Roger Federer: Can He Rise From the Ashes and Own 2011?

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at Internationaled.org

Published: February 1, 2011

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Roger Federer’s latest loss in a Grand Slam—semifinals of the 2011 Australian Open to Novak Djokovic, the eventual champion—signified a subtle but dangerous precedent.

It was perhaps inevitable.

We should have known it well. Roger Federer has either not been himself since the 2008 Australian Open when he lost in the semifinal to the eventual champion, Novak Djokovic (who again won in 2011, through a similar semifinal course) or he simply does not think he can still be that Roger Federer.

Federer clearly wasn’t himself in that semifinal, for he was suffering from a mysterious ailment, mononucleosis, and clearly the rise in competition was gaining on him.

His massacre at the next grand slam, the 2008 French Open final, where he was savaged by his eternal rival Rafael Nadal, should have taught us again that Federer was just not that Federer anymore.

Then came that Wimbledon final.

Nadal was simply too strong, too relentless and too confident in himself, and Federer simply wilted. It took five magical sets, the last of which was as memorable as any in modern tennis history, but Nadal persevered. Two points away from victory in that final set, Federer lost it all, and it came at Federer’s own backyard, a surface where he had hardly lost any match since 2003.

The previous year, Nadal had stretched the mighty Federer to five sets and Federer had to summon his entire spirit to prevail. Talk about psychological warfare!

One might counter that this is no school match between teenagers eager to impress girls. This is a men’s game, as professional as it is tough. But it was no mere tennis player we saw unraveling before our eyes, it was Roger Federer.

I remember that 2008 Wimbledon final as distinctly now as I saw it then. Federer, seemingly calm but confused and scared inside. If it had been any other opponent, I have no doubt Fed...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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