What's Left For Roger Federer?

Roger Federer won the ATP tournament in Basel, Switzerland last week. While it might sound ridiculous, I think you should savor that victory because there might not be a whole lot of them left. There are certain figures in sports that it is almost impossible to root against. Guys like LeBron James, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds. Roger Federer might be the most likable, dominant athlete there is in the world of sports right now. 

Usually when a person or team experiences success at the highest level over and over again people begin to grow tired of that team or person, and they will find reasons to dislike them. Champions will also fall from the good graces of the general public due to their own doing, looking at you Tiger. Roger Federer though has been able to maintain his popularity and reputation better than many of the champions that have come before him and will undeniably do so better than many of the champions that come after him. He not only celebrates his victories with the utmost amount of class, but he handles heartbreaking losses with amazing dignity. The funny thing is, one of the men who has began to dethrone Roger in recent years from the pinnacle of tennis, possesses the exact same characteristics that he does, that man being Rafael Nadal. This clash of admirable champions has led to numerous inner-conflicts when it comes to deciding whom I'd prefer come out on top when they square off head-to-head. Recently though it has been an easy choice. Roger. 

When it comes to sports I want to see Americans succeed (I guess that is true for everything), but over the past couple of years I have found myself rooting for Roger more than anyone. The clear reason for this is that Roger is not the same dominant player that we have been marveling at since he won his first grand slam back in 2003. It has taken a long time but I have finally given in to the fact that we will never see that player again, not for an entire season. The competition is too good and once you crack the 30-year-old mark in tennis, similar to the NFL running back, it becomes exponentially harder to maintain and achieve success. 

While I have been a sports fan my entire life, I could not truly grasp just how great certain athletes were when I was younger. Sadly the bulk of the memories I have of Michael Jordan are from when he was a Wizard. Troy Aikman and the Cowboys dynasty of the 90’s were just a bit too early for me to appreciate. Federer though has been there for my entire matured sports life. I remember his early victories and I remember his greatest victories, like his 2005 US Open win over Andrei Agassi, or his instant classic against Andy Roddick in 2009 at Wimbledon. I have seen his greatness on display personally at the US Open many times. Now sadly, I have to watch his unavoidable decline.  

Since the start of the 2008 season Roger has captured fifteen tournament titles. While that might seem like a lot, and for most players it is, in 2006 alone he won 12 titles, he played in 17 tournaments that year. He won eleven titles in both 2004 and 2005 and then eight in 2007. So now the fact that he has won fifteen tournaments in the last four years does not seem so outstanding. It is not what we had grown use to seeing from Roger. This year Roger has just won two tournaments, including the one he won just last week in Basel. This year was the first year he has not won a Grand Slam since 2002.

Obviously this decline was inevitably going to come. Federer is now ranked number four in the world, behind Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray. The last time he was ranked outside of the top three was on June 23, 2003. The fact that he has been able to stay healthy his entire career and maintain his grueling level of play is simply astonishing. Look at Djokovic this season, he has been having a Federer like season but now seems to be crashing at the end because of various injuries and ailments. Nadal has had his own injury problems throughout his career as well. Federer though has practically gone throughout his career without any injuries, and no serious ones.

While Federer has clearly been on the decline for the past few years, it was his match against Novak Djokovic this year at the US Open that made me finally admit the old Roger was gone. This was personally one of the saddest sports events I have ever watched. After winning the first two sets of their semifinal match, Federer lost the next three, and could not close out the match in the fifth set when he was serving to reach the finals. Granted, Djokovic hit one of the most impressive shots in tennis history, it was still remarkable to see Federer not close out the match. There had been moments that made me realize that Federer was no longer the player I had grown accustomed to seeing, like his similar loss to Djokovic the year before at the US Open, or his loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon this year after he was up two sets to love, but this is the loss that gave me my definitive answer. 

So now it is time to embrace the new Roger. It is time to cheer for one of the classiest men in sports harder than ever before. Every Grand Slam now becomes a precious opportunity, with a limited number of opportunities left. Sadly we are the point where we should revel in every title that Federer captures, just like the one he won last week in Basel.

Being a fan of a not so mainstream sport, like tennis, golf, soccer (in America) or arena football, tends to make one root for the sport in general when it gets its spot on the big stage. For example, a major in golf, a grand slam in tennis or a nationally televised arena football game. If I watch a big time NFL game on Monday night, and the game disappoints, I don’t feel anything, obviously I wish it could have been a good game, but that is the only feeling I have. If I were to watch a nil-nil soccer game on ESPN I would feel like it was a missed opportunity for the sport to gain fans and publicity, and I would be disappointed for the sport as a whole.

The opposite of that feeling is when the game/match is a great one. There is a sort of proud feeling I get for the sport that I can’t perfectly describe, but one thing I can say is that Roger Federer has made me incredibly proud to be a tennis fan.

If you read my entire piece (or just jumped to the end) thank you, and I was kidding about LeBron James, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds.