It’s no secret that Roger Federer has long been the dazzling darling of the tennis world.
Some of the best chapters in the Open Era’s history have his unmistakeable autograph all over them, but his time as the author of his own greatness is under serious threat right now.
A favourite of neutrals far and wide, his appeal has long seen him garner adoring fans year after year, and the Swiss star had high hopes of further adding to his prestige with yet another Grand Slam win at the Australian Open in January. Unfortunately for him, his run was ended at the semi-final stage by a tour de force performance from World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
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It was a defeat that echoed long after the final winner swooshed past Federer in the final set, carrying with it an unfamiliar air of overwhelming disappointment for the World no. 3. Rarely, if ever, had tennis’ golden boy been on the receiving end of such a devastating defeat, especially at the hands of one of his greatest opponents – something highlighted by this tidbit from the BBC:
Not since a 2001 loss to Andre Agassi at the US Open had Federer been limited to just three games in the first two sets.
Djoker was deserving of his victory and worked wonders to earn his sixth berth in the final. That said, it was a little tough to stomach for the majority of spectators inside the Hisense Arena “Down Under” during the week as they were left reeling in the aftermath of such a one-sided result.
It all felt a little odd and it begged an uncomfortable question: Is Federer suffering an irreversible decline?
Immense hunger remains, Fed is still (technically) the greatest
The wait for an 18th Grand Slam crown of his career will have to wait a few more months at least.
It has been nearly four years since the endearing Basel-born performer last claimed victory in one of the big ones and the painstaking wait has no doubt been nearly impossible to bear for someone so used to tasting victory on a regular basis. The one minuscule comfort is that his peers are still some way off catching up with him in the Slam stakes.
Since 2012, he has come pretty darn close to building his numbers on a few occasions which underline just how keen he is to coax the smouldering desire for silverware into something a little more searing.
Against “Djoker” in the Aussie Open semi-final, the normally uber-competitive Fed was blown away in the opening two sets as the impressive Serb blasted his way to an unforeseen lead. Entering the third set, it looked like the contest was ready to come to an early conclusion. Thankfully for neutrals everywhere, King Roger managed to produce his best tennis of the tournament to fashion a hearty fight-back against an ultimately unstoppable tide of champion momentum.
In particular, his “point of the tournament” where he capped off a battling game in the closing stages of the encounter with an audacious winner underlined just how instantly his superpowers could spark back into life.
It obviously failed to ignite a Herculean comeback and, despite his obvious decline, might have assuaged a few worries that Federer has become a relic of the modern game. Just how relevant he manages to remain will be up in the air for the next few weeks and months, but until he actually calls quits on arguably the greatest career the sport has ever seen it would be silly to discount him completely.
Change of coaches will have a huge impact
It might have been decided towards the end of 2015, but it is still early days as far as Federer’s new coaching team is concerned. Having appointed Ivan Ljubicic (someone he has played against a few times) back in December alongside Severin Luthi, it’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out.
Obviously, a lot of the talk in the New Year surrounded just how it was going to impact his game. After all, introducing a new set of ideas and philosophies to one of the most experienced players around is a delicate sporting reaction to tamper with.
Even more of the talk circulated on how it would impact on the rivalry between Fed and Djoker. As a former mentor and friend of Djokovic, the Croatian tactician possesses an instinctive understanding of the World no.1’s game and it’s possible he has been selected to offer some valuable insider information on plotting his downfall. The fact it didn’t reap any benefits so quickly in the opening Slam of the year is no surprise but it could prove to be a burgeoning relationship ready to jumpstart a waning career.
To put this into perspective, Federer has lost the opening set against Djokovic 12 times from their 45 meetings to date but only once, in Dubai 2014, was he able to fight back and win the match after suffering such a setback.,
With that, any talk of a sudden loss of a steely mentality or disintegration of his characteristic winning persona will seem frankly ridiculous because he has rarely been able to cajole a response after losing momentum early on against his greatest rival.
His recent capitulation was the third time he has gone down in the opening set to Djoker in the Aussie Open so the pattern should have already been clear to see.
What’s more, in four of the five Slam meetings prior to their recent SF Aussie Open encounter, it has been Nole who has emerged victorious. The tide has been turning against him for some time now, and although that won’t make it any easier for the 34-year-old to take, a pragmatic perspective from the new-look coaching team behind him would allow the opportunity to resolve these issues and move towards ironing out the creases.
So, not all hope is lost.
Wimbledon offers bastion of hope for more Slams
With his Aussie journey at an end, Fed will quickly turn his attentions to the remaining Slams of 2016, and there is little doubting that it will be at Wimbledon where he will look to focus most of his efforts.
A quick look at the rest of the field and it’s clear that the inimitable Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are the top dogs on the hard surfaces while it’s difficult to look past Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka on clay.
However, as the past has proven, Federer is no slouch across the board either although grass courts have always been his surface of choice as he has won the most amount of those titles for any player in the Open Era with a whopping 15 to his name.
Having fallen at the final hurdle of the third Grand Slam of the year back in 2015, he was denied the opportunity to become the first player in history to take home the title eight times, but knowing how competitive he can be, it’s easy to imagine he will fight to earn the chance again.
He might be an ageing legend, but he has always been most comfortable at SW19, something clearly proven by his impressive haul of titles there. The likelihood is that the Swiss superstar probably has two or three more years left in him where he can realistically challenge for silverware and it would be naive to think that he won’t come close to yet more glory at the All England Tennis Club in the summer.
Sure, it’s a long way off but the target will already be set.
As sure as rain in the middle of a high-tension English summer match of tennis, Federer will come good again. With the raucous crowd behind him at Wimbledon, combined with his usual desire to be the best, we will see some of his remaining brilliance when the strawberries and cream make their scheduled arrival. We’ll just have to wait and see whether it’s sufficient to see him triumph on one of the biggest stages of them all.
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