Will Roger Federer turn 18 this Wimbledon?
Wimbledon brings back good old memories
It’s that time of the year when tennis not only excites you but also calms your nerves and soothes your eyes.
The lush green courts usher in the grass leg of the season and evoke in you a mixed bag of emotions. Nostalgia, joy, elation, frustration, love, hate, anger, gratitude and a potpourri of those you can’t name or put a finger on. Don’t the other Grand Slams stir the same emotions in you? Yes, they may but with Wimbledon, known as ‘The Championships’, the emotions are heightened. The Wimbledon, by far, is the grandest of the Slams and the trophy is the most coveted one for the players.
The Sports Channels have started airing the ‘Wimbledon Classics’ which is not just a TV Program but is a trip down memory lane for all tennis enthusiasts. The images of all former Champions, the evolution of the game, the decline of former heroes and the rise of new ones, the rich tradition and the unpredictable weather transport you to another world, wiping your tennis memory clean of the season so far and preparing you for the ‘Holy Grail of Tennis’.
Will Federer win his 18th Major at Wimbledon?
Though Roger Federer stays in the limelight for the entire season, it is during Wimbledon when the attention of the entire world pans in on this living legend. Wimbledon evokes in Roger Federer his best tennis. After all, this is the place from where his fairy tale started. From being compared to Anna Kournikova (can you believe that?) to being recognized as the greatest player in the history of the sport, Federer has come a long way. The road has been long and arduous and the journey replete with more highs and a few lows.
With 17 Grand Slams under his belt, he has created a monster by writing and re-writing history. He has performed wonders that are hard to fathom and miracles that are harder to believe. A couple of months away from turning 34, Roger Federer is still going toe to toe with the triumvirate of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal and imparting tennis lessons to the rising stars.
Being on the wrong side of 30, it is an uphill task for him to stay consistent, physically and mentally, match after match in a tournament. Yet legends like Rod Laver and Pete Sampras and the tennis fanatics believe he one more Slam left in him.
However, the million dollar question is if Federer also believes that an 18th Slam and an 8th Wimbledon is in the offing. Yes he does, without an iota of doubt. His aggressive style and brand of tennis suits grass more than any other surface. He hired Stefan Edberg with a specific purpose. It is one of his top goals of 2015 to win Wimbledon.
The moot point is how possible is it.
Early signs of Wimbledon dominance
With Pete Sampras on the wane, the tennis world was looking for a new king at the helm. The field looked spotty with a few good names like Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Marat Safin and Gustavo Kuerten. However, they neither had the game to establish supremacy nor had the aura to take the world by storm. In 2001, the world took notice of a pony tail toting Swiss upstart who caused a major upset at Wimbledon. Roger Federer took down Pete Sampras in the fourth round to progress to the Quarter Finals.
It took almost two years from then for Federer to find a firm footing. In 2003, Federer recalled, “When I beat Pete, I was on a cloud. But somehow Wimbledon is always very difficult for me. It's my favourite Grand Slam, the one I would really love to win the most. I want to do so well, and if I lose it's like half the season is broken. After a loss at Wimbledon it always takes about a week to get over it. Then I start practising, and I'm horribly disappointed." Federer described Wimbledon as “a bit like poker” as the grass season was the shortest of all.
With all eyes scrutinizing this Swiss wonder to see if his majestic strokes would lead him to be one among the many greats, Federer finally dispelled their doubts with his first Grand Slam victory at Wimbledon 2003. He beat Mark Philippousis in the Final and started to script his story of Grand Slam glory.
In 2004, Federer imposed his dominance by winning 3 Grand Slam titles including Wimbledon where he defeated Andy Roddick in the Final. With each passing year, Federer’s game was getting absurdly close to perfection. He won his matches even before he stepped on to the court. When he did, he looked imperious, played on his terms and made the match seem like a mere formality.
From Swiss wonder to the undisputed King of Grass
By emerging victorious in Wimbledon 2005, 2006 and 2007 Federer consolidated his dominance and was lapping up all other Grand Slams except the French Open. A new kid on the block called Rafael Nadal kept Federer in check. Nadal’s brand of tennis and personality was diagonally opposite to Federer’s. While Federer was regal, Nadal was all raw power. A bout of mononucleosis and back injury troubled Federer in 2008. Nadal further rubbed salt into his wounds by beating him in an epic Wimbledon Final.
2009 was a significant year of Roger Federer’s most adorned tennis timeline. He won his first French Open to equal Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam titles. Subsequently he won Wimbledon to create history. With 15 Grand Slam titles and counting,Federer perched at the top of the list of legends and set off the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) buzz.
Federer won a total of 16 Grand Slams before he turned 29 and from then on his decline was quite evident. Though he was good enough to stay in the top 5 since his 16th Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open 2010, it took Federer a good two and half years to produce another stretch of brilliance. It was at Wimbledon in 2012 where he won his 17th Grand Slam and tied Sampras with 7 Wimbledon titles.
Identifying Opportunity in Adversity
From 2003 to 2014 at Wimbledon, Federer achieved an amazing streak of 5 consecutive titles and won a total of 7 Championships. He lost in the Quarter Finals in 2010, 2011 and reached the Finals in 2008, 2014. He has not been able to replicate excellence of this extent in other Grand Slams.
The Wimbledon title of 2012 saw him usurp the No.1 ranking from Novak Djokovic but the meteoric rise was short lived. The season of 2013 was Federer’s most forgettable one. A nagging back injury hurt his rankings but what haunted him even more was his second round loss to Sergei Stakhovsky in Wimbledon 2013.
Forced back to the drawing board, Federer made two key decisions. He hired his childhood hero and 6-time Grand Slam Champion Stefan Edberg as his Coach. He abandoned his 90 square inch Wilson wand in favor of a prototype with a larger head. According to Product Design team at Wilson, Federer experimented with 20-21 rackets and dabbled with about 250 slightly modified versions. After a year’s labor Federer finally approved of his weapon of choice that is called the Wilson Pro Staff RF97.
These two key decisions almost immediately reaped big dividends for Federer. From ending 2013 as the No.6 ranked player in the world, Federer turned his fortunes around and made 2014 a memorable one. A remarkable run at Wimbledon gave him a golden opportunity of adding the much anticipated 18th Grand Slam title. Although Novak Djokovic’s resilience and will edged Federer’s in the Final, Federer proved himself on many fronts with his stellar performance at Wimbledon 2014.
At 33, he could still compete in 5 Set formats. After all, he made it to the Semi Final stage or better in 3 out of 4 Grand Slams in 2014.
Due to rain wreaking havoc on the scheduling, Federer played 4 of his 7 matches in the last 6 days of the tournament. Yet he reached the Finals. Federer was neither at the mercy of the Rain Gods nor his opponents.
Federer could very well compete with the new breed. He defeated Milos Raonic, 10 years his junior, in the Semi Finals.
His burning desire to win another Slam saw him fight back from two breaks down in the Fourth Set and win 5 games on a trot to force a decider in the Finals.