Australian Open 2012: Roger Federer's Road Back to Top of Tennis a Difficult One

Roger Federer isn't all that far from the summit of men's tennis, but the journey back to his former perch will be arduous nonetheless.

"FedEx" will look to take a big step in the right direction at the 2012 Australian Open to kick off what may yet be the last year of on-court greatness left in his seemingly bottomless tank.

At 30 years old, Federer's age now serves as simple written confirmation of the fact that he's a ways off from the sort of technical brilliance and utter dominance that helped him to become the winningest Grand Slam champion in the history of men's tennis between 2003 and 2010. His last major victory came at Melbourne Park two years ago, when he ousted Andy Murray in the final in straight sets to bring his career Grand Slam total to a sweet 16.

Of course, Federer hasn't exactly fallen off the cliff and into oblivion since then. He still sits comfortably at No. 3 in the world tennis rankings, though cracking the top two, ahead of either No. 1 Novak Djokovic or No. 2 Rafael Nadal, has proven to be much more of a chore for the Swiss sensation.

Then again, doing so will be far from an impossible task for Federer. His fluid, well-rounded style has allowed him to play at a high level without wearing down his body, at least not quite like Rafa has in recent years. Nadal managed to fight through a series of injuries on the way to the 2011 French Open title, but struggled to replicate his 2010 success in any of the other tournaments.

Djokovic, then, would appear to be the biggest obstacle in Federer's way at the Aussie Open, though even the big Serbian, in all of his recent splendor, hasn't exactly been impermeable to Federer's graceful greatness of late. Remember, it was Federer who ended Djokovic's 43-match win streak with a gutsy performance in the semifinals at the French Open. Federer nearly knocked Djokovic out of the US Open as well, but ultimately fell to his "Trivalry" nemesis in five sets.

Ultimately, Federer's most imposing obstacle will be his own body. Federer has a 20-match winning streak of his own, dating back to last season, but has been dealing with a sore back that forced him to bow out of the Qatar Open earlier this month.

Scaling mountains and playing tennis are difficult enough activities on their own when there's a bad back involved. Doing them simultaneously, as Federer is attempting to do (metaphorically and literally), figures to be even tougher—though if anyone's going to pull it off, it's Federer.

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