One of the most common advertisement that came up (yet
again) during Australian Open 2013 is the Rolex commercial, asking "When
is greatness achieved?". Roger Federer, the athlete in the advertisement,
probably answered the question best at this year's championships.
Cut back to the day when the draws were announced, and even
the most ardent of his critics would have agreed that Roger's draw was the
toughest among the contenders. Davydenko in the 2nd round, Tomic in 3rd, Raonic
in 4th, Tsonga in quarters, Murray in semis, and Djokovic in final. Surely, it
was not possible for the soon to-be 32 year old Federer to get past all this.
He didn't. But what he did was more than enough to remind the detractors that
he is still good enough to win big tournaments.
It started with Davydenko in the 2nd round. The match
between two veterans was a tough match coming in the 2nd round. Davydenko had a
good warm up, and had already given Roger a run for his money three years back.
But the Swiss kept his temperament, and Davydenko soon started missing his mark
and increasing his error count. End result-6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to Roger in less than
2 hours. Next up was Bernand Tomic, who has talked himself up before the match
suggesting that he could cause arguably the greatest upset in recent times by
ousting Roger so early in the tournament. In a typical Swiss way, Roger let his
racket do the talking. End result-6-4, 7-6,6-1. Next round, Milos Raonic, him
of the great serve stature, was taught how much distance he still has to cover
before even thinking of being one of the best. The score there read
6-4,7-6,6-2. It was not so much winning, but how the matches were won. Against
Raonic, when required to be at his efficient best in order to tackle the huge
serve, he only had 12 unforced errors. Against Tomic, when down 4-1 in tie
break, he proved his credential as the greatest tie-break player of all time by
turning the tables and winning the tie-breaker. He taught the tennis pundits,
fans, critics a lesson that they would not forget in a hurry. These boys of today
are still no match for his skills. It can be the grass courts, the clay courts,
or the hard courts, but they are all still way behind him. They couldn't so
much as break his serve.
The story was not over. Up against Tsonga,a player against
whom he has had some problems in past, he was pushed. Broken for the first time
in the tournament, he struggled a bit with his serves and had to win two tie
breakers to force a 5th deciding set. However, here is the point where he
proved his genius and broke Tsonga for a 3-1 lead which ultimately proved
decisive. The 3 hour, 34 mins proved that unlike yester years, Roger has to
fight to stay afloat in the second week of the tournament. And he is willing to
do it.
The Murray match was one that the whole tennis world watched
in awe. The new Murray, with his aggressive play wore out Roger Federer in five
tough sets. However, my opinion is a little different. What I saw was a Murray,
at the peak of his game and fitness, having to play five long sets for four
long hours to overcome an error-prone, poor serving and definitely tired Roger
Federer. If Murray had lost this match, most of the people would have
reacted-"How could he?", such was the difference in their form that
day. But Roger fought on. He was broken early in the first set, and was facing
a deuce or break points every second game throughout the match. He broke the
Murray serve for the first time in the fourth set. Yet, the will to win was
more evident than ever. His forehand, his serve, both very crucial weapons
deserted him. You could have counted on fingers the number of winner he
produced with each. A small mistake in the second set tiebreak-that of going to
the wrong side when hitting a volley cost Murray the set. A very small mistake
against an out-of-sorts Roger. Yes, that is all it took. Broken at 6-5 in fourth
set, Roger might have started planning his flight back to Switzerland. Again,
he manfully fought on, sending a punishing backhand winner at 30-30 that signalled
his intent to push the match into the decider. In the tie break, he made the
move by breaking the Murray serve twice by aggressively moving across and
attacking them with huge forehands. That he went off the boil in the fifth set
was partly due to his fatigue caused by playing back to back tough five setters, four of which were tie
breakers.
Remember, Federer is not used to this style of play.
Fighting for every point is a style more suited for the Nadals, the Murrays, the
Djokovics. Yet, he struggled along, even abusing Murray once, the passion and
the zeal to win full on display in the traditionally rare "Come On"!
For a man with the amount of success that he has had, it was
humbling to see the desire to win brimming across the face. Having already
achieved all that was for the taking, this man still relishes in facing new challenges
of emerging talent of Rafa, Nole and Murray in late last decade, or that of
Raonic, Tomic these days, the challenge of adjusting to the constantly slowing
courts, the challenge of proving every "passing of baton" wrong, the
challenge of proving every season, every tournament, every match why he is the
greatest player of all time.
As the advertisement of Rolex correctly answered-
"Maybe it is when you are always asking-What next?"
