Federer at 30: 'I Can Still Crush Anybody'INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - The warrior is old, comparatively, a man of 30 in a sport of 20-year-olds, knowing the way it was, believing in the way it could be.
"It is always in my mind still,'' said Roger Federer, "that I can still crush anybody."
Which he can, if not when it matters most, in the biggest events, on the biggest stages. For Roger Federer, there no longer is room at the top.
He was supreme, the best in tennis for much of the previous decade. But time, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have ganged up to pull him down.
Not too far, to No. 3 in the world, but far enough when you've been No. 1.
"Nobody lasts forever,'' Nadal said Thursday. "There's always change."
This community a few miles from Palm Springs is a place of retirement and memories. When he was younger, single, looking for excitement beyond the courts, Federer found Indian Wells, where the BNP Paribas Open is under way, "a bit too quiet for me."
Now he is the father of twins, and the surroundings are perfect. He sits there with that personalized baseball-style cap on his head, the one with "RF'' on the front, and points out what he has accomplished and why he will not step aside.
"It's nice going on court, playing the big points and knowing exactly what you want to do and what you can do and what you can't,'' he said.
The last few weeks, when he won tournaments in Dubai, over fourth-ranked Andy Murray, and the Netherlands, over Juan Martin del Potro, there was little Federer couldn't do.
The last two years, since January 2010, there was little Federer could do, as far as getting a win, in the tournaments that are the yardsticks, the Grand Slams. Beginning with the 2010 French Open, he is 0-for-8. And talking like a loser.
In 2011, for the first time in eight years, Federer did not hold one of the major titles.
"I had some tough matches,'' he reminds.
Matches he used to win. Matches in 2010 and 2011 he could have won, maybe should have won, but ...
Federer has a reason, an explanation. Dare we label it an excuse? Tennis players and golfers are never allowed to doubt. It was always a bad break, always a gust of wind, always an official's call.
Last year, in the U.S. Open semifinal against Djokovic, Federer, already winner of a record 16 Slams, took the first two sets and was up two match points serving 5-3, 40-15 in the fifth set.
Federer is Swiss, organized, careful. Djokovic, a Serb, is less restrained. Djokovic took a wild swing at Federer's serve and passed him. And Federer, who dropped that set and the match 7-5, seemed more pained by the nature of the shot than the result.
It was as if Djokovic had broken some unwritten rule. What Djokovic broke was Federer's spirit. How dare he try that return? How dare he pull it off?
"Slaps one shot, and then the whole thing changes,'' Federer said that afternoon in New York. "Confidence? Are you kidding me? I mean, some players grow up and play like that. ... I never played that way.
"I believe in the 'hard work's going to pay off' kind of thing. So for me, this is very hard to understand how you can play a shot like that on match point."
Roger Federer, after so many victories, is not a good loser. He wouldn't give Tomas Berdych an iota of credit for the upset in the 2010 Wimbledon quarterfinals, blaming leg and back pains. Not long after, in the U.S. Open semis, Djokovic came from behind, two sets to one, to beat Federer in five sets after Federer was at match point.
Federer's mood was not at all improved when Djokovic said later: "I kind of closed my eyes on the forehands in the match points and just went for the shots. I was lucky."
There are exceptions, Andre Agassi most notably, but of late, meaning the last two decades, 30 is the critical age in men's tennis, after which the decline becomes apparent.
Federer, turned 30 in August, sneers at the concept, and he's been impressive since last autumn. But he didn't win the Australian Open, losing in the semis. He wears down as a Grand Slam tournament heats up.
"I was extremely close,'' he said of his thwarted run in Australia a month and a half ago. "And the last couple of U.S. Opens I missed match points in the semis which would have given me the opportunity to be in the finals, and I think I could have won one of those two."
What many think is that Roger Federer is good but no longer good enough.
"I don't think about my age on a daily basis,'' said Federer. "You go from 29 to 30. It's not any different."
But day by day, the tennis of Roger Federer is different and less than it used to be.
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და რას ფიქრობთ დაწერეთ This post has been edited by stronger2 on 9 Mar 2012, 13:05
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ROGER FEDERER-ის ქომაგთა კლუბი(Part 6), THE GREATEST TENNIS PLAYER OF ALL TIME
