It’s been close to 4 weeks since I began the thought process, delayed for certain reasons, for building up a long blog. I have been an avid follower of Cricket, and being an Indian, Cricket and Hindi Cinema come naturally to all of us. After our Parents and teachers, most of us have our idols in these two fields and try to emulate them in whichever various possible ways we can. I developed a liking for Formula-1 few years back and admired Michael Schumacher for his consistency. But he was never one whom I would have wanted to idolise. Another star in my generation has been Lance Armstrong. I always thought of reading his autobiography to know about him, but I am yet to do so. Vishwanathan Anand, Michael Johnson, Sergei Bubka, Michael Phelps, Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham... some of the several legends in various sports whom I have been following over the years.
But the one sport which I like after Cricket has been Tennis.
And since I started following Tennis is 1993, my first memories are of the great Ramesh Krishnan and young Leander Paes taking India to the Davis Cup Semi-finals with a thriller against Boetsch-Leconte and co. at Frejus. Another was Steffi Graf charming the tennis courts with serenity. And not to forget Pete Sampras lifting the Wimbledon. And his rivalry with Andre Agassi.
But for some reason, I admired Andre Agassi more than Pete Sampras.He had that special charm on the court, while Pete looked like a giant, with an intimidating presence. Slowly as Pete kept on winning Wimbledon's after Wimbledon's, but made only one Semi final at Roland Garros, it justified my following of Andre, because he emulated Rod Laver after 30 years of winning a career slam.
Ok then.. enough of all this preface...
Year 2001...a lean built man with a stubble and a ponytail, ended Pete Sampras's dream of winning 5 consectuive Wimbledons. All connoisseurs of the game began hailing this young 20 year old as a potential Grand Slam winner and the future superstar of Men's tennis. There have been many who failed to live up to expectations in the last 2 decades after early successes…..Michael Chang, Patrick Rafter, Marcelo Rios, Marat Safin to name a few....I just brushed this aside as the fall of Sampras, rather than arrival another new kid on the block...
Year 2004..The same man with ponytail had won the Wimbledon previous year and won the Australian Open that year to become the World No.1, winning only his 2nd Grandslam title. I had a look at the highlights of that match and I was simply dumbstruck.
A new hero had arrived for me...Roger Federer.
All the following statements are a cliché...but something I enjoy reading time and again and never get tired.
- Roger weaves the tennis racquet like a magician weaving his wand.
- Roger makes Tennis look like an art, like an artist making a painting out of fine fabric colours with a smooth moving paintbrush.
- He makes Tennis look ridiculously so EASY that sends shivers down opponents' spines.
- He plays some of the most difficult shots in the game, with consummate precision and ease, to an extent that "Jaw Dropping" becomes a habit while watching him play.
- John McEnroe described Federer's Forehand as "the greatest shot in our sport".
- Vijay Amritraj on air at Wimbledon 2009 - "You can never hear Roger move on the tennis court..so effortless".
- And no one can beat this Jimmy Connors description - "In an era of specialists — you're either a clay court specialist, a grass court specialist or a hard court specialist... or you're Roger Federer"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer_-_Tennis_Records#Individual_match_records
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer_career_statistics
For me, after Pete retired and Andre was at the brink of his career, I had virtually lost interest in following tennis (Apart from watching a few ladies matches :P). It was this man who rekindled my following for Tennis.
If someone were to write an official encyclopaedia for Tennis, Roger Federer would be it !! What does he not have in his game ???
A spectacular Forehand –
He hits it inside out(called the "off-forehand" by Vijay Amritraj and "Dancing Forehand" by Jim Courier ) with the acutest of angles
hits them as down-the-line passing shots, into the corner of the court, on the baseline,
on the sideline and as a fierce winner, with a destructive snap of the wrists generating enormous topspin which does not give any elevation for a return to be hit.
I have never seen anyone with such a variety of forehands.
Check this out for a more elaborated and technical description……….
http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionarticles/forehand/forehand.aspx?id=129054
Fantastic Backhand -
The one handed shot that does not give an iota of idea about which direction it is headed to, there are 4 varieties here –
Down the line backhand,
Crosscourt angular backhand,
A slice volley
and
A slice with backspin.
Precision serve –
He is neither a Goran Ivanisevic, nor a Pete Sampras. Nor is he an Ivo Karlovic or an Andy Roddick. But serving has always been a forte of Fedex's game. He has precision serve from both Ad and deuce courts, equally good on both the centre and wide serves. Another important aspect is the Kick serve he uses for 2nd serves. For the matter of fact, I have seen very few players score a 2nd serve ace at critical points of the match. Federer is one of those very few.
Defence -
Though Roger is predominantly an attacking player, defence is an extremely important aspect of his game. Over the years, as he got to play more and more baseliners as opponents, he had to fine tune his defensive skills. He has a floating backhand defensive return giving him enough time to set himself up to an attacking position and one that looks to land out of the court but teasingly lands in, misguiding players.
Ridiculous shots -
Some of the shots he hits are absolutely ridiculous. Probably only God would hit them so well!!! The passing shot on the run from around the net post, a pickup smash jumping way behind the baseline to return a smash(Roddick, Djokovic and Agassi can tell you about it)
Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hp-EArV6s8
and this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yidqJM1Xl4U
Between the legs winner running back towards the baseline and a sparingly used roll-lob-crosscourt to land at the corner of the court.
On court presence -
There have been only two occasions (Out of the very few) that I have seen Federer get frustrated -
Once when he called out "Roger,Idiot" when he served a double fault against David Nalbandian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIWeuvOrG9o
And once when he smashed and broke his racket on a windy and frustrating day against Novak Djokovic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXeysnDFchA
He is the epitome of calmness and sedation under the highest of pressures, celebrating his wins in the calmest manner. An extremely well behaved person and a thorough gentleman on court (Off court as well, based on what people around him say).
Confidence -
The level of confidence he has in his ability, often makes me think that he always gears up for the business end of a tournament(semis and beyond), going through the motions in the early rounds. He experiments on different aspects - shots, angles, speeds and plays around with lowly ranked players in the first few rounds, gauging himself on his form, saving energy for bigger battles ahead and calibrating his repertoire.
Chink in the Armour....
The only chink in his armour has been his battle against his well known rival - Rafael Nadal. Nadal has been another tremendous tennis player and being 5 years younger, a deserving successor to Roger. However the battle only gets better. Rafa leads 13-7 in all matches and 5-2 in Grand Slam finals.
But at this stage of his career, with 15 Grand Slams and more to come, 237 weeks as number 1 and now back at the helm within a year of losing it, a career Slam, 21 successive Slam semis, 16 of 17 Slam Finals , 20 Slam Finals in all....Federer is left with only few things to achieve in his career. Now that he’s more relaxed after all the hullabaloo surrounding his fatherhood, it should motivate him to chug along for many more years.
And setting right his record against Nadal would top his list...no doubt about that.
Looking Ahead…
Few people still say " How can he be the greatest when he is not the greatest of his generation ? "...
They will need a lesson in common sense; however Federer would definitely want to shut their mouths. All said and done, there are more goals for enough motivation ... 8 Wimbledons (He already has 6) to beat Sampras' 7, 25 Grand Slams to beat Margaret Court's 24, Holding all 4 slams if not a calendar slam, a Davis cup win, an Olympic Singles Gold Medal (what better than to win it at Wimbledon in 2012)....
Nevertheless, even if Roger doesn’t manage to match them all, it cannot take away anything from him. For he has enthralled fans all over the world, opponents do not envy but respect him, legends acknowledge him as one among themselves....
He has set the benchmark for the generation to follow and that is what created a monster called Nadal. And will create many more......
Finally to conclude this tribute to Federer on account of his 28th Birthday (August 8th 2009)...
To me, there has never been a Tennis player as aesthetically pleasing to watch as Federer....
To me, there never has been such a humble and down to earth, popular champion...
To me, there never will be a champion who will cry both while losing …
As well as winning...
To me, there never ever will be another Roger Federer...!!!
Take a bow Fedex...looking forward to lots and lots of Slam wins, lots more of those forehands and that gracious charm on the court......
Finally a Federer quote:
A journalist asked Roger - "What is the secret of your success- Genius or Hard Work?"
Roger answered - "I worked hard on my genius" ....
2 comments:
Man, you could write his biography book. Try and get his autograph, DVD with video of all his winners, slam finals, watch a match live in stadium, take a photo with him.
I saw Wimbeldon 2009 final but he won without playing at his best. Still he served more than 50 aces. For a man without so much of muscles, it is only precision.
Men like Federer, Tendulkar, Shumaker, Anand only make the sport they play richer.
[B][I]To me, there has never been a Tennis player as aesthetically pleasing to watch as Federer....
To me, there never has been such a humble and down to earth, popular champion...
To me, there never will be a champion who will cry both while losing …
As well as winning...
To me, there never ever will be another Roger Federer...!!![/i][/B]
Awesome post man!!! Incredible!!!
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