Roger Federer: 9 Reasons Rod Laver Is Right That He Will Win a Major in 2012

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Rod Laver recently predicted that Roger Federer’s major titles drought is near the end.

Roger is finishing the year in top form after an amazing run, capturing the titles at Basel, Paris and crowning it with the World Tour Finals in London.

For the lovers of good tennis, this is as good of news as you get.

Nothing could be better for tennis than Roger Federer sticking around a little longer and contradicting those who counted him out.

The better a player is, the greater the expectations. The fact that he didn’t win a major title in 2011 is a big deal for Roger Federer, but the year he had is still amazing for any other human being’s standards.

Since anyone with common sense should have nothing but respect for a living tennis legend like Rod Laver, let’s take a look at nine reasons why he is right.

9) His Year-End Gave Him Confidence and Showed He Can Still Beat Anybody

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Much of the credit for Novak Djokovic’s success in 2011 was given to the level of confidence he built with so many victories.

The same criteria should be applied to Federer, as he goes into the 2012 season with a three-tournament win streak that should definitely boost his confidence.

8) He Is the Healthiest of All Top Players

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Roger Federer never gets injured or sick. The fact that he is in such a form at the age of 30 shows how well he takes care of his body.

His talent plays a major role here, since one who plays tennis so effortlessly is unlikely to get hurt at all.

7) He Knows How to Win a Major

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Roger Federer has won 16 total major titles and is the all-time record holder in that category.

Getting to the latter stages of majors is a very familiar territory for the Swiss and he handles these situations better than anyone else in the world.

6) He Can Play with Less Pressure at This Stage in His Career

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Roger Federer is probably in the most comfortable stage of a tennis player’s career.

He has basically nothing to prove to anybody and his challenges are mostly personal goals that he has set for himself.

This should make him play even more loosely than he already does, making him even more dangerous than he already is.

5) He Is Still Motivated to Have a Late Career Run

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Federer has stated many times that he is as motivated as ever to play tennis.

He loves the sport and says he even enjoys the traveling, which most players don’t.

He would like nothing better than having a late career run like Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi—perhaps an even better one, as he is very competitive.

4) He Is Serving Better

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This is one of the reasons pointed out by Rod Laver as key to Federer's future success.

Statistics released by the ATP confirm this as a fact. He is ranked second best in first serve points won, second serve points won and service games won.

He is ahead of his main competitors in the serve stats field.

3) He Is Getting to the Net More

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This is another reason pointed by Laver why Roger will win more majors.

Being more aggressive enables him to keep points shorter and it expends even less energy.

In addition to that, he keeps his main rivals from being able to execute their game plans against him.

This is definitely a smart move.

2) He Is Well Coached

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Paul Annacone is a perfect fit for Federer at this stage in his career.

He has worked with former top players before and understands the net game like no one else, as that is how he used to play.

The fact of having a coach also proves that Fed is still hungry for titles.

1) Technically, No One Plays Tennis Like Roger Federer

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This is only an opinion but perhaps shouldn’t even be one.

It is just factual truth.