When did one of the greatest players of all time lose his bottle?
Last night, Roger Federer lost a second straight US Open semi-final to Novak Djokovic after having match points.
What’s more remarkable is that these two incidents are not isolated.
Back in 2005, Roger Federer lost a five-set thriller to Marat Safin in the semi-finals of the Australian Open in which he had match point at 6-5 in the fourth-set tie-break. Unfortunately for Federer, Safin produced a superb lob that the then World Number One could not return.
Safin took the tie-break and eventually the match.
The following year, facing Rafael Nadal in the final of Rome, at 5-6 in the final set, Nadal double-faulted for the first time in the match, giving Federer two match points at 15-40.
The match looked settled for Federer, but the first forehand error sailed long by and the second found its way wide. Nadal held, took the tie-break, and title.
Federer then went on to win eight of the next fourteen Grand Slams, cementing himself as one of the greatest players of all time.
However, in the lead-up to the 2009 US Open, a tournament he had won five-straight times, Federer suffered an almost unimaginable loss at the hands of Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The Swiss champ was up 5-1 in the third set of his quarter-final with Tsonga, when suddenly his once infallible game appeared to desert him. Tsonga fought back and rallied to take the match in a tie-break, highlighting that, just like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, Federer’s not a machine, he’s a man!
Federer failed to win the US Open a few weeks later for the first time since 2003, and has not lifted the trophy since.
The following year, the chinks in Federer’s armor were clear for the world to see.
In March, he suffered two loses after having match points.
The first came at Indian Wells against Marcos Baghdatis, who faught off three match points to oust the three-time champion 5-7, 7-5, 7-6.
Two weeks later Federer suffered a similar fate to Tomas Berdych after holding a match point at 6-5 in the deciding set tie-breaker. Berdych hit a forehand winner and two points later, Federer sailed a forehand long to give Berdych the win.
But, as always, Federer returned to his winning ways, working his way to the 2010 US Open semi-final, where he would face Novak Djokovic.
I was fortunate enough to be in the crowd at the time. Fit ready to burst with excitement at the prospect of a Federer-Nadal US Open final, I witnessed my dreams crushed as Djokovic scrambled back from two match points down to topple the once king.
A couple of months later Federer lost another tight match after having match points. This time to Frenchman Gael Monfils at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. This time the 16-time Grand Slam champion had five match points, but was unable to capitalize.
Onto 2011, and the last place you’d expect to see Federer choke, Wimbledon. But at two-sets-to-love up in the quarter-finals against Tsonga, his game left him, and he exited the tournament with his tail between his legs.
And then last night. Serving at 5-4, 40-15 in the fifth set against Novak Djokovic, not a single spectator, fan, commentator, or fellow player could help but remember all those times Federer’s thrown it away, and lone behold, two breaks of serve later, it’s Djokovic moving into the final.
So what has happened to the great Federer?
After surpassing Sampras’s record 14 Slams, and then raising the bar to 16, you would think that the pressure would be lifted from his shoulders and any nervousness would a thing of the past.
Equally, the birth of his twin daughters and a shift in the priorities in his life should only help him in moments in intensity. But clearly this guy is getting nervous.
Whatever it is, whether it’s other players sensing the opportunity, or Federer unable to escape his own choking memories, something is clearly affecting Federer in clutch situations.
In my opinion, it all began in 2009 in Montreal. The two incidents years before were tight situations which could have gone either way, but since his loss to Tsonga, he has allowed far too matches to slip from his grasp, and now everyone knows it.
Djokovic produced magic to come back last night, but one feels the mentally tough Federer of pre-2009 Montreal would not have allowed him to.
As long as players continue to refuse to give up when all seems lost, we may well have seen Federer’s last slam.