PETE ZIEBRON
16 time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer
- Charles Gabrean Photography
Roger Federer's prolonged title drought in 2010 started at
the BNP Paribas Masters 1000 at Indian Wells in March.
Following his victory over Andy Murray at the Australian
Open, Federer was unable to play the tourney in Dubai
due to a lung infection and lack of match play coming
into Indian Wells certainly impacted his timing.
Despite having 3 Match Points in a 3rd round match
against Marcos Baghdatis, Federer was unable to
capitalize and Baghdatis snatched victory away
from Federer to claim the biggest victory of his
career. I sat in the first row, on the server's line
for this match and at times, Federer raised his level
of play to win the big points. At other times, especially
at the most crucial points of the match, Federer's
forehand went sailing long or out wide by large margins.
As a result, the crowd did not believe what it was seeing.
In fact, it reminded me of Rafael Nadal spraying balls
beyond the doubles alley last year in Cincinnati in his
second tournament back following injury.
According to Federer, no need for the alarms to sound:
"Well, I mean, I could be sitting here an hour earlier and
saying how comfortably I won the match in straight sets
not playing great, but moving forward. Always a very
fine line.That's not why I don't like to now beat myself
up too much after a loss like this. ........So it's just like
one of those matches that just happens, you know.
You play good most of the time, and then you just
don't play so well when you really have to. The
match almost looked like I wasn't playing all that
great, and then I could have still won the match."
Following an earlier than expected departure at Indian
Wells, Federer again had a Match Point in his 4th round
tilt against Tomas Berdych at the Masters 1000 in Miami
and was not able to win the match. Berdych capitalized
on his good fortune and advanced to the Final where he
lost to Andy Roddick. However Federer's loss to Berdych
would give Berdych the confidence necessary the next
time he faced Federer in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon,
where he would record his second consecutive win,
following 8 consecutive defeats, against the 6 time
Wimbledon Champion.
Federer had this to say about his loss in Miami: "Yeah
it was a tough match. Look, it's no secret I've struggled
the last, what is it, five matches I've played here in the
States. It's disappointing, I think, my performance
overall, if I've got to analyze right now after the match.
But I fought as much as I could under the circumstances
with my game having issues at the moment. Definitely
lacking timing. I don't know where that comes from
because I played so nicely in Australia. So it's
disappointing to not be able to back it up. Maybe the
break was quite long. I'm kind of used to those things,
and I still, you know, think that I could have done much
better."
In a curious scheduling maneuver, Federer elected to skip
the initial clay court event of the season, the Masters
1000 tourney in Monte-Carlo where he was a 3 time
Finalist. Instead Federer opened his clay campaign at
the Masters 1000 in Rome where he was stunned by
Ernests Gulbis in his first match. In lieu of Monte-Carlo,
Federer played a 250 tournament in Estoril, Portugal,
which he won in 2008. This year, Federer lost in the
semifinals to defending Champion Albert Montanes.
Next, as defending Champion of the Madrid Masters
1000, Federer got revenge over Gulbis in a quarterfinal
match and advanced to the Final where he lost to
Rafael Nadal in a rematch of last year's Final. At
Roland Garros, defending Champion Roger Federer
fell to Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals in a rematch
of last year's Final. This loss ended Federer's amazing
streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinal
appearances.
Prior to Wimbledon, Federer met Lleyton Hewitt in the
Final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.
Surprisingly, Federer lost to Hewitt in the Final, ending
his 5 title winning streak at this event. Nonetheless,
Federer headed to Wimbledon seeking his 17th Grand
Slam title and 7th Wimbledon crown which would have
tied him with Pete Sampras.
Federer survived two sloppy matches in the opening
rounds at Wimbledon, steadied his game in the next
two matches and then crashed out in the quarterfinals
against Tomas Berdych, whom he donated a 4th round
Masters 1000 match to earlier this year in Miami.
With the unexpected loss at Wimbledon, Federer will
fall to #3 in the rankings, a position he has not occupied
since November 16, 2003. Meanwhile, after appearing in
23 straight Grand Slam semifinals or better, Federer has
now failed to get to the semis in his last 2 Slams.
Despite having 62 career titles, Federer has won only 2
in the last 52 weeks, the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati last
August and the Australian Open this January.
Federer will take a 2 week vacation when he leaves
Wimbledon and then get ready for the North American
hard court season. During his vacation time, Federer
will be able let minor injuries to his back and right leg
heal. These are injuries that started to give him problems
in his Finals loss to Hewitt in Halle.
Following Federer's 6-3 6-1 6-0 loss in the 2008 Roland
Garros Final to Rafael Nadal and the subsequent loss to
Nadal in the Wimbledon Final, Federer was blasted by
many members in the media. Many doubted that he
would ever be able to win the Roland Garros crown and
some wondered if he would even be able to win
another Grand Slam.
Since his loss to Nadal at Wimbledon in 2008, when he
was supposedly finished as a Slam contender, Federer
went on to win each Grand Slam once and appeared in
2 other Slam Finals. Again, now, the media is doubting
his ability to win Grand Slams. Why?
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