Is Roger Federer the horizon of Tennis?

He is skinny, yet never gets injured. He doesn’t put excessive power yet, McEnroe said at US Open, “This might be the greatest shot in our sport, Federer’s forehand”. He has played several marathon matches but never looked tired. With 17 grand slams, 76 singles title, 2 Olympic medals, holds almost every record in tennis now, yet there is no stopping him. At his age, players have trouble even competing, yet he is world no. 1. Many commentators have said they feel blessed that they could watch Roger Federer in action. As he is close to his retirement, I wonder, is Roger Federer the horizon of tennis now? Could there be a successor? Like Sampras was to Lendl and Federer was to Sampras. Is there anything more that tennis can offer?

Roger Federer has lived in the mind of tennis fans for more than a decade now, he has inspired countless to follow the sport and his impeccable style has redefined the sport. Federer was very different in his early years, throwing rackets all over the court, yelling, crying showing all kind of emotions. He has changed, he throws a racket now and it’s a headline all over the world. The point being that he was not always this great, he eventually evolved himself time after time. It’s said, ‘champions are born.’ Well, to me champions can be created too. Rafael Nadal is the best example.

Nadal, a guy who can’t even brush properly with his left hand (being a natural righty) learned to play with it and became the greatest of all time on clay. His biggest strength that gave him everything was the will to keep going. Federer might be the best technical player ever but Nadal’s never say die spirit got him everything he possesses. I wonder what would have happened if they traded their playing styles.

Federer is undoubtedly the best ever so far and he feels so much complete that currently it seems tennis cannot even evolve anymore. It seems impossible to even visualize a successor to the peerless man, someone who might possess the talent to take the sport to greater heights. Nadal’s domination of the clay has made Federer look a little less, but imagine if he wouldn’t have been around, Federer could then be literally, ‘a god of tennis’, he would have felt absolutely perfect. So it just narrows down to the imagination of people, the best they see is believed to be the best there could be.

Micheal Jordan is referred to as the best basketball player ever to play the game, it is even stated on the official site of NBA. People believe there cannot be a better player and there haven’t even been any, so far. When Jordan played, many believed that Magic Johnson was better, there used to be a lot of debate over this but now Jordan stands alone. After Jordan’s career was over many believed they will never see a better player or even that good and they haven’t so far. Federer could be entitled as the Micheal Jordan of tennis but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to have the same fate, conceding without a successor? Just not right. There are a lot of young talents coming up like Ryan Harrison, Milos Raonic, Bernard Tomic and our own Yuki Bhambri, they could be great in the time to come but just don’t feel to be up to the task. There is yet to be somebody who has the fire in his engines, someone who might change the way we look at the game, if there is going to be one.

Being a successor to Federer is going to demand a lot. You are not given the baton if you cannot handle it well and in a relay the best one runs last. I can just hope that there will be someone to hold the baton when Federer is ready to give it, someone who has more strength, talent and fire. If we imagine a player having Sampras’s serve, Federer’s forehand and game plan, Djokovic’s backhand and Nadal’s Spin and footwork, well he’s going to be unbeatable. But let’s put aside the fascination and get real, no one can have all that at once so the question is what are the real ingredients for the successor? Well, I don’t think anyone knows that. But I just believe that there is going to be someone soon enough referred as ‘Federer+Nadal’.