The Federer Facts Some Fans Have Forgotten

Following the tennis community’s narratives on Roger Federer can give a person whiplash. One moment he’s the King of the Courts and two months later he’s ready for the Old Folks’ Home. A few victories and we start the see-saw all over again. After enduring tough criticism for a year, Federer’s late-2011 surge had the pendulum swinging back with enough force to catapult the former number one up onto a lofty pedestal once again. The loss in the semifinals at the 2012 Australian Open left fans and tennis writers bitter with disappointment, and the backlash has been harsh. The reason? In all their Federer-triple-win afterglow, these critics had simply forgotten a few facts of the game.

Father Time

Roger Federer is 30. Remember this fact, because we’ll return to it later. Much was made of Roger’s big birthday in the months leading up to it. In fact, the “old man” was completely written out of the conversation of Roland Garros until he took out the unbeatable Novak Djokovic in the semis, and we got that famous finger wagging moment. After the quarters loss at Wimbledon, however, the “aging champion” story got rolled out again. If tennis writers like anything, it’s a good drama and a heavy dose of hyperbole.

As Andy Roddick and other veteran players can sympathize with, Federer got a bit testy when press conference questions kept returning to his age. Asked how he felt in his first match after turning the big 3-0, he replied snarkily: “”It felt good. I’m still able to move.” Once he lost another US Open semifinal to Djokovic, that he had match points on, the story of of faded glory took on new steam.

The Master Returns

Then, in the last third of 2011, Federer rewrote the script again. After taking three titles in a row, including the Paris Masters that he had never won before, Fed fans and journalists alike were united in proclaiming the Swiss maestro reborn. With Djokovic running on fumes and Nadal declaring a “lack of passion” for the game, suddenly Federer was at the top of everyone’s list for taking the Australian Open title. Questions about retirement suddenly morphed into questions about nabbing a 17th Slam win.

As confident as Federer typically is, even he seemed surprised at how well he did. The look on his face as he played the final shot of the match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the World Tour Finals was particularly telling. His expression was a wild combination of barely-contained glee, disbelief that he had the match on his racquet on an easy shot, and a wide-eyed terror that said: “dammitdonotdaremissthis!” It was a rare glimpse of vulnerability in our typically stoic tennis warrior.

Controlling Emotions

Experience told Federer not to get ahead of himself. After the WTF victory, he spoke about having to carefully maintain his emotions before the finals, and save the excitement for after he actually won it. Asked about the “retirement imminent” storyline of the previous summer, he was much more sanguine about it all:

“I just stayed calm. I was healthy so I knew the hard work would pay off eventually…but you never believe it until it’s really there. This is one of those moments where I’m just so happy I stayed calm and believed in my chances, and when they were there I was able to take them later on in the year. Obviously when you can finish a year like this you feel like you have a good chance for next year again. So I’m really excited that that’s coming around actually rather quickly.”

At the start of 2012, Federer was even more cautious about making big pronouncements about his chances, despite the buzz extending to his possibly recapturing number one. Fed calls that “a dream…but not the goal.” About starting the year on a 17-match winning streak, he said: “I am confident, but then again it starts to scratch, right? So I have to…um…create that aura again around me.”

The Federer Aura

Federer’s serene, seemingly impenetrable aura has earned him legions of fans, and daunted many of his competitors into playing less than their best tennis. He’s the guy that rarely reacts, rarely looks ruffled, never sweats. When he was younger, and first developing the Federer Facade, it didn’t yet hide his impish glee at defeating his opponents with spectacular style. You can still see a twinkle of it, if you look carefully, when he hits a particularly amazing shot. Later, at the height of his powers, there was more of an air of confident superiority. That bit of smugness returns here and there, depending upon the match and the opponent.

These days, most often the neutral expression seems to be more a method of controlling any warring emotions, and hiding any weaknesses. His mind is likely not as frantic as Nadal’s famously is, but there is no doubt he has his own demons. As he said after a tough season of losses in the majors: “There is a lot of time that goes by out on tour, during a match, you’re just trying to stay positive. But you can’t always be positive out there. You know, it’s just too difficult. That’s where maybe the doubts were just a bit too strong during certain important moments.”

You Just Don’t Try, Do You?

Despite the subtle cracks in his aura, most fans and writers still seem to perceive Federer in the same way they always have. Watching matches this Australian Open, while Federer was playing excellent tennis, there were at least two matches that took more effort than the write-ups later proclaimed. Whenever Fed wins in straight sets, you get a lot of headlines about him “steamrolling” over his opponent, or “breezing through to the next round.” We all should know that the score doesn’t always tell the whole story.

It’s the double-edged sword of being so light on your feet and having that Swiss maestro persona. Since it looks easy, everyone assumes it is. Then when the losses come, Federer is accused of not trying hard enough. These accusers fail to remember that he’s 30. They fail to notice the subtle changes in his expression, or his heaving chest on the changeovers. The fact that he doesn’t have 1001 different forms of a grimace, like his more expressive nemesis Nadal, doesn’t mean he isn’t grinding it just as hard out there.

You have to pay attention to the clues, aside from the obvious searing forehands and mythical shots from ridiculous angles. The notoriously silent Federer was actually grunting on some of his serves during the Australian Open semis against Nadal. He also fell down to his knees going for a shot at the net. These are not things that would happen if he were just riding out the match on autopilot.

Injuries

After commentators and tennis journalists went on and on about Federer’s fabulous win streak, and the fact that he never gets injured, the inevitable happened. In Doha, where Federer was defending one of his four titles from the year before, things went suddenly south. He struggled against much weaker opponents and lost the powerhouse serve that has gotten him out of so many scrapes before.

Aside from the performance, Federer himself didn’t look exactly right, if you peered past the aura. Shaky was probably the right word, one of the warning signs being when he actually lost the ball during a pre-serve bounce–more than once. Even his gait when walking to the court seemed off. As everyone now knows, Federer withdrew from the tournament before his match with Tsonga, admitting to a back injury serious enough to put his Australian Open chances in jeopardy. It was only the second time in his career he had pulled out of a competition.

Had Federer been able to continue with the aid of painkillers, he probably wouldn’t have uttered a word about the injury. As it was, once he got to the Australian Open, he was very positive about his condition. Though he confessed to not being able to get up to full speed in practice until a couple days before the tournament’s start, he was optimistic about his ability to play. When he started winning his matches with his usual artistic genius, everyone believed him.

Federer’s biographer Rene Stauffer, however, warned journalists that Federer’s history with back problems didn’t bode well for a speedy recovery. Asked about the injury on January 12, he tweeted: “I Wished i could reasure you-but i am a little bit worried too. Doha could leave traces. We will find out.” In an Australian Open press conference after his third round win against Ivo Karlovic, Federer said: “No back issues today. I didn’t even think about it, to be honest.” The “today” part of the quote is telling, since it implies there were issues on other days.

Sure, when Federer is off his game, sometimes he’s just off his game. But we can be certain there were many other times when he had injuries and illnesses he just didn’t talk about. “I promise you I had a lot of pain throughout my career,” Federer said early this year, “and I’ve managed to play with it.” This is true of many players, of course, but for some reason people seem to forget that Federer is actually human and can get hurt. His serve was not at top strength in the semi against Nadal, and you can decide for yourself if that was a result of the lingering back injury, a lack of practice due to the back injury, or just a mere lapse of performance. (P.S. He’s 30.)

The Fed Fade

Writer Brian Phillips talks of Federer’s tendency to “soften” after an early lead, giving his opponent a chance to fight back: “Sometimes you get the sense that he feels he’s proved his point in the early games and expects the rest of the match to fall into line out of courtesy.” In our house it’s known as the “Fed Fade.” We’ve learned to prepare ourselves for it. Even Nadal has learned to prepare for it. He takes the early brilliance from his opponent on the chin, and then waits for the lapse. This is probably a large part of why Nadal is a bad match-up for Federer; Rafa is very, very good at fighting back and negating early leads. Roger is not always good at holding them.

As far as the Fed Fade is concerned, however, it was far less prominent in his 2012 Australian Open semifinal loss to Nadal. You could point an accusing finger at that 2-6 second set, but if you actually watched it, that was just a set of phenomenal tennis. It was more a case of Nadal surging, rather than Federer falling back. And while Federer faded to a 1-6 fourth set loss to Nadal in the 2011 French Open final, here he was one point from serving out the match at 4-3. When Nadal fought back and turned the tables to 5-4, Federer battled him for that match point, time and again. He did not go quietly.

Sure, there are a few “easy” points Federer probably wishes he could have back. Those are the same “easy” points Nadal wishes he could have back in the Australian Open final. Until you’re standing there, receiving a 100 mph forehand with ridiculous spin onto your racquet, you can’t say for sure how easy those points really were. For my part, the Fed Fade was banished in this semifinal loss. You want to talk stubbornness on strategy, an insistence on artistry over more workmanlike tennis, you might have something there. But he didn’t fall off the map, like he did too many times in the 2011 US Open semifinals. If Nadal’s loss to Djokovic in the AO final can be considered promising for a future win, this loss seems a promising one for Federer against Nadal.

Did We Mention He’s 30?

Harping on Federer’s age is not an attempt to diminish him, to say he is too old or too weak to win another Slam. It’s just that Federer fans and hyperbole-happy journos need to accept that a lot of different factors need to fall into alignment in order for that victory to happen. The type of tennis that the Swiss maestro is playing gives him no reason to give up that chance, but it’s going to be a tough fight all the way.

The Aussie veteran and former number one, Lleyton Hewitt, took a set off of Djokovic in his fourth round 2012 Australian Open defeat. Nadal then took two sets from him in their epic, near-six-hour final. Federer took three sets from Djoko at last year’s French Open, and held match points on him in the US Open. He alone prevented the Serb from landing a calendar Grand Slam. So no, I do not think Federer fans have been overestimating his current talents. On the contrary, whether he wins another Slam or not–at age 30, still ranked number 3 in the world, sitting pretty at the top with three fantastic players 5-6 years his junior–I think Federer is, in fact, even more amazing than you thought.

Now that’s how you do hyperbole.

“You guys have tried to kill Roger–often. But he’s always come back and proved you wrong. So one thing I would not do is make the mistake of saying Roger is dead.” — Rafael Nadal

You might also like:

Roger Federer on Semifinal Loss to Djokovic: I’m Over It

How Federer’s Wimbledon Loss Threw Rafael Nadal Off His Game

3-Way Rivalry: Are Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal the Rock, Paper, Scissors of Tennis?


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