Roger Federer: Why Fed-Ex Won't Win a Grand Slam This Year

2012 will see the second-straight year in which Roger Federer won’t win a Grand Slam event. It isn’t simply because he’s past his prime, but it mostly factors in with Novak Djokovic being on another level right now.

It would have been easy for Djokovic to fold under the pressure against Rafael Nadal in a six-hour marathon on Sunday in the 2012 Australian Open Final. He lost a heart-breaker in the fourth, was down 2-4 in the fifth and was about to be broken when he was serving for the match in the same set.  

What does that say about his character? We are watching pure greatness right now—there is no telling what this man could do.

Djokovic finished the 2011 campaign 70-6 with three Grand Slam championships on his resume. Judging by how much Nadal dominates the French Open (he’s won six times, two straight), Federer will be hard-pressed to win one Grand Slam this year.

Federer didn’t win a Grand Slam event last year for the first time since 2002. He has only won one in two years. We are looking at one of the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport on the downside of his career.

Thirty in tennis is like 40 is any other sport—his game is definitely past its prime. He’s been a pro since 1998, so we are talking about legs that could be on their last lap.

For Federer to win a Grand Slam, things have to fall perfectly into place. I can see Federer still being able to defeat either Djokovic or Nadal, but not both in the same tournament. One would have to be upset or, in a perfect world, both would be upset, which would set up Fed-Ex perfectly.

I don’t see that happening right now.

Sunday saw the two best players in the sport play at the highest level. One is 25 (Nadal) and the other is 24 (Djokovic). They are going to win the four Grand Slam events this year, and Federer will once again be on the outside looking in.