5 qualities which made Roger Federer the greatest tennis player

#4 Ability to change his game according to the strength of his opponent

Federer after yet another victory

In spite of being a superb grass-court player, Federer has the ability to control the rallies from the baseline. In the 2007 Wimbledon final against Nadal, he demonstrated this ability instead of coming to the net frequently. He was wary of Nadal’s awesome passing shots and preferred to stay on the baseline for most of the match.

As a result, Nadal, the clay-court specialist, could not win too many points with his passing shots and had to toil harder to get accustomed to the pace and bounce of the grass-court. He could hit only 16 winners in the last 2 sets of the match and finished runner-up.

Again, in the US Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic in 2008, Federer played some timely drop shots to drag Djokovic to the net, thereby not allowing him to continue hitting those ferocious groundstrokes from the baseline. As a result, Djokovic’s rhythm was disrupted and he lost the match.

This ability to improvise separates Federer from the rest and makes him such a formidable opponent in all surfaces.