Roger Federer: After Nadal, Swiss Maestro Is Up Against His Second Biggest Enemy

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: March 12, 2012

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The celebrations of the truly epic final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the 2012 Australian Open had just begun. Firecrackers were lighting up the sky. Champagne corks were popping. Djokovic was being elevated to the highest ranks. Tombstones were being erected for Maestro Roger Federer.

Federer became, yet again, a catchall for myriad epitaphs—some sorrowful, some dispassionate and some outright dismissive.

Just like it happened when he swept Basel, Paris and London, the twin delights at Rotterdam and Dubai are whipping up a froth of hope and hype all over again about Federer's winning possibilities.

The naysayers' tone isn't that elegiac. It's not as if the subject evoked belongs to the vanished past, but rather one that needed a simple internal thrust to get back to winning ways.

But why is it this way? Why does it take just one loss to write him off and one victory to rehabilitate him into the tennis mainstream of hopefuls?

Life in a Sterile Bubble

Sixteen majors in eight years (2003-2010) versus Sampras' 14 in 13 years (1990-2002), 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals versus 10 shared by Rod Laver and Ivan Lendl, 31 quarters at consecutive majors versus Jimmy Connors' 41 (not consecutive, as Connors missed a few majors in between), so on and so forth.

We all know about these records. But look at the consistency here!



 

Until he relinquished his No.1 ranking to Rafael Nadal in 2008, Roger Federer was living in a sterile bubble, often vulnerable to the pinpricks of only one player: Nadal.

The constant upswirl of his winning streaks and the casual sweeps at Slams got so heady that Federer was singularly responsible for the shift in the public perception of tennis itself.

Between 2003-2007 in particular, Federer delivered not just effects, but statements with his emphatic wins and elegant display of ten...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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