On Monday, the 16th of July 2012, Roger Federer will take guard on the 287th week of his tenure as the World Number One. ‘Pistol’ Pete Sampras’ record of 286 weeks at the top will be consigned to oblivion.
By all accounts, this is one of the greatest comebacks in the annals of Sport. As a fairytale, this ranks right up there with the miraculous return of Sherlock Holmes from the torrents of Reichenbach Falls, and may yet inspire Mrs. Rowling to bring back Albus Dumbledore from the grave. Above all, this is a resounding vindication of Self-Confidence – with shockwaves that would have been particularly severe in the rocky island of Sardinia, where Rafael Nadal is enjoying a well-deserved vacation.
In the rarefied world of professional sport, athletes spend their whole lives in pursuit of records and immortality, and are often left tantalizingly short. It can be heart-breaking. In his last Test innings, Donald Bradman needed a measly 4 runs to finish with a career average of 100. The cruel hand of Fate and Eric Hollies ensured that he was bowled for a duck and ended at 99.94. On June 6th, 2010, when Rafael bludgeoned Robin Soderling into submission and powered into the World#1 slot, Federer was left high and dry at 285 weeks as Numero Uno, just one week shy of Pete Sampras. A great chance was lost, and in the face of the stiff challenges posed by Father Time and the glorious powers of Nadal and Novak Djokovic, it appeared that the Federer-story was irreversibly headed towards a quiet sunset .
But the enduring genius of Roger Federer has given us an improbable ending, and who knows, a Second Coming that may confound us all over again.
Over the last two years, Tennis has witnessed a battle royale between the proverbial immovable object and the irresistible force as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic jostled for space on the leaderboard. Amidst their titanic struggles, much to the impatience of the critics who had written him off, Federer continued to remain a solid fixture at world no. 3 – far away from the sounds of battle at the top, but equally impervious to the challenges from below. His form continued to flatter and deceive as he regularly won ATP 1000 and 500 tournaments, but fell apart in the final stages of Grand Slams. His game shone with coruscating brilliance as he blasted Nadal in the ATP World Tour Finals in 2010 and again in 2011, this time with a bagel-set thrust upon his great rival. However, he stunned even himself by blowing two match-points against Djokovic for two years in a row at the US Open. A famous win over The Djoker at the French Open 2011 was followed by another strange capitulation to the Mallorcan Clay-King in the final, and then came an astonishing surrender to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon after leading by two-sets-to-love.
As Federer-fans despaired, the critics nodded. They saw a pattern – the old man cannot last the distance in 5-set Grand Slam matches. Amidst the negative opinion, there were a few positive voices, and two of them stood out. One was Pete Sampras, who continued to assert that Federer was far from finished – perhaps it takes a genius to understand another. The other voice was that of Roger Federer himself, repeatedly insisting that he was playing well and was not far from winning another Big One. When he said at the beginning of the 2012 season that he saw a chance to be No. 1 again, most people dismissed it as self-delusion and the monumental hubris of yet another ageing champion. The iron Will of Roger Federer was discounted and ridiculed.
In many ways, his return to the top has been as unexpected as his fall in the summer of 2010, when his game dissolved in unforced errors and left fans shaking their heads. Last week, we were shaking our heads in disbelief as Federer-magic lit up Wimbledon.
Roger Federer sails once again in uncharted waters. The prospect of an Olympic singles-Gold looms ahead and whets our appetites, but maybe we should simply bask in the warm after-glow of the Master’s return and savour the ‘Federer moments’ as long as he chooses to play. As Andy Murray said after the Wimbledon final, “Roger’s not bad for a 30-year old”!
