Is Roger Federer really on a downward spiral?

Federer during the French Open defeat

Soon after the defeat of Roger Federer at the hands of Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros ( 4-6,5-7,3-6), questions started to be raised again about the chances of Roger Federer ever winning another slam. In fact, the questions are sounding more desperate as each major goes by. This can be attributed to the fact that over the course of half a decade, the world had grown accustomed to seeing Federer win almost every major, and breaking all sorts of tennis records in the process. So for the past two years now, since he won the Australian Open in 2010, people have been growing restless to see him lift another major. But are the questions of decline justified?

I don’t think so. Since his defeat to Tsonga in an epic five-setter in the Wimbledon quarter-finals 2011, he has made semi final appearances in all the following slams ( US Open2011, Australian Open2012,and Roland Garros 2012). That speaks a lot about his consistency, when questions are being raised about his age. The competition has been transported to an altogether different sphere, thanks to Novak, but Federer has always been close behind. He has captured 4 titles this year (Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells, and Madrid). That definitely puts to rest the doubts about the level of his game dropping.

Roger has in fact tweaked his game a bit, by attempting a lot more attacking shots. Consistently now, in the recent past, he has attempted to end points as early as possible on his serve, by coming more often to the net. This means that he has recognized the fact that he cannot compete with Nadal and Djokovic by playing from the baseline. When a sporting personality who has accomplished so much, changes his game in order to give a stiff fight to his competitors, it speaks a lot about the fire which rages on in his belly.

So it would be only fair to say, that Federer will definitely win more than one slam before he retires from the game. He is doing all that is there to be done to win a major. Now all we have to do is to wait , be patient, and savor the moment when it finally arrives!