Roger Federer: 5 Signs He's Back at His Best on the Court

Many would say that Roger Federer's career is at the low end of the spectrum and that his time left at the top is limited.

However, he is in fact still playing sublime tennis and is just as good as ever. It still is hard to count the Maestro out of tournaments. Amid many people's doubts of his current performance, he still manages to not surprise them after winning titles.

Everybody knows Roger can still hoist Grand Slam trophies—and here are essentially five reasons why he soon will.

Momentum from 2011

Although 2011 was known for being Novak Djokovic's best season, Roger also ended his year in style and success.

Starting after his semifinals loss at the US Open, he went on a winning streak of 24 matches, winning in Basel, Paris, the World Tour Finals, a few matches in Doha (before withdrawing) and five more matches at the Australian Open until falling to Rafael Nadal in the semifinals.

Since the last major of 2011, he is 26-1 and is looking to improve upon that win-loss ratio later at the tournament in Rotterdam.

He Did Not Let the Australian Open Loss Get to Him

Sure, his party was crashed by his long-time rival in Melbourne, but he handled the situation very well.

He accepted defeat and Rafa's outstanding performance and went on to Rotterdam to deny other opponents of taking a set off of him.

Whether or not he loses in the next match, at least Rog made the semifinals of another tournament. However, he is the favorite to win and would not shock us at all by doing so.

He Is Playing More Aggressively

The strategy of the one-two punch was Fed's main plan back in his most successful years.

It has been harder to do that on opponents' service games since the serves have gotten much better.

However, Roger worked hard with Paul Annacone on attacking the return of serve and following it up on the next shot, and it is finally starting to pay dividends.

His backhand is also much better, and his serve and forehand have not changed too drastically. 

He Is Motivated to Achieve the No. 1 Ranking Again

It will be incredibly tough for Nole to defend all of his points from last year, even if he does win a majority of the tournaments that he captured a season ago.

Rafael Nadal also has many points from finals to defend from last year, and Federer did not produce his best results in the last season. If he picks up some wins of his own and knocks Rafa and Novak out of a few of the big tournaments, he has a serious shot to be a contender for the top spot.

He Has the Belief This Year More so Than Last Year

At some points in last year's season, Federer seemed doubtful and unsure of his position in the men's field.

This year, he has started off strong and will look to finish it off the same way.

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