Is This the End of the Fed-Era?

Over the last few weeks, we've seen, what are called by many, several "upsets". However, these upsets have been a worrying trend for Roger Federer.

He suffered several defeats to players you'd expect him to breeze by in the masters tournaments and had a few bad losses during the clay court season.

But then it came, at the French Open Robin Soderling went out there and just took apart his game, punished his second serve severely, broke down his backhand and took time away from Federer.

There was simply nothing Federer could do, and you knew when an attempted forehand dropshot from a ridiculous position went limp at the net, that he was running out of ideas.

His precious record 23 consecutive grand-slam semi-final appearences shattered in dramatic style.

That is the first time I've truly seen Federer look like an ordinary player. Even against Nadal, he had his moments, but this match he just seemed limp. Federer can't seem to deal with power players, I thought.

The grass court season comes around and I think yes, it'll be good to see Roger go for his record equalling seventh Wimbledon title.

The title in Halle seemed like a given to me; he hadn't won a title since Australia, and he'd be hungry to reassert his authority on the court after the French.

No, it was yet another "upset," a match he was seemingly in control of, after taking the first set and being 0-40 up on Hewitt's serve at 4-4 in the second, he simply just went away and lost to a player who had a 15-match losing streak against him.

I then watched him come out against Alejandro Falla and go two sets to love down. If I'm honest I'd thought he'd gone, it seemed like his racket was made of wood and you were just waiting for him to make an unforced error in the rally.

He came through and "lived to fight another day," but there was nothing to be optimistic about, a clay court specialist ranked 60th in the world served for the match in the first round against Roger Federer. There is no way to put a positive spin on that.

After his victories over Melzer and Clement, I lured my self into a false sense of security, thinking he would probably come through in four sets against Berdych. How wrong was I?

Yet another power player who went out there and forced his game on Federer, he even whacked his second serve just as Soderling did at the French.

At this point, I think he has truly lost his aura of invincibility at the slams, humiliated in four sets at the slam he can claim to be king.

Yes he says he had a bad back and bad leg, but that doesn't really make for an excuse, I didn't really see much wrong with him.

Every player now goes out there thinking they have a chance against possibly the greatest player to ever lift a racket. Before, this was unthinkable, especially in the slams.

With a No. 3 ranking to be given to him on Monday, the first time in 7 years that he's not been in one of the top two spots, I ask myself, is this the end of Federer?

I know you can never write him off, but with a huge amount of points to defend over the hard court season, only time will tell.