Following the Greatest Of All Time!

     From pony hair to the iconic short hair, from Nike to Uniqlo and from witnessing an incredibly talented teenager transforming into the Greatest player to have ever graced the game, Roger Federer's fans have enjoyed a great time following the Swiss maestro over the past 16 years. My earliest crystal clear memory of Roger is of him beating a 20 year-old Rafael Nadal on the Centre court in the 2006 Wimbledon Final. He went on to beat Nadal again in the very next Wimbledon final before going down in 2008 to the same man. 8 Wimbledon titles, 6 Australian opens, 5 US opens and a solitary Roland Garros, a total of 20 Grand Slams is not that ordinary, is it? Most Grand slam finals, most Grand slam semi finals, most Grand slam quarterfinals, most consecutive Grand slam finals and many more such records that Roger Federer has created and holds to this date are just second to none.

     But statistics and achievements are there on the internet for everyone to see. From the day I got to know about tennis, I have been a RF guy! Obviously when I started following him, he was the best player in the world at the time and people didn't give it a second thought before saying so. The way he dominated on grass and hard court between 2004-2008 was unreal. He won everything in those 5 years but the French Open. Between 2005-2007, Federer won three Grand slams every year. The only thing eluded him was the title in Paris. This might have been because growing up in Switzerland, he always played on grass and had very little practice on clay as a teeneger. That was the only missing piece in what already was a glorious career. Summer of 2009 was about to become very special for the Swiss as he completed the career slam with a win in Paris over Robin Soderling and he celebrated it with another win at the All England Club by beating American big server Andy Roddick in a 5-set epic. If Federer's win over Andy Roddick in the 2005 Wimbledon final got me into tennis, him beating the same man in 2009 made me love tennis. It was 2-2 after more than 3 hours of intriguing tennis and there was a lot at stake for both of them to play in the final set of the 2009 Championships. When it got to 10-10, it looked as if both of them were happy to hold onto their serves and if opponent got to 0-30, they weren't trying to force a break. It was 15-14 and Roddick was serving to stay in the match. Federer got the first two points courtesy of Roddick's two unforced errors. The American came back with three good first serves like he always did to make it 40-30. After a couple of deuce, Roddick looked a bit flustered and it looked as if he would fire one out anytime. Federer was obviously waiting for any half chance but he didn't need one as Roddick himself fired one long and then sent the next one over the roof of the centre Court to hand Federer his 15th Grand Slam title in front of an applauding Pete Sampras. 

     There are three things about Federer that most people including me have to and do admire greatly. First thing is his desire and hunger to come back from any given situation. There have been a number of matches when Federer has found himself 2 sets down and he has managed to come back and win on many of those occasions. It is remarkable how he keeps his cool in such difficult situations and manages to hold his nerves. It is even more difficult when there are so many eye balls constantly looking at you. Very few players get the kind of support Federer gets when playing in the 1st round of Wimbledon. Centre Court is always jam packed just to see the great man do what he does best! In such a scenario, when people have paid their hard earned money just to watch you demolish your opponent and you are 2 sets down with all the pressure on you, it is difficult to stay calm and keep going but he has dealt with this brilliantly. I remember him facing a match point with 2-0 down in an earlier round of Wimbledon and he just calmly negotiated the match point, took the 3rd set, grinded out the 4th and then blew away the opponent in the 5th! Amazing, Isn't it! To come back from 2-0 down against newer opponents is relatively easy but he has done it even against Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal which is quite commendable in itself. Second thing is his fitness. If anyone had said to me 10 years ago that Federer would go on till 2018, I would have called him nuts. Yes but he has gone on. He is 37, still going well and still wining grand slams! Now a days, he takes break during the clay season as a part of his workload management but till 2015, he was playing almost everything. For 17 long years, he has managed to keep his fitness good enough to play at the highest level. When his contemporaries Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are suffering from major injuries, Federer's stars alignment looks to be good as he hasn't suffered any major injury in his illustrious career. And the third thing which is the most important is the skillset that he posseses. He is not a very tall man, about 6feet tall but his service has always been a big plus for him. More than the speed, the accuracy of his first serve has helped him. Because when you are 0-40 down with the opponent already having the advantage of serving first, the last thing you need is a long rally and to avoid that you need a good first serve. When you serve it well and the opposition returns the ball, you must have a good forehand to close things down. And I don't think many people can argue that Federer has had one of the most dominant forehands in Tennis for a long time. I haven't seen anybody play the passing shot better than Federer in all these years. From the most acute angles, he has managed to play the passing shot and the drop shot, wow he is the best when it comes to dropping the ball at an angle and is there any doubt about it! Federer serving it big - opponent barely returning it - then Federer playing the drop shot a meter away from the net and opponent doing nothing but haplessly looking at the net is a lovely little point to watch. One good return - then a tough return - and then a thunderous passing forehand taking the fibres off the ball which lands on the lobby line, wow, is there a better love story! 

     With all the positives, there has to be a chink in the armour because that's the way sport works and it has always been his backhand. One handed backhand looks very elegant on the eye but it doesn't have the same control as a double handed backhand has. It is difficult at times to control the spin on the ball and also the pace with single handed backhand because you have to play it a little bit away from your body. One good thing it does is that it enhances your reach on your weaker side but Federer has always found difficult to match his backhand with his forehand. 

      There was an article written by the BBC which was based on a deep analysis explaining about the toughest Grand slam won by a player taking into account the opponents the champion faces on their way and their rankings as well. Amongst the Fab four of this generation, the order was Djokovic-Nadal-Federer-Murray. And I agree with it because Federer never found it tough to win Grand slams, did he? They call it fab four but to me it was an utter non sense comparing Andy Murray with Roger Federer. Djokovic and Nadal have been great rivals to Federer but Murray is not even close to these three. There is always a debate in every sport as to who is the 'Greatest of all time'. Though I didn't see the previous generations and the likes of Borg, McEnroe, Becker, Rod Laver or Arthur Ashe play, I don't think anybody can argue that Federer can claim the best to be called the 'Greatest Of All Time'.