2013 Season review of the self-destructive Roger Federer

Roger Federer

“I kind of self-destructed, which is very disappointing.”

This was what Roger Federer had to say following his shocking straight sets loss to Spain’s Tommy Robredo in the fourth round of US open this year. Surprisingly, the Swiss maestro, who was known for making short work of his opponents, ranked well below him, found himself caught in a tailspin, getting ragged repeatedly by players – some of whom had not even started crawling.

This was one scenario which was least expected for Roger when the 2013 season started, particularly with him performing exceedingly well last year, winning as much as six titles including his seventh Wimbledon. In fact, he finished 2012 as the second best player in the world, not far behind Djokovic in terms of points. So, he stepped into the newyear with loads of expectations, hoping to do even better than the previous season.

Strangely, he skipped his warm up in Doha and chose to begin his campaign in Australia right away. He was quite fabulous last year in Rod Laver Arena throughout the tournament until he was brought to earth by his nemesis Rafael Nadal in the semifinal. This year though, he was caught in a formidable draw thronged by budding youngsters all the way, with the lone exception of Daveydenko who was slated to meet him in the second round.

Bidding to reach his 35th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal, he went past his challengers up until the fourth round without dropping even a set. More so, with Nadal opting out of the tournament still recuperating from his injuries – the prospect of him reaching his first final in Australia since 2010 looked very much on the cards.

Ever since his purple patch as a tennis player disappeared in 2007, he had his problems with his consistency, especially when it was about controlling his backhand errors. This problem soon started showing during his quarterfinal match against Jo Wilfred Tsonga, who stretched the four time champion to the limit, exploiting his backhand weakness. Roger was lucky to have survived the Frenchman’s onslaught and reached his 10th semi final in a row in Melbourne.

In the semifinal he was up against Andy Murray to whom he had never lost any of his previous Grand Slam encounters. Though he was a favourite going into that match, he looked totally out of sorts and found himself a set down in no time. Strictly speaking, Federer was hanging on to the contest only with the help of tie-breakers. The fifth set was a one-sided affair with Andy taking it hands down as he sealed his place for the final against the defending champion Novak Djokovic. If anything, the performance of the Swiss in the Australian open indicated two things:

1. That Roger was not turning younger anymore – at least not young enough to play two back to back five setters. (Roger just gave it up in the deciding set and went down without a fight).

2. That even Murray was a threat to Federer in Grand Slams in addition to Djokovic and Nadal. Remember Andy beat him (demolished is the right word) in last year’s Olympics also

The great man though, was the defending champion in the next three tournaments which followed and so was left with too many points to defend. So, he needed to win each of those tournaments to have his points intact. His debacles in Rotterdam, Dubai and the all important Indian Wells proved clearly that the all time leader in Grand Slams was going to have one of the toughest years ahead.

In Rotterdam, his title defence was snapped by Julien Benneteau who was just a couple of months younger to him. The loss against Berdych in the semifinal of Dubai was a vivid indication of him finding a new nemesis. And finally his ignominious fall against Nadal who was just starting to make his mark after a seven month long injury layoff in the Indian Wells quarterfinal was more than enough to emphasise that he was yet to get over the mental block which he had been having against the Spaniard.

His performance was so pathetic that he failed to reach the final of not even one of those three events. Even if his defeat at BNP Paribas Indian Wells was imputed to his back pain, it was obvious that he was beginning to suffer from the effects of old age. Federer himself would rue his decision later on for having played with the physical ailment.

The Swiss did well though by preserving his body for the next 45 days or so having skipped “Masters 1000” in Miami and Monte Carlo, which was, no doubt, a good decision given the way he was playing. Even though he took a reasonable break from tennis to start afresh, the fact that he was about to step onto the red clay courts of Europe did not augur well for him, owing to the unfriendly nature of the surface.

Roger Federer

As all eyes were stuck on the great man, hoping for him to come good, his campaign at Madrid masters came to an abrupt end in the third round where he was beaten by Kei Nishikori of Japan. Following the shocking upset at Madrid, he was almost written off as a title contender when the ATP Masters 1000 moved to Rome. But redeeming himself as a champion player, Federer played his best tournament of the year till then. Conquering talented youngsters like Jerzy Janowicz and Benoit Paire, he was successful booking the final against his long time rival Rafael Nadal.

The final though, as it was expected, turned out to be a one-sided contest. As such Roger’s record against Rafa on clay was not something admirable and it was all set to go worse. Rafa broke the Swiss master’s service five times in the match, helped by the latter’s unforced errors. Federer went on to lose the match very submissively in straight sets, as a result. However, his performance in Rome was better than what was anticipated and so when he was pooled in a very friendly draw at Roland Garros, he looked almost certain to book his place in the final. Having sailed smoothly to reach his 36th consecutive quarter final, he locked horns with Jo Wilfred Tsonga, who was not known to be a great clay courter.

He had the experience on his side and so began his match as a clear-cut favourite. In fact, he broke Tsonga in the early going and took control of the first set immediately. But not only did he fail to hold on to the advantage but also surrendered meekly in the first set. The Frenchman hardly gave any room for Roger to make a comeback as he brutalized him in the next two sets. And that was the end of a very ordinary clay court season for Roger who was battered and bruised totally.

With half the season over, this was how Federer’s performance looked like:

Tournaments : 7

Titles : 0

Finals : 1

Players other than Nadal or Djokovic to whom he lost : 5 (Murray, Benneteau, Berdych, Nishikori and Tsonga).

His losses against low ranked players like Benneteau and Nishikori, in particular, looked inconceivable, given the fact that neither of those two had it in them any special skills which might bother him. Occasionally such types of mishaps do happen, but the way he went on losing to them by succumbing to reckless errors was annoying. Having played much below par in the first half of the season, he stood well within reach to fix things straight by cashing in on the opportunity that the then fast approaching Grass court season had to offer.

Being the seven time champion in Wimbledon and five time champion at Halle, he was dibbed to change his growing misfortunes on his most favourite surface. Federer, a runner up last here at Halle, bettered his performance this year by winning the title for the sixth time, not before surviving a scare in the final against Mikhail Youzhny. Although he did win the title which was his maiden one this year, his game did not look all that appealing to believe that he was getting back to his winning ways.

Though Wimbledon is just another grand slam in the 11-month long ATP calendar, for some reasons or the other, it is being reckoned as the most prestigious of all the events and more importantly, Federer earned his name and fame by having won this tournament the most, alongside Pete Sampras. Unlike French open, he was drawn in a tougher quarter with every possibility of a “Fedal” clash looming large.

Luckily for him, the Spaniard was ousted in the first round itself which meant he should be reaching the semifinal rather easily. However, on a black Wednesday, when most of the seeded players were ousted, he too was tamed and shown the door as early as in second round itself by a certain Ukranian called Sergiy Stakhovsky. The entire world was shocked seeing the great man getting vanquished in his most favourite grand slam where he had been in eight finals before, starting from 2003.

This exit by Federer also snapped his 36 successive quarter final appearances, putting an end to the nine year old streak. Thus the only title, which was expected to bring him a relief from the misery which he had been experiencing this year, also eventually eluded him, leaving him in tatters. With his only hope for the reversal of fortunes biting the dust, it was almost certain by then that this was going to be his worst year since 2002 unless he made the ensuing hard court season solely his.

Bamboozling everyone, instead of preparing for the hard courts, the Swiss chose to play in smaller tournaments in the clay courts of Hamburg and Gstaad to test his new racquet with the 98 inch dimension. Just when it looked as though he was feeling comfortable with the bigger racquet, he was drubbed in the semifinal of Hamburg by an Argentine called Federico Delbonis and in the very next match at Gstaad, he was crushed in the opening round by Daniel Brands. With such back to back defeats, his qualification in the tour finals also came under severe jeopardy.

With only three months of active tennis left, Federer, it had to be said, had fared better than the first six months, winning at least a title for him in Halle. He, after all, showed his intent to do something different in order to acquire more power by opting for a new racquet. Although he was being beaten by individuals who were ranked above hundred since 2005 Monte Carlo, it was very much evident that he was not there to give up. That was one of the positives to have emerged for the great man who, otherwise, had been having an ordinary year.

Roger Federer

The Swiss did the right thing by skipping Rogers cup which had not been a kind tourney for him for quite some time now and went to Cincinnati as the defending champion. After prevailing over Tommy Haas in a very closely fought match, he faced Rafael Nadal in the quarters. He played a very good first set and won it by breaking the Spaniard late. However, the man who was aiming for the Montreal-Cincinnati double gave everything he had and robbed the great Swiss of a place in the semifinal.

It had been quite a contrasting year for Federer and Nadal. While the eight time French open champion had been enjoying a Midas touch all the way, Roger had failures written all over him. So, when the stage looked all set for a Federer-Nadal clash in the quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, everyone was finger-crossed waiting for it to happen for the first time ever over there. But, unfortunately, as Federer himself would later say, he was in a self-destructive mood losing out to Tommy Robredo for the first time in his career and that too in straight sets.

His embarrassment in grand slams so ended this year having reached the final not even once. After a pathetic show in the US open, his woes seemed to have followed him in Shanghai too where he lost to the capricious Gael Monfills in three sets. That was just a third round of the tournament and when he reached Basel he had everything to play for – more so to qualify himself for the year ending masters final. But, the desperate maestro rejuvenated himself in the Swiss indoors winning all his matches comfortably to book a date with Juan Martin Delpotro for the second year in a row in the final. The Argentine upped his ante at the last moment and quelled his opponent to win the title for the second successive year. Though the disappointment was there, he could take solace from the fact that he did not lose to any journeyman unlike previous tournaments.

Then the players proceeded to Paris to have one final shot at the last masters tournament of the year. He avenged his defeat to Delpotro by slaughtering him in the quarter final at BNP Paribas to set up his first confrontation against Novak Djokovic this year. The Swiss, on his part, started pretty well but could not maintain the level deep into the match and hence ended up losing to his adversary in three sets.

As the year was about to an end, it was nice to see him playing much better – bringing variety of shots from his arsenal. Due to his late outburst, he somehow found his place to have a shot at the World Tour finals which he had won six times earlier in his career. He did well to reach the semifinal despite getting aligned in a group which was considered the sturdiest. But to add to his misfortune, he was up against Rafael Nadal who he had not beaten even once this year. The jinx continued to follow him as he was bull dozed in straight sets by the merciless Spaniard who was hoping to win the title for the first time in his career.

Summing up:

It would not require a tennis expert to predict how the year had been for the 17 time grand slam champion. Just by looking at his win-loss record of 45-17, anyone can say that he has dealt with the worst year of his career ever since grabbing his first grand slam in 2003. Like Sachin Tendulkar had once said that people would attribute you getting bowled quite a number of times to your growing age, talks had already begun amidst tennis enthusiasts if Federer’s losses this year had anything to do with his advancing age. If you do not look at his record superficially and analyse his progress this year carefully, you can arrive at a few positive points:

1.Federer has not lost to the next generation of players like Raonic, Tomic and Dimitrov. Even with his poor form, he seems to own them.

2. Towards the fag end of the season he had picked up his game and most of the matches which he had lost were decided only on the final set. This confidence he should be able to carry forward when the next season begins.

3.He is not prepared to surrender to the ravages of time and that is why he is trying to work out different permutations and combinations. The testing of increased dimensional racquet in Hamburg and Gstaad stands as a proof for his relentlessness.

4. His parting ways with his coach, Paul Annacone, suggests he is going to experiment something different. May be we will be knowing more about this decision in a month or so.

5. He himself has claimed that he should not have played with back pain. This only means he may not be repeating this mistake in the future and would reserve his body for important occasions.

6.Despite so many losses, he is still ranked well within the top ten which means there are others who are doing even worse.Therefore, it is not prudent to write off Roger Federer whatever may be the circumstances. There is a great chance that even other players would undergo such a scenario next year. If that happens and Federer brings up his A game, anything can happen. Maybe we will get to see No.18 written against his name.