The Last Man Standing May Be The Best Ever

Who could have predicted that three out of the top four men would be eliminated prior to the semis in the French Open? I certainly did not.

Federer is the last man standing among them with the years of expectations and ambitions rested firmly on his shoulders. Does he have the game and the grit to win the one and only slam in which he has fought till the end only to lose to the king of clay, Rafael Nadal in the last four years?

Let us see for a moment why we are missing Nadal here and what Federer has done to himself to this point.

Last Sunday witnessed what could be arguably the No. 1 upset in the history of tennis. Soderling muscled his way through Nadal’s game and will. Although, I was initially jubilant and thrilled to see someone taking it up to Rafa on clay, but in the end I was disappointed and utterly shocked to see Nadal go down w/o much fight.

Federer and Nadal are great achievers in modern tennis. They both have contributed immensely to the popularity of the sport and also have taken it to a whole new level.

After Sampras was past his prime, for about four years there was a void as there was not a single dominant champion. As illustrated in the Table below, 2000-2003 produced four different champions in four majors in each calendar year.

Table: Grand Slam Champions of the 90s

Year	Australian	French	Wimbledon	US Open
2009	Nadal
2008	Djokovic	Nadal	Nadal	Federer
2007	Federer	Nadal	Federer	Federer
2006	Federer	Nadal	Federer	Federer
2005	Safin	Nadal	Federer	Federer
2004	Federer	Gaudio	Federer	Federer
2003	Agassi	Ferrero	Federer	Roddick
2002	Johansson	Costa	Hewitt	Sampras
2001	Agassi	Kuerten	Ivanisevic	Hewitt
2000	Agassi	Kuerten	Sampras	Safin
1999	Kafelnikov	Agassi	Sampras	Agassi
1998	Korda	Moya	Sampras	Rafter
1997	Sampras	Kuerten	Sampras	Rafter
1996	Becker	Kafelnikov	Krajicek	Sampras
1995	Agassi	Muster	Sampras	Sampras
1994	Sampras	Bruguera	Sampras	Agassi
1993	Courier	Bruguera	Sampras	Sampras
1992	Courier	Courier	Agassi	Edberg
1991	Becker	Courier	Stitch	Edberg
1990	Lendl	Gomez	Edberg	Sampras

Roger Federer changed it all. It all began with Federer’s second Wimbledon title in 2004 after which, he simply ran over everything and everybody with his amazing display of high quality tennis- a true domination never seen before.

He raised the quality of the sport with his technical perfection, which earned him accolades such as, “the perfect player to have ever played the sport” by several pundits as well as his competitors including Nadal.

His serve, volleying skills at the net (he seem to have started to use it more frequently these days against select players), ability to take the ball early, mental toughness and consistency remained unmatched.

In all these years of competing in slams, I have never seen Federer seeking medical attention or timeout. His fitness level for the tennis mileage he has put in is astonishing. His contemporaries could only watch in awe as he grabbed almost everything that was there to be taken.

The one man who stopped him from winning everything was the great lefty, Rafa Nadal. His ability to hit shots with great topspin and accuracy coupled with tenacity and athleticism, especially on the red clay has baffled even the mighty Federer.

Together they have earned 19 majors and 30 masters titles, totaling 49. To put things in perspective, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras grabbed 22 majors and 28 masters titles, totaling 50.

While Federer may have gone past his peak, he is far from retiring. Should he continue to remain fit, he has plans to play in the London Olympics to win a gold medal in singles for his country (he would be 31-32 by then). And, Nadal is only 23.

Nadal came into this year’s French open as a heavy favorite.

But for Federer who beat him convincingly in Madrid’s masters thereby ending his clay court winning streak and Djokovic, who had stretched him only to lose in the last two clay court tournaments, no other men were conceived to have a chance to stop Nadal from winning the fifth title.

What did Robin Soderling do right to beat Nadal?

Rafa, the current world No. 1 has been beaten comprehensively before in a major. Tsonga exposed him big time in the last year’s (2008) Australian Open. Tsonga took initiative, attacked the net, serve and volleyed several times, delivered drop shots at will and hung in there with the belief that he can do it. Nadal never had a chance.

Soderling hit his powerful forehands without much of top-spin and treated as if it was a hard-court. He was consistent and relentless in his shot making. He served extremely well and finished points quickly.

Another thing you may not read anywhere is Rafa’s first serves lacked venom. His serve speed especially in key moments was probably below 100 miles an hour. This was Rafa in his early days- not the improved Rafa of 2007 and 2008.

Not serving up to your potential is a sign of lacking confidence. It's like chicken and egg stuff. (That's what hurt Federer in 2009 Australian Open). Here, the world No. 1 let Soderling ranked 23 impose his game and dictate points.

Looking back, Federer has never lost to anyone ranked that low in a grand slam ever since he became so dominant after securing his second consecutive Wimbledon title in 2004.

In fact, very few people have been successful in putting Federer away in Grand Slams. The handful of players who managed to achieve this feat are Marat Safin (2000 US open champion) at the 2005 Australian Open, Rafael Nadal mostly at the French and Novak Djokovic at the 2008 Australian Open.

All three went on to win the respective events.

Federer’s dominating days may be over, but in his career so far, he has never allowed the so-called, ‘flash in the pan’ type players to dominate and eventually defeat him in any of the slams since he became a major force.

This is partly because of his technical depth and understanding of the game better than anyone else. He has been very good in problem-solving on court (never even looks up at the box to seek any kind of advice or help unlike so many other top players) that after a set, he figures them out to dismantle their game with a display of elegance and aggression.

Nadal’s only loss at FO after nearly 5 years of dominance does teach us something. It is extremely hard, even for the best clay court player in the history of the sport and world No. 1 to overcome obstacles to keep the winning streak going, which sometimes requires problem-solving on court. In his loss to Soderling, Rafa had no back-up strategy.

Of course, one is allowed to have a bad day at the office every now and then, but that's what makes Federer's run in slams look simply super human.

This is 'Sir' Roger Federer's 20th straight GS semi finals  (in a row)! He has kept this record going in spite of suffering from mononucleosis last year, which could have easily disrupted his rhythm and kept him out of contest for weeks.

Nobody, not even the likes of Lendl, McEnroe, Becker, Edberg, Sampras or Agassi come close to such a level of consistency and dominance.  The next best stands at a meager 10! This compelling stat alone puts him among the best of the best.

Ganapathy, S. Viswanathan (a.k.a. Gans)

June 4, 2009

Note: The intent of the article is not to list every single accomplishment of Federer, which would run into pages. His 5 consecutive US Opens, 5 consecutive Wimbledon titiles and the fact that on clay, he has been second only to Nadal, who is arguably the best clay court player of all time are worth mentioning. My objective here was to simply describe how hard it is to reach the semis in slams consistently.