The Rise and Fall of Roger Federer

There was a time, not too far off in the past, when his biggest rivals had an air of resigned indifference when it came to a match against Roger Federer. It was not just that Federer consistently beat his biggest rivals like Andy Roddick or Lleyton Hewitt or David Nalbandian – He destroyed them.

A game against Federer was akin to a toddler trying to match the might of an Almighty God. Federer made the men look like boys – he ripped apart their games, destroyed their morale, punctured their pride and humiliated them in front of their fans – to the extent that playing tennis itself became an existential question for some of them. Andy Roddick once famously said that he fervently wished that he was born in another era!!

Indeed, the rise seemed inexorable – When Federer entered into his 200^th consecutive week as the World No. 1, he had become the first person to have ever done so and eclipsed the previous record of Jimmy Connors by more than 40 weeks. In a span of 4 years from 2004 – 2007, Federer seemed to win Grand Slams at will – going from 1 at the start of 2004 to 12 at the end of 2007. Mighty Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slams won over 13 years seemed destined to be superseded – there was even an eerily uncomfortable feeling amongst tennis aficionados that calling Pete Sampras a giant of the tennis court, a genius of his times, seemed distinctly incongruous in the presence of the awesome genius of Roger Federer. How could Pistol Pete be called a genius in the same breath as Federer – the way things were going, everybody seemed to agree that it could well be a two dozen Grand Slams before Federer hung up his boots. The problem was that there did not seem to be anybody who could even remotely challenge him, let alone defeat him –whether it was an ATP Tier – II tournament or the august Grand Slam – the champion was pre-ordained if Federer was playing in it. Rod Laver, indisputably the 'Greatest' willingly abdicated his crown – his famous words - "Oh, I would be honoured to even be compared to Roger", seemed to have settled it – the world had never seen a talent like Roger Federer's and he would scale the greatest of heights!!

But destiny had other designs – if there is ever a doubt as to whether the oft-repeated Law of Averages actually holds up – look no further than the career of Roger Federer.

Throughout the purple patch, the French Open and Rafael Nadal had managed to somehow be the only irritants. Federer huffed and puffed at the French Open – since winning the other Slams increasingly seemed like a mere formality each time, he concentrated all his energies into winning at Roland Garros, but Nadal seemed a step ahead each time. Even that was easily accommodated into the script – legends like Sampras and Lendl too had their failings at a particular Grand Slam and it only seemed to suffuse the aura of Federer with even more resplendence. But Nadal was the only person who begged to differ – on his favourite surface – clay – he did his best to ensure that he won each time and thus remain a worthy contender. He tirelessly played numerous tournaments across the world, zigzagging his way across tournaments of various tiers & accumulating precious points to slowly, but surely, emerge as the strongest pretender to Fed-Ex's crown.

2008 would prove to be a seminal year for Federer. The script remained true till the semis of the Australian Open in 2008, when he lost to Novak Djokovic, the first time since 4 years that he failed to reach a Grand Slam final. Very uncharacteristically for Federer, he lost in straight sets at a Grand Slam for the first time in 5 years. He however chose to dismiss the loss as a minor blip – a rusty start to the year because of lack of match practice – he would quickly set the house in order - the pundits agreed. In the next 5 months leading up to Wimbledon, he lost to Andy Murray for the first time in his career, lost the semis of the Indian Wells tournament to American journeyman Mardy Fish, lost to Roddick for the first time since 2003, lost to relative minnows like Radek Stepanek and then lost successive tournaments on clay to Rafael Nadal. He, however, remained unfazed and such was the immensity of the esteem in which he was held by all, that nobody seemed perturbed – i.e. till the French Open. It was a tournament where he would always be the challenger to Nadal, but he had seemed to make progress in each preceding year and everybody expected a cracker of a match when true to script, it was again Nadal vs. Federer in the final. On the contrary, Nadal pummelled him in straight sets – 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 – the final set washout was the first ever for Federer in 10 years!! Nadal had paid him back in the same coin – he had humiliated Federer, much like Federer used to do to his own rivals. Yet, it was clay after all – the situation could still be salvaged.

The tide however, turned decisively at the historic final of Wimbledon 2008 – this was Federer's own backyard – Nadal's greatest weakness was grass and Federer had his best chance to take revenge and nip the rising challenge in the bud. All sorts of records beckoned – a win would see Federer break Bjorn Borg's incredible tally of 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles and enable him to move to within a single title of Sampras' all-time record of 14 Grand Slams. Yet, after an epic 4 hrs 48 mins five-setter that John McEnroe hailed as the greatest ever of tennis history, it was Nadal who emerged triumphant. He had tamed Federer at his strongest bastion, stripped him of his aura of divine invincibility and the world would never be the same again for Roger Federer.

He rallied briefly – winning the US Open late last year to ensure that he did not end the year without a Slam for the first time since 2002, but 2009 has proved that the decline seems increasingly and worryingly, irreversible. While he still seems to be effortlessly gliding into the quarters and semis of tournaments and defeating his old rivals like Hewitt or Roddick, Federer has consistently failed to beat any of his emerging rivals this year – Djokovic or Murray. They have both triumphed against him at crucial stages in tournaments and he isn't even getting enough chances to take a pot-shot at the man who replaced him atop the world rankings – Nadal.

It is not that he has lost his skills or his hunger to win or his passion for the game – it is just that Nadal has taken away his inner belief in his own invincibility. Much like Federer had sucked the self-belief out from the hearts of his yesteryear rivals Roddick and Hewitt, Nadal has done the same to him.

The world can be so very cruel and harsh.

Sports and the Brits – A Media & People Circus

I have been in the United Kingdom for a few months now and thankfully, I have been blessed to see quite a few important sporting events happen during this time. In fact, one of the reasons I was keen to come across to the UK rather than the US was the very simple fact that while I have never really followed the sports that set American pulses racing (NASCAR, MLS, Baseball, NBA etc), the Brits have been our close cousins when it comes to the games that they follow (of course, in most cases, we just inherited their likes and dislikes – except perhaps Rugby, which is not so popular back home and is thus, duly deleted from the list of games that I discuss, for the purpose of this post).

And so it was that in the few months that I have been here, the English Premier League came to its closing stages, the Champions' League football followed, EURO 2008 rounded up the football season, the Kiwis came to English shores for cricket, Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan boxed foreign opponents and Wimbledon is reaching its climax, as I write this post - In short, enough sporting events to observe the peculiar traits of the English media and the English people when it comes to sports.

Peculiar because I have never really come across a more biased view of one's own country's superiority in sports as the ones expressed with impunity time and again by the British media and echoed through different channels, by the gullible junta. Let me state my case –

1. In the days leading to EURO 2008, I was surprised to see a football crazy country like Great Britain put on a charade of complete indifference to a continental showpiece – the reason for such petulant behaviour was obvious – England had not qualified for the tournament and the likes of the Rooneys, the Lampards and the Gerrards had been overshadowed by the Modrics and the Villas of the continent – such an ignominy for six-figure earning superstars to be shown their places by relative paupers from the backwaters of Bucharest and Thessaloniki. No surprise that the English found solace in feigning ignorance of the tournament at large!!!
   
2. However, when the tournament got underway and the media here realized that the flowing football on display was winning hearts and rave reviews from the world at large, the media pundits at BBC and the newspaper sports editors chose to focus on the exploits of EPL stars and made them the lynchpins of their teams' displays – thus Fernando Torres was crowned the "King of Spain" in newspaper headlines, while the wily exploits of Andres Iniesta and the goal scoring prowess of David Villa were conveniently glossed over
   
3. In between the football mania, the New Zealanders came visiting for a summer of cricket – and yeah, they got thrashed by the English in the test matches. Great news for cricket in a country where it is by far a much poorer cousin of football – and then, that's where the coverage stopped. The ODI series that followed saw the Kiwis overrun the English and typically, the media chose to look the other way proclaiming that Test cricket was still the ultimate and the English were, in any case, ranked just above West Indies and Zimbabwe, perhaps
   
4. And then came Wimbledon – and the British press never stops reminding you that it is the Mecca of Tennis – never mind that the grass court season is shrinking every time the ATP comes out with its new schedule. And if it is Wimbledon, it comes associated with that eternal Brit mania of trying to find out a home grown hero who can give Great Britain a singles' Wimbledon champion. Now, when was the last time, somebody amongst the men, who supposedly "gave the world the game of tennis", win the Wimbledon Singles' title? Has it been 15 years, 25 years, 35 years since a British bloke last held aloft the trophy? No, it is going to be 70 years now and still counting – but nonetheless, Andy Murray was given all the hype and support he could dream of – in fact, apart from Roger Federer, Murray was the only other guy to be given the privilege of playing all his matches in Centre Court this year. And what did he do with all this pampered treatment? He made heavy weather of the likes of Xavier Malisse, Tommy Haas and Richard Gasquet [does that sound as if he has scalped any worthy pretender to the crown?] before being summarily dismissed by Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, as if he was a speck of dust bothering the Spaniard!!
   

The Olympics are approaching and something tells me that I need to read newspapers back home and catch Indian TV news channels to get a fair picture of what is happening J

Good Bye, Andre

In the end, it was a qualifier that got him. It wasn't the walk into sunset that he probably, was looking for. The signs had been portending this, the whole year. He had been limited to a few appearances this season due to sciatica. The old shell outside had not been able to match steps with the sprightly youngster that inhabited its interiors. Going into the last major of the year, he had a negative win-loss record. Many bemoaned the fact that he had lost a golden opportunity to call it a day, the year earlier, when he surprised one and all, with a golden run to the ultimate round. "He should have given up, then....", they shook their heads in dejection, as he trudged on to the net for his final walk off a tennis court.

But giving up has always been an alien concept for Andre Agassi. Few can stake claim to a career graph marked by as many crests and troughs as this American immigrant of Persian ancestry. Of his talent, none had any doubts, since he burst out of Nick Bollettieri's tennis factory at the age of 16; of his temperament and dedication, gadzillions. Over the course of his career, Agassi would not set the tennis world on fire, as his teenage coach had once predicted. 8 majors is the kind of achievements that only the very best can ever hope for, but Agassi was better than many of the very best. He is the only man in the open era to have achieved the distinction of winning all the major slams - a feat unrivalled by even the likes of Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras or Ivan Lendl - all titans in their own right.

Andre Agassi literally lived his life through the medium of tennis - it is here that the golden pony-tailed, convention defying Bohemian Agassi would generate hysterical adulation as he trudged on to the field in his purple shorts, blowing kisses to his legion of female fans. He embraced the anti-establishment rebel image completely - wearing colourful dresses at Wimbledon, pushing its strict sartorial boundaries, boasting cheeseburger diets and even endorsing the Canon "Rebel" camera. In fact, he refused to play in the Australian Open for the first 8 years of his pro career and also skipped Wimbledon from 88 to 90. Success would not elude him for long - the 1992 Wimbledon triumph over the eternal pretender to the Wimbledon throne - Goran Ivanisevic - portending many more in the years to come. Indeed, the win in the U.S. Open in 1994 and his debut triumph in the Australian Open in 1995 seemed to put him in the hallowed echelons of tennis history.

But then perhaps, geniuses have a proclivity for self-destruction. A mismatched marriage to Brooke Shields, flamboyant pursuits in modelling, collecting Porsches etc also contributed to his distraction from tennis and his fortunes were further imperiled by unfortunate injuries. His ranking plunged to the 150s and even his die-hard fans were speculating what to write on his sporting cenotaph.

Agassi, however, thought otherwise. He rolled up his sleeves and started from scratch again - I still remember the surprise in the voices of the seasoned tennis commentators as they narrated his efforts in the Challenger series. Andre Agassi playing in the Challenger circuit - that is where you have players like Harsh Mankad, Danai Udomchoke and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan slug out (if you don't know their names, that is just the point !!). His head shaved, the ear-studs gone, Andre Agassi had re-dedicated his life to tennis and by 1999, one year after that comeback, he had defeated Medvedev in an epic 5-setter to win the French Open and become a member of that elite group to have won all the Slams. He would become World No. 1 - a remarkable comeback by any standards. He would go on to win one more Slam in 2003, maintain a consistent top-10 ranking till 2005, make that memorable run to the 2005 U.S. Open final, re-occupy the No. 1 slot in between to become the oldest player ever to have held that position and consistently defy the pundits by chasing down balls of opponents 15 years younger at times.

He was not the best player of his generation - Pete Sampras had taken care of that. He was not the best behaved - he once spat on a line umpire and in the early part of his career, often took ugly pot-shots against the likes of Sampras. But if there ever is a poll on who was the greatest superstar of tennis in his days, you know whose name will be there on the top.

A month of Magic

"All I know of life, I knew from the football field"
Thus spake Albert Camus.

And football frenzy nears its climax as the World Cup approaches. A fortnight remains and for millions across the globe, football would be the theme that will rule their lives for a month of sheer madness.

Football is by far the most popular game on earth and one which has the maximum number of adherents in the form of nations playing it.

And for those who are enamoured of its diverse charms, ESPN-Star's recent advertisements about the game would seem absolutely germane - Agony & Ecstasy; Celebrations & Catastrophe; Despair & Delight; Victor and the Vanquished - a game of 90 minutes can indeed teach one everything about life and beyond.

Who can forget the tears streaming down the face of that peerless genius Diego Armando Maradona as Germany dethroned the defending champions in Italia '90 , who wouldn't have wept along with Gazza as England contemplated the life beyond, in the same tournament? Roger Milla and his band of merrymen proved that there was skill and entertainment beyond the traditional powerhouses and won millions of hearts in the process. Bebeto chose to share with the whole world his exhilaration at his impending fatherhood and millions opened their arms to embrace his baby. Karl Heinz Rummennigge, in the finals of Mexico 86, showed in a short period of 20 minutes that hard work, discipline and organization can make the seemingly impossible, nearly possible; only to be pipped at the post by the magical skills of the divine Maradona. Michael Owen proved that talent is unstoppable in those magical moments of France '98 with his "Goal of the Tournament", while Senegal made the mighty French eat humble pie with their awe-inspiring run in 2002.

Demigods proved that they too had human frailties - Zico and Roberto Baggio would be etched in our memories for their catastrophic penalty misses, while a generation of football lovers would be haunted by the tragic sight of the proud Oliver Kahn clutching the goalposts, his head hung in despair and his eyelids twitching to contain the inevitable efflux from his eyes, contemplating the fumble that enabled Ronaldo to extinguish German hopes in far-away Tokyo.

Unknown entities have achieved immortality during the course of this tournament - Toto Schillaci may have been an unknown before Italia 90 and indeed, sunk back into oblivion soon after, but his Golden Ball winning efforts in that tournament would give him, his eternal seat in the supreme pantheon. Sami Al Jaber would prove that the Middle East were no middlings when it came to footballing skills, while Davor Suker and Zvonimir Boban would give a fledgling, young country a reason to be proud of themselves.

The veteran and the tyro, the young and the old, the established and the challenger - they all want to be a part of this celebration of football at its highest altar. Not all, would however, make it to Germany 2006 and amongst those, who do, some would bid their fans goodbye at this highest of platforms.

Zinedine Zidane would don the French colours for his last hurrah and the sporting world indeed, would be much poorer without his sublime skills to feast their eyes upon. Wayne Rooney, billed by many, as the inevitable superstar of this edition, races against time to be fit and England must now make plans without their talisman. Dietmar Hamann found that yeoman service counts for nothing when it comes to the greatest stage of football and tearfully announced his retirement on being ignored by former club-mate and current coach Juergen Klinnsmann, while Polish goal-keeper Jerzy Dudek came face to face with the vicissitudes of fortune, when he was surprisingly excluded from the Polish squad, less than a year after taking Liverpool to victory in that titanic Champions' League final. Such is the capricious nature of Dame Luck.

The show must however go on and we wait with bated breath for a month of magic.