Roger Federer Rediscovers His Mental Toughness in Defeat of Novak Djokovic

It had to be one of the sweetest semifinal victories of Roger Federer's entire career.

Federer's 7-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 defeat of Novak Djokovic will be long remembered for many reasons.

Think of all the things Federer's hard-fought upset of Djokovic accomplished:

Federer defeated the hottest, best tennis player in the world.  Federer ended Djokovic's 43-match streak and denied Djokovic a chance to be ranked No. 1 in the world. 

Federer held back Father Time for at least a little while longer, proving he can still win a big match against the best.

Federer earned a chance to play in a Grand Slam tournament final for the first time since the 2010 Australian Open.

Federer proved all his critics and doubters wrong by playing a terrific match vs. Djokovic.  Virtually no one was picking him.

I'm a tremendous fan of Federer and even I doubted he could do what he did today, especially when one considers the extent to which Fed has displayed his limitations over the past year or two.

However, today, Federer served like he has for much of his career.  His serve was critical to the outcome.  Not only did he ace Djokovic 18 times and put him on the defensive with many other serves, but the Swiss took gambles by putting more speed into his second serve a number of times, surprising Djokovic and winning most of those points.

Federer hit his groundstrokes more crisply and accurately than he has in many matches in the past year.  His backhand down the line looked as sharp today as it has in a long time and was key to his victory.

Federer showed—again—that his defensive skills are still outstanding.  Djokovic had him on the run for many points, yet Federer hung on to win a good share of points that he seemed unlikely to win at first.

Overall, it was an incredible match, and it had the feel of a finals event because of the stakes and the quality of play.

In the end, though, I was perhaps most struck by Federer's mental edge today.  He wanted this win and kept his mental toughness from start to finish.  In the past two or three years, Federer has experienced a number of mental lapses in big matches.  At times, just when it seemed he was poised to go on a final run to win a match, he's gotten uncharacteristically "tight," given away points and lost the match.

It has been hard to watch when Federer seemed to lose his confidence.  His most striking breakdown I've seen came when Rafael Nadal crushed him 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals of the 2011 Sony Ericsson event. 

In that match, as I wrote in BR, Federer appeared more humiliated and discouraged on a tennis court than I had ever seen.  He seemed to have lost his normal mental toughness vs. Nadal.  He seemed to feel futile and he made 38 unforced errors in the relatively short match.  

Yet, somehow, some way, Federer found his confidence today vs. Djokovic.  He had not lost a set coming into the match.  He's worked hard with his coach Paul Annacone to retool his game and play a bit more aggressively.

There were many moments in today's match when any mental lapse by Federer would have cost him the match.  For instance, Djokovic was serving for the crucial fourth set after just breaking Federer's serve when Fed found a way, through his typical old "clutch" self, to break Djokovic and force a tiebreaker.

Then, after going ahead in the tiebreaker, Djokovic fought off a couple of match points to bring the score to 6-5.  The Federer of recent times might have choked, but not today.

Federer served a beautiful ace to win the match.  Today, at least, he was back and it was a sight to see.