Roger Federer, GOAT. The Swiss, with his seventeen grand slams and a litany of other titles, is considered perhaps the best to have ever played the sport. Following a six-month layoff that may have seemed even longer for his most ardent followers, Federer has returned to Tour-level competition with the Australian Open 2017. Now, he’ll play an old foe: Jurgen Melzer, in his first round match on the 16th of January 2017.
After every single ticket to his Hopman Cup matches sold out weeks before the tournament, Federer opened up his practice sessions for fans in Australia and those sessions were packed to the (Pat) Rafters!
Federer has looked every bit in form already, and even in his Hopman Cup loss to Alexander Zverev, showed the fitness and stamina of a man ten years younger.
If he could pull off a come-from-behind win at the Australian Open this year, it would be one of the biggest events of the year.
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And here's why:
He has not won a title in 5 years
Although he has not had a significant dip in results or rankings since 2003, Roger Federer has not won a Grand Slam since 2012, when he won his seventh and final Wimbledon title.
And it is not just fans who are itching to see the Swiss back in action. Federer has long said he is himself itching to return to action and win “at least two or three” more Grand Slams.
Should the fit Federer be able to achieve that milestone, he will not only extend his lead to 18 Grand Slams – the highest by a male singles player, but achieve a personal goal in the process.
He is the fans’ favourite player
Federer has always been one of the most-loved players on the circuit, and fans have awaited every match the Swiss has announced in the past year since his hiatus at Wimbledon.
Tickets to every Roger Federer tie at the Hopman Cup early on in Perth, Australia sold out a month before the tournament began; the Swiss decided, then, that he would open up all of his practice sessions to the public in Australia.
Those sessions were also completely packed, with fans thronging to watch the Swiss former No. 1 in hitting practice as well.
The Swiss has been voted on consistently by viewers as a ‘fan favourite’, and is amiable and one of the most fan-friendly athletes on Tour – little wonder, then, that crowds throng his matches constantly.
It would mean more years of tennis from the legend
At 35, Federer is not the youngest in the draw in Australia, but has regardless displayed the stamina and fitness of a player half his age. He has also had one of the longest, most successful careers in the business, with not much of a significant dip in form.
His only big dip in the rankings came last year following his 6-month hiatus, which was taken to stave off more serious complications from an old meniscus injury that has plagued Federer over the years.
Taking long recovery breaks has meant that Federer will have a longer, more sustained period in the sport. Given that 6 months off has still seen him drop inside the top 20, it is no mean feat for the ace especially given the quickly rising young crop of players aiming to get a move on in the ranks – some of whom Federer has fought successfully this year.
A win at Melbourne Park would definitively mean Federer is in the pink of health and at the top of his form – assuring fans of at least a few more years in sport.
The world needs something to celebrate
2016 was a difficult year as we lost a host of luminaries across sport – footballer Johan Cruyff, iconic boxer Mohammed Ali and cricketer Martin Crowe among others. We lost performers, musicians, and people who made their impact on the world and whose absence has made it a sadder place. Add to that the number o
Political conflicts and a huge cloud of intolerance have appeared to descend on the world, which is now covered with a pall of gloom.
Success stories, comebacks built on legacies such as the one Federer has built so carefully over the last 14 years, have the capacity to add cheer to the world.
It may be a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but the best things come in small doses, and the happiness a Federer win could deliver would mean something to tennis, and give fans something to cheer on, rally around and smile about.
And when was the last time fans could say they cheered on the underdog – and the underdog was the best tennis player of all time?
Federer deserves to go out on a high
Roger Federer has already gone down as the greatest tennis player of all time – but the terms of his departure from the sport, when it does come, should be his. Some of the greatest sportspersons of all time have had lean periods before going out on a high.
Brian Lara, considered one of the greatest batsmen cricket has ever seen, played his swan song at St. John’s in 2004, at the West Indies vs England test that April. He played a spectacular 400 not out knock, only the second ever quadruple century in First Class cricket – and a feat nobody has repeated since.
The iconic Ronaldo Nozario de Lima, one of the best footballers the world has ever seen and a man who has become synonymous with the sport, won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002, his perfect way to say goodbye to the sport he had enriched.
And for Sachin Tendulkar, he said goodbye to the sport he had loved all his life at his home grounds, Wankhede, in 2013, hitting a 74-run knock, just 79 runs from a 16,000 run tally – but impressive nevertheless, at a ground that had seen many of Tendulkar’s earliest successes.
Roger Federer, as much synonymous with tennis as these luminaries have been with their own sports, deserves just as grand a farewell from tennis in what he has admitted are the last couple of years of his career. In an ideal world, tennis fans – and the Maestro himself – would love to see that happen at Wimbledon, the Temple of Federer, but winning a fifth Australian Open title would be no small feat.
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