer had ever suffered. Nothing he did worked on that day, and he watched as Nadal hoisted the trophy for the fourth time, and third time particularly with Roger as his final opponent.

But could that translate to other surfaces?

A month later, we would find out.

Once again, Federer and Nadal met in the Wimbledon Final, for a third consecutive time. Many felt that Federer would surely get a measure of revenge for his embarrassing, even humiliating, French Open debacle, probably dominating Nadal en route to an unprecedented sixth straight Wimbledon title in the Open era.

Instead, we got a classic match. One that many people seemed to suggest was probably the greatest tennis match in history.

It went the full five sets, and then some.

A back and forth, see saw of a match, with both players showing their greatness along the way, to be sure.

But it was Nadal who persevered and pulled it out, in the end. Nadal, not Federer, who broke through against his arch rival on his surface, and thus managed, to do what no one else had done In over four year's span of time: unseed Federer as the world's number one. This would be extended further when Nadal got another prize that Federer longed for: the Olympic Gold medal. Suddenly, it looked like Nadal was the unbeatable number one in the world.

Federer did get a gold medal in doubles for Switzerland at the Beijing games, and he ended the year by winning the US Open for a fifth straight time, seemingly restoring order by actually winning a Grand Slam event for a sixth straight calendar year.

But Nadal finished the year with the number one ranking, and looked great early the next year where it looked like the past year was just extending.

In the Australian Open, once again, both men managed tor each the Final, their first meeting in a Grand Slam Final outside of Europe.

And it was another five set classic, with both men showing their mettle, with both men playing like champions.

In the end, however, Nadal managed to win his first Australian Open, which was his sixth overall Grand Slam championship, and getting people to discuss the previously unfathomable possibility, that someone might beat Federer to the punch in being the next men's player to win the career Grand Slam.

Federer, who a two years earlier had broken down in tears following his Australian Open Finals victory, this time broke into tears of an entirely different kind. At that moment, despite common sense dictating otherwise, it seemed entirely plausible that we were witnessing a washed up ex-champion coming to terms with relegating his incredible run of success to the past.

Suddenly, it looked like Nadal might be unstoppable, a la Federer.

Suddenly, it was Federer who looked old and restricted and unable to stop a seemingly unbeatable champion and number one player.

That was, of course, not to last.

Federer entered the 2009 clay court season having been frustrated a few times, and with people seemingly ringing a death knell on his era of dominance, now according to them relegated to the past. But it was not to remain there.

Nadal looked to be on the verge of a fifth consecutive French Open title, when something entirely unforeseen happened.

He lost.

Soderling came in and handled Nadal with surprising ease, and managed to move past him, on the way to an amazing and surprising run all the way to the French Open Final, where he met, to no one's surprise, Roger Federer.

By now, everyone was claiming that Federer had to find a way to win this one. He had won his thirteenth Grand Slam championship at the US Open, and one more would tie him with Pete Sampras for the most ever, and would also immortalize him as only the sixth man in history to win the career Grand Slam on all the different surfaces.

He was not going to let this opportunity pass him by, either.

He managed to win, and the celebration was intense thereafter. Federer was finally the champion of all ages, and his victory gave him new life, as Nadal, now injured, pulled out of Wimbledon.

Federer won that, going straight to the Final and then playing yet another unbelievable classic, the longest Finals match ever, against Andy Roddick, before finally finding the way to pull it out in the end, giving him his record setting fifteenth Grand Slam championship, and a sixth Wimbledon. Finally, he stood alone as the most accomplished Men's Grand Slam champion ever, no longer sharing it with Pete Sampras.

Federer regained the number one ranking, and stormed into the US Open, heavily favored to win his sixth US Open, which would also set him ahead of Sampras to stay at that event, as well.

He seemed to easily go through each round like a knife through warm butter, until he reached the Final.

There, he met a formerly virtually unknown in Del Petro, who managed to frustrate Federer en route to a surprisingly easy victory.

But Roger had managed to clinch the Number One ranking again, for the fifth time in six years, and the talk was once again about his greatness, as Nadal's injury seemed the start of a bit of quiet deterioration.

Still, the tennis world anxiously awaited Nadal's recovery, so that the two top players could contend once again for the status of greatest tennis player in the world.

And that is where we stand as I write this, in May of 2010.