Roger Federer’s No. 5 Ranking Highlights Parity in Modern Tennis

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 8, 2013

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Monday marked an historic occasion, as 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer dropped to No. 5 in the ATP tennis rankings.

It's the first time in a decade that Federer has fallen from the top four, and was brought on by his second-round loss at Wimbledon to Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Such a development suggests the 31-year-old Federer is finally declining, but that is not necessarily the case. The recent dip is more of an indication of the parity in modern tennis.

This is an unpopular stance, and it sounds outrageous on the surface, to be sure. However, in reviewing what recently transpired at the All England Club, it's obvious that Federer wasn't the only one to fall victim to a premature upset.

Even the perceived prohibitive favorite hasn't won the year's third Grand Slam tournament in the past six years, per Wimbledon's official Twitter account:



Several collegiate players I've spoken to who have a tangible understanding of the game and the skill involved have told me that the gap between the No. 1 and 100th-ranked players in the world is far slimmer than many observers suspect.

To say skepticism was rampant upon hearing that would be understating the state of mind I was in, but then Wimbledon happened, and it gave credence to that assertion.

So did Federer's comments after the loss to Stakhovsky, in which he suggested the media should reassess its coverage of men's tennis and not hype up marquee matchups before they happen.



Rather than harp on—or simply expect, and thus underplay—the stars making it to the latter stages of Grand Slam tournaments every time, perhaps it's time to indeed look at the sport from a slightly different angle.

Federer may have just fallen to a ranking he hasn't experienced since his early 20s, but he's still the fifth-ranked player on the planet. Only Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, David Ferrer and longtime rival...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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