Roger Federer: Fed-Ex's Resurgence Should Scare Rest of Field

You can call it a resurgence, but Roger Federer hasn't exactly fallen off recently in the world of tennis.

Call it a return to form, but Fed-Ex hardly strays from the norm he has set for himself.

No matter what you call it, what the Swiss Maestro did at the All England Club one month prior to his 31st birthday was nothing short of miraculous.

It wasn't just Sunday, though. It was an entire fortnight of impressive play from the new No. 1 tennis player in the world.

The No. 1 ranking is just a title, though. Depending on whom you ask, you might hear that Federer never actually left his post, he just let Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have their fun.

Either way the rest of the ATP should fear Federer as the season progresses.

At 30 years old, he has reclaimed his No. 1 ranking. Many thought he would never do so and would fall into the shadows of the younger Djoker and Rafa, but Federer proved the doubters wrong again.

Federer has slowly but surely been building up steam since the early stages of the season.

He lost two semifinal matches in January to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nadal in the Qatar Open and the Australian Open, respectively.

Things got real ugly after that. Not for Federer, but for his next 15 or so opponents.

Federer ran roughshod on the field in the Rotterdam Open, the Dubai Open and the Paribas Open. He won all three competitions, dropping just three sets over the course of the trio of tournaments.

He was upset at the Sony Ericsson Open by Andy Roddick in the third round but bounced back to win the Madrid Open a month later by beating Richard Gasquet, David Ferrer, Janko Tipsarevic and Tomas Berdych.

Djokovic proved too much for Federer in the semifinals of the Italian and French opens. Fed-Ex then lost to Tommy Haas in the Gerry Weber Open final.

It was almost as though Federer was hibernating, storing his energy for the 2012 rendition of Wimbledon, in which he would shock those who didn't believe he could.

His road to his record-tying seventh Wimbledon title was not an easy one. He came back from a two-set deficit to trump Julien Benneteau in the third round and then trounced Mikhail Youzhny in the quarterfinals.

Sure, he won the final match against Andy Murray, but that was all but a foregone conclusion once he "upset" Djokovic in the semifinals. Had Federer not won, the storylines would have revolved around Murray's triumph more so than Federer's failure.

It's a discernible fact that Federer had the momentum heading into the final match. While it is less concrete, Federer has the momentum heading into the rest of the season.

Federer's age should be of no concern to the rest of the field, as it surely isn't.

The only thing his opponents should be concerned with is how they can possibly beat a man who has turned back the clock in a way that hasn't been seen in the history of tennis.