Tennis is a beautiful sport. Steeped in skill, sportsmanship, and centuries of tradition, tennis is perhaps one of the last true gentleman’s games.

On the other hand, tennis is a violent war of attrition. Tennis is a cruel game which shows little love for its elder statesmen and legends. Perhaps I’m going too far, but then again maybe not.

Roger Federer entered the final round of the Tennis Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, China in devastating form. The 16-time major champion and single most decorated tennis champion in the history of the men’s game entered the final as a strong favorite.

With his long-time foil, Rafael Nadal making an early exit there, most experts believed that Roger had a decent shot at taking home in 64th ATP singles title, and third of this 2010 season.

Considering the frightening ease with which Federer dismissed a potentially dangerous Robin Soderling, in a quarterfinal that lasted less than an hour, the expert opinion seemed right on target. Federer had also followed up that performance with another impressive, albeit much more competitive semifinal showdown with Serb Novak Djokovic, the very man who bounced him from this year’s U.S. Open in a dramatic five-set semifinal. The result this time was a straight sets 7-5, 6-4 victory. 

It looked to millions of faithful Federer fans as though Roger was ready to grab a record tying 18th Masters 1000 crown. By the end of the day on Sunday, Federer would remain static at 17 titles.

Enter Andy Murray, a long time British hopeful and talented player with a knack for coming up a bit short in important matches. While Murray had a slight edge in their career head-to-head meetings, Federer had decisively won their only two Grand Slam final meetings.

The two men took the court and spectators expected a competitive match at the very least. It didn’t happen. Murray came out in smoldering form, he looked determined and Federer looked a little shell shocked. As Murray covered the court with extraordinary cat-like reflexes and slapped improbable dead-run winners, Federer looked helpless against the bigger, younger and ultimately better man. The result was a resounding 6-3, 6-2 thumping. Federer managed to win only five games in two sets.

In the grand scheme of things, Roger Federer sits amongst the very great players in the history of the sports. Sort of like David Beckham, Federer is a global icon, and one of the wealthiest, most recognizable and perhaps most beloved sporting personalities on the planet. His accomplishments on the court have garnered the Swiss player the love and admiration of both lay people and fellow players.

But like David Beckham, the myth of the man and the reality of his situation are no longer one. Federer is an aging champion. Yes, I know 29 is considered pretty young in most walks of life, but the reality is that tennis can be a discriminating, brutal and unforgiving sport. Tennis does not respect its elder.

The reality for Federer is harshly apparent. Shanghai can be viewed as a microcosm of his major dilemma. It’s a dilemma that such legends as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Ken Rosewall also faced in the twilight of their careers. The tournament format is meant to benefit youth.

In their latter years, I sat in front of the television and watched in disbelief as Pete Sampras’ 2001 U.S. Open came to a crashing end.

In what had to have been one of the toughest draws in the history of the tournament, I watched Sampras conquer a red hot two-time champion Patrick Rafter in the round of sixteen with beautiful tennis. He then took that momentum and prevailed in four tie-break sets over the tournament favorite and former two-time champion Andre Agassi in one of the great matches ever played, then Sampras went on to defeat the man who had dismantled him in the previous year’s Final, Marat Safin, a young and in form defending champion. All of this and Sampras still had to play the Final.

By the time final Sunday came around, Sampras could offer little resistance against and much younger and hungrier kid named Lleyton Hewitt. Sampras would go down meekly 7-6, 6-1, 6-1.  The same happened to a 30-something Andre Agassi twice, in 2003 and then again at age 35 in 2005. Ken Rosewall twice felt the youth movement of his beloved sport in 1974, in the form of a youngster named Jimmy Connors.

While Federer might not quite be in his 30’s, the principal remains the same.

In a sport meant for players in their early to mid 20’s, Federer is finding out personally why it’s is so damn hard to remain at the top of the sport for more than a few years. Roger started Shanghai about as hot as we’ve seen him. He opened with a brutal second-round match against John Isner, one of the toughest guys to play on tour. He easily brushed Isner aside, and his form continued to get better. So Federer has proven that he still has great tennis in him.

The Soderling match was an eye-opener for us all. Federer is still more than capable of getting hot and having stretches of untouchable tennis. His decline is by no means complete. But what we also saw, and was especially evident on Sunday was the fact that it will be increasingly difficult for Federer to win important titles. Not impossible, but much more difficult.

As a player gets older, it gets tougher and tougher to step onto the court day in and day out and produce his best stuff. As the muscles start to get a little sorer, the joints stiffen just a little, and fatigue plays more of a role than it ever had, it’s just unrealistic to expect that Federer will be able to step onto the court day in and day out and play at the highest level.

We saw this at the 2009 U.S. Open, where Federer looked so great against Soderling in the quarterfinals, only to struggle to keep up with the younger Djokovic in the next round. We saw the handwriting on the wall as early as last year, when Federer straight settled the same Djokovic in an extremely high quality match in the semifinals before playing an erratic final against eventual winner Juan Martin del Potro.

If Federer comes out of the gates in smoldering form, he is capable of anything. Only Rafael Nadal can challenge him when things are clicking 100 percent, but perhaps the legendary Chris Evert said it best when she remarked about getting older, “You just have more bad days.”

It seems that Federer, though he will never admit it as his champion’s pride will not allow him to admit it, understands this.

He knows that he is still capable of great tennis, but he also knows that this is a young man’s sport and that it’s going to get increasingly tougher to win these big events, especially considering that he’ll have to beat so many younger, stronger, hungrier guys in succession in order to win. It’s a tough road to hoe, on that many a great player has been down.