Roger Federer: A Model of Consistency

Much has been written about the crisis Roger Federer is supposedly in. If breaking a further record defines the word crisis for tennis journalists, what would they call the present economic crisis? As Roger Federer put it in his interview, it’s high time they stopped writing nonsense. He is preparing for the semi-final against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro right now. It will be his 20th semi-final at a grand slam tournament in a row; the runner up in that category is Ivan Lendl who managed 10 in a row.

If this is a sign of crisis, what should other tennis players feel like? Just because two players (yes, two) set the standards week after week as incredibly high as Federer and Rafael Nadal, does it mean one of them has a crisis when he drops his tennis level to mere human standards? Not really, I would say.

Gladly, we don’t hear a lot anymore on the permanent discussion if Roger Federer is an all time tennis great. We might as well agree on it, just looking at his playing tennis. But maybe we should stop overlooking Rafael Nadal in the same category. Being world number two for over four years behind Federer doesn’t make you a bad tennis player, I guess. And becoming number one with him still playing shouldn’t make the reckoning any worse. Maybe we should have a closer look at the finals those two played against each other in Wimbledon and Melbourne, and then we could agree on accepting them both as extraordinary players.

What makes tennis so exceptional right now is the fact that we have two such outstanding players at the same time. If Nadal in his interviews graciously hands credit to Roger Federer for becoming the player he is, I think Federer would hand the flowers right back to him. It was having Nadal treading on his heals all the time that egged him on to become the player he is. Together they have become what I would term Dr. Doolittle’s ‘push-me-pull-me’ in tennis.

The ATP ranking hides a further fact quite well. What seems like an overweening dominance by two players over years does so, because the points in the ranking tell us so. But the next 10 players, maybe even more, are not that far behind them in pursuit. Any one of them could develop the skill to become more consistent any time, because the ATP ranking not only highlights the winners, it also shows up the most constant players in high ranking places.

Roger Federer goes into his with loads of good wishes from all sides. He got accolades from Nadal as well as Gael Monfils, his last opponent. That even Del Potro wishes him luck (should he lose) just shows how gentlemanly Roger behaves towards his opponents. Nadal cited him not only as his tennis inspiration, but also as his role model as a personality. If you look at these two, being a gentleman in sports does pay off after all.

Prior articles on Roger Federer:

Roger Federer’s Interview on Swiss Television