Roger Federer: Anymore Grand Slam wins up his sleeve? – Tennis Special
The current world number three and former world number one, Swiss maestro Roger Federer has recently been written off one too many times when it comes to Grand Slam wins. However, when one looks at his decade long career, such
reviews seem a tad bit unjust not to mention blatantly untrue to the die-hard Federer fans.
The Swiss has conquered a record total of sixteen Grand Slam singles titles being the one of the seven male players to capture the Career Grand Slam and one of the three (with Andre Agassi and Nadal) to do so on three contrary
surfaces (clay, grass and hard courts).
Roger Federer is the sole male tennis competitor to have reached at least five times the title match of every Grand Slam tournament. A number of tennis connoisseurs consider Federer to be the “genius” of all time.
In the Open era, out of the 172 grand slam titles won so far, only 21 titles have been won by 11 contesters when they were older than Federer such as Rod Laver (five), Ken Rosewall (four), Jimmy Connors (three), Andre Agassi (two)
and Andres Gomez, Arthur Ashe, Gimeno, John Newcombe, Petr Korda, Pete Sampras, and Ivan Lendl (one each). Out of this lot, eighteen titles were achieved by ten of these players when they were thirty or more.
Even though Sampras won one after crossing 30 Federer on the other hand, just doesn’t have that explosive serve such as his. One hopes for a similar serendipitous situation that exited back in the days, however, it does not prevail.
Although Federer's chances have been appraised by observers while comparing him with Connors and Agassi, he isn't like Connors, who was a tenacious fighter.
Furthermore Federer has Nadal and Djokovic to match, the two brutal players on the tour and no matter how shameful and scandalous it maybe Roger Federer simply cannot match them. He is a great physical specimen, none the less,
is in no condition or form to weigh these two power hungry players. Let us not forget about Andy Murray and Juan Martin Del Potro to also contend with. Moreover, we cannot overlook Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer, who have proved to capsize
top seeds.
According to Federer “It is what it is. It's not easy to win slams. That means I've done something quite extraordinary for many seasons. The season's not over after that. Maybe you're not holding a slam, but you still have three
more chances to win a Grand Slam.”
The Swiss maestro has failed to win a Grand Slam or make it to more than one final since the 2010 Australian Open. Falling to eventual finalists in the quarterfinals on both occasions, Federer failed to make it to the title match
of the 2010 Roland Garros and 2010 Wimbledon Championships. Although he managed to go a step further in the 2010 US Open, his run was halted by eventual runner up Novak Djokovic. Djokovic again stopped the tennis great from a successful title defence at the
2011 Australian Open, as he defeated the latter in straight sets in the semi-final. His first Grand Slam final appearance in more than a year (very unusual for Federer) came only last month when he made it to the title match of 2011 Roland Garros. Failing
to play to his former greatness he succumbed to a defeat against Rafael Nadal. The slump in his form continued at the Wimbledon Championships, as he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals.
Although the facts say otherwise, the tennis great has been known to surprise on several occasions. One cannot really judge what Federer might have in store for us. Let’s hope that the best player of tennis gets more Grand Slams
and the sun keeps rising from the east.
Tags: