2010 Australian Open: Federer Footwork Everywhere in Melbourne

When Marlon Brando appeared on stage in 1947, the long time New York Times theatre critic, Jocelyn Shattuck wrote, "Acting will not be the same after him. This kind of genius has to be addressed by everybody.". Her prediction proved to be prescient, to say the least.

What Brando did, that was innovative, was use the Method Acting system developed by Stanislavski, but in a different way than anybody. To make it simple, actors before Brando, said the words and then felt. Actors after Brando, had to feel, then learn and say the words.

It was revolutionary, then and still is now. What is amazing about it, all actors, at the time and since, successful, unsuccessful or aspiring have to deal with it.

"Genius is such, that, everything before seems insufficient and everything after is affected by it."

In tennis, Bjorn Borg was one of those geniuses. He was the first player to use topspin consistently, when most players just thought of it as a rare variety shot. 5 straight Wimbledons. 6 French Opens. It seems a simple discovery now, when eight of ten strokes played have topspin on them.

That is the ironic detail about a majority of geniuses and their works. They discover or develop something completely original but it does not seem to be utterly complex in hindsight. This leads to their competitors and contemporaries catching up to them in a few years.

Federer, Da Vinci and the Bard

There are a few exceptions to the rule. Very few. Shakespeare, Van Goethe, Da Vinci are examples, whose names are practically synonyms for such achievement. These people have achievements that have so many innovations, that it is baffling for people in their discipline to copy or learn from them in time to catch up.

If you follow tennis, it is not vapid to believe Roger Federer is one of those geniuses. From the time he matured, he has used so many new spins, shots and styles in tennis in new ways, that watching a tennis match from 2002 feels like it is from 30 years ago.

From 2004-2008, the tennis world as a whole was confused, confounded and thus, mystified about him, like writers in the past 2 centuries have been when they think about the Bard. How could anybody compare themselves to him, him who had changed the game, figuratively, in so many ways?

But writing is not like tennis, you dont see a 50 year old Shakespeare going head to head with a 22 year old Lord Byron. It would not be surprising to see him outproducing the Bard. But artists are not judged like that.

Winning battles do not matter to artists.

But because, it is tennis, because it is a battle, he had to slip. And what was incredible and why he is no Shakespeare, that, this slip allowed the rest of tennis to pierce the aura and start learning.

Through 2009, you saw the journeymen of tennis, start using a vast variety of grips and stances normally associated with Federer. Mirror like inside-out forehands, gambits planned 4 shots ahead, all associated with Federer were being played by players ranked 30-100 and beyond.

But however hard they try, they dont have the same talent and complete mastery that the original has. But they will keep copying.

It's everywhere in Melbourne

So as the first few rounds of the Australian open have passed, the most intriguing thing about 2010 to watching tennis players is that another important category of Federer innovation has seemingly been learned by the journeymen of tennis.

The Federer footwork. It's everywhere in Melbourne

Watching Thomas Berdych, Albert Montanes, Juan Mónaco, Ernesto Gulbis, Feliciano Lopez, Mardy Fish, you get the sense that a lot of them have been watching Federer videos and have completely incorporated it into their games. And if they have, then all the young ones for sure have.

People who have watched Federer, know that it is the most important part of his game, which allows him to set up all his shots, save energy, be Roger Federer.What it could mean, is a lot of journeymen making moves up the ranks and causing a lot of upsets.

What is definite is, tennis is going to be beautiful in a lot more places.