It is a bit hard to imagine that, back in the early 2000's, Roger Federer was one of the underachievers in tennis, a guy that clearly had the talent to do more than he was doing at the time.
Given his storied and undeniably extremely well-accomplished career since, you would have to concur that he more than made up for lost time! After all, this was the man who wound up competing for, and winning, more Grand Slam Finals than any other man in history. He was ranked number one for a longer straight stretch than any other man, and for longer than any other man cumulatively. He won all four Grand Slam titles, becoming only the fifth man in history to do that (Nadal has since joined him), and won 17 Grand Glam titles in all, easily a record. He also received a silver medal in singles competition at the Olympics in London in 2012, and won a gold medal in doubles competition at the Olympics in Beijing back in 2008.
Simply put, this was one of the few guys who became the face of his sport because of his complete dominance of it for such an extended time.
On every level, this is one of the most accomplished and dominant athletes in our time, and he conducts himself with such poise and class, that it sometimes seems almost surreal.
So, again, it is almost hard to imagine that there was indeed a time when people were wondering why he had not yet won a Grand Slam, and why, overall, he was not achieving as much as most people assumed that he could.
Now, looking back at that almost forgotten part (by most of us, anyway) of his career, Roger Federer explains what was going on, and why he did not achieve more earlier, when a lot of other stars in men's tennis were breaking through at a comparatively younger age.
Here is the link to the article:
Roger Federer reflects on early career: ‘I was like a rough cut diamond’ by Roger Federer:
http://tennis.si.com/2013/12/23/roger-federer-rough-cut-diamond-brisbane-international/?section=si_latest
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