MELBOURNE – Great champions can still play outstanding tennis on any given day in their mid-thirties, but they can struggle to maintain the highest of levels day in and day out. Will Roger Federer repeat the incredible performance that he delivered in the Berdych match?
Every day is a different day, especially when you play professional tennis in your mid-thirties. At 35 years of age, Roger Federer should hypothetically be facing more ups and downs than his younger rivals. The reason why this theory is purely hypothetical is that Roger Federer is used to defying all odds. He is an EXTRA-ordinary tennis player in every sense of the word.
Nobody expected that Federer could play as exceptionally well as he did today against Tomas Berdych – a top-ten fixture that had beaten Roger 6 times in 22 matches, including two Grand Slam clashes. The Swiss maestro himself genuinely described his own performance “as a surprise”, while Berdych showed his usual sense of humor when he admitted that “I would have preferred watching this type of performance from the stands rather than on the court.”
Federer pegou emprestado o backhand do Wawrinka, foi isso? #AustralianOpen pic.twitter.com/cpCovZxn5f
— BreakPointBR (@BreakPointBR) 20 January 2017
Roger had the best of Tomas in roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes. He quickly came out of the gates swinging and dominated the first set 6-2 in 23 minutes. “When great champions jump on top of you right off the bat, everything gets easier for them,” Berdych said during his post-match press conference. After being absolutely “on fire” in the first set, Federer remained unplayable in his own service games; he never allowed Berdych to win more than two points and never conceded a break point. Roger was hitting the ball beautifully and flying around the court like in his best days. He dropped only 14 points in 14 service games and produced 10 impressive backhand winners. We always praise Roger for his unbelievable forehand, but when his backhand is dialed in, there is very little that his opponents can do. One of the reasons why the Swiss always struggled against Nadal is that the Spaniard used to suffocate Federer’s backhand with heavy left-handed forehands that bounced above Roger’s shoulder. As a result, Federer used to commit a bunch of unforced errors.
On the other hand, Berdych – who is right-handed – doesn’t possess a weapon that could put Federer’s backhand under extreme pressure, especially when Roger plays his best tennis. “I am not surprised that Roger played so well. He is a great champion, probably the greatest of all time. He won’t necessarily forget how to play if he takes a little break from the sport. I was actually very frustrated with the way I played, I thought I could play better,” the Czech said after the match.
It will be interesting to see how Federer will fare against Nishikori. The Japanese star will definitely represent a very different challenge with longer rallies that could cause Federer more problems. Will Roger be able to play at 100% again? Nobody can say that for sure.
When former world No. 1 and six-time Grand Slam champion Stefan Edberg – who was also one of Federer’s idols growing up – announced that 1996 would have been his last season, the Swede was 30 years old and no longer interested in training, traveling and making sacrifices every single day. He simply wanted to spend more time with his wife and kids. Every tournament that he played in 1996 turned into a huge celebration of his brilliant career and great hordes of devoted fans gathered in the stands during all of his matches. Edberg produced both outstanding and horrible performances in his farewell tour. One day he would defeat a great champion and the following day he would lose to a mediocre player.
Continuity is always the biggest problem when great champions begin to age. We will see if Roger can reverse the trend. Despite two comfortable wins in the first two rounds against Melzer and Rubin, it was clear that Roger needed to step up his game in order to beat Berdych. And he did big time, but he will now have to sustain that incredible level against Nishikori as well. The head-to-head between Federer and Nishikori stands at 5-2 in the favor of the Swiss.
Tomas Berdych talked about an interesting stat with great savoir-faire: “I read that at the beginning of the tournament the main draw included about ten players in their thirties, while ten years ago there were none. Today’s players have learnt how to better take care of their body; they are more professional and can last longer.” Even if Berdych didn’t explicitly admit that he would probably love to play on the pro circuit for several more years, he is certainly thinking about it. As for Federer, his type of game could definitely allow him to remain competitive at the top of the game for a few more years. His participation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would be fascinating.
If Roger defeats Nishikori, he will have to play the winner of the match between Andy Murray and Mischa Zverev – Alexander’s older brother. The draw couldn’t get any tougher for Federer.
Speaking of Murray, the Scot had to answer a bunch of questions about Djokovic’s shocking second-round exit. “The situation hasn’t changed much for me. Djokovic was on the opposite side of the draw. The road to the final is still extremely long,” Murray said.
2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka won a tough four-setter against Viktor Troicki, but looked quite distracted throughout the entire match – especially in the fourth set. He will go into his next match against Italy’s Andreas Seppi as the huge favorite, but Denis Istomin taught us that in tennis we should “never say never”.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
