Form is temporary, Roger Federer is permanent

Roger Federer gave his fans a bright ray of hope after his recent success in Dubai.

Just everyone was wondering whether Roger Federer should hang his boots, he has reaffirmed his status amongst the top ranks on tour by defeating World No. 2 Novak Djokovic and World No. 6 Tomas Berdych in consecutive matches to triumph at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The 32-year-old Swiss grabbed his 78th tour-level title, which takes him above John McEnroe – he now stands alone at the third position in the all-time title leaders list. After Saturday’s victory, the Swiss has now won at least one ATP World Tour title for 14 consecutive years.

Rank	Player	Wins
1	Jimmy Connors	109
2	Ivan Lendl	94
3	Roger Federer	78
4	John McEnroe	77
T5	Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras	64
T7	Rafael Nadal, Guillermo Vilas	62
9	Andre Agassi	60
10	Ilie Nastase	58

 

Beyond stats and figures, this win was a crucial junction in the decorated career of the Basel-born man as this was his biggest title in almost two years.

Despite a good start to the 2014 calendar year, Federer had previously failed to convert his inspiring performances into title wins. First he was ousted at Brisbane by a spirited Lleyton Hewitt in the final. He was then outplayed by nemesis Rafael Nadal in the semifinals at the Australian Open after a stirring run including wins over Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, which reminded many fans of the prolific player that he once was.

Over the past couple of years, Federer has spiralled downwards from being an invincible champion into a rank-and-file top 10 player. That said, he has been plagued by health issues for a long time now, which may have been partly responsible for his dwindling fortunes.

As his belief in his game and body declined, so did the aggression, accuracy and composure that made him invincible for so long. Line-clipping winners turned into errors, subtle footwork became inept and the stamina gave away during lengthy encounters.

But ever since his union with Stefan Edberg, a change in his racquet and a run of good health, Federer has slowly started looking more like he did in the days of yore. He has also been able to fight through rough patches with more determination than ever. Both of his big wins in Dubai came from one set down, the first time he’s accomplished that in back-to-back matches against top players since 2009.

A title in an ATP 500 tournament does not guarantee that Federer will win more titles in the immediate future, but it has resurrected the confidence in him that had gone missing over the past year or so.

The Swiss Maestro very rationally summed up things while speaking to the media after his semifinal win against Djokovic. “It’s all happening. Beating Novak on the hard courts here in Dubai, it’s tough, you know. Clearly not best of five, clearly not the finals of some whatever tournament, but this is a big ? this is a big step in the right direction for me. Gives me a lot of confidence, I hope,” he said.

With the better portion of 2014 to go, Federer has already brought himself back into contention. And if Dubai is any indication of things, one might expect Federer to keep the editors of history books busy.