Roger Federer: When Did He Officially Lose the Throne?

It is a known fact that sometime in the past three to four years, Roger Federer went "bad" and had his fair share of bad losses. I define a bad loss as involving any of the following: losing a match while up a set or having match points, tallying up at least 40 unforced errors or losing to somebody ranked well below oneself.

The Maestro had several records snapped in the previous years, such as his 23 straight semifinals in slams, his 5-year winning streak at the U.S. Open and his consistency of winning at least one major a year (which was put to bed in 2011).

The fact of the matter is that people are truly unsure of when Roger Federer officially started to lose his spot as the world's best tennis player.

If we look into the past, it is apparent that Roger did not have the best year in 2008, having lost in the Australian Open semifinals in straight sets to Novak Djokovic, the French Open final to Rafael Nadal (and badly) and the Wimbledon final to Rafa, which was incredibly hard-fought and close.

However, he did keep his throne as king of the U.S. Open by cruising through Andy Murray.

2009 served as perhaps Roger's best year of his career to most people—on the other hand, it could be looked at as the most disastrous for a reason that shall soon be revealed.

Roger endured another tough loss to Rafael Nadal at the Aussie Open and let out a few tears to express his frustration of losing to his rival so many times in majors.

However, he kept his head up and finally ended his French Open drought and proceeded to win Wimbledon in perhaps the closest match of his life to earn his spot as the man with the most majors of all-time.

Things looked to be improving for the Swiss in '09—he reached every major final, and the two times he lost were in five-setters.

One five-set loss in particular proved to be the turning point of his securement on the throne of men's tennis, and this was the U.S. Open final in 2009.

After Federer blew numerous amount of chances to put Del Potro to bed, he started to display strategies unlike himself. For example, he played many balls to the Argentine's forehand and started to decline in ability at the net. He also blew many leads in his service and return games.

This match was crucial, and although Roger did manage to win the Aussie Open in 2010, the only tough competitors he faced were Nikolay Davydenko (who was playing the best tennis of his life at the time) and Andy Murray (who has yet to win a set in a major final). Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was not as inspired in 2010 as he was this season.

In 2010, Roger began to lose matches while possessing match points, such as in his losses to Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych and even Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open semifinal.

In 2011, he started losing while being up two sets to love in grand slams, which was a feat that he had never succumbed to in his entire career. Meanwhile, he fell victim to the three-set comebacks in back-to-back majors, losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and then to Novak Djokovic.

I do not believe that Federer is on the decline anymore, though, and I feel as though it is his competition that is improving and playing better to create that illusion.

Hiring Paul Annacone as a coach was the first big step towards getting him back on the winning track, and I think the aggressive mindset that Roger has adopted is a phenomenal idea. This has shown in his French Open and U.S. Open runs in 2011, and it has been very apparent in the way he has played Djokovic.

There is still much time for Roger to get back on top, but he may never return to the same form again.

This article was written by Jeff Cohn, a sports writer and enthusiast.

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