I will not chase down the balls, but I will still win

After escaping only by a whisker, playing almost a half marathon in his third round match against the Italian Julien Benneateau, Roger Federer would have appeared yesterday on the centre court expecting a relatively easier outing against an unseeded Belgian, Xavier Mallisse . A 31 year old veteran like Mallisse was not expected to give any trouble to the former six times Wimbledon Champion.

Federer bidding to be the only player in tennis history to appear in the quarter finals of grandslams 33 consecutive times seemed to have lesser problems in confronting Mallisse who was not known to be a great mover on the court. But stranger things have happened in tennis before and it happened yesterday also. As Federer was leading 4 games to 3 with the Belgian to serve in the first set, unexpectedly the spectators of the Centre court were surprised to see Roger Federer moving out of the playing area for a rare medical time out.

The World No.3, who is normally known to be carrying an injury free body all through his career, finally saw luck going against his way as he seemed to be in all sorts of troubles, fighting with a back problem. In a torturously punishing game such as tennis, a slightest of injury is enough to do harm to a player, irrespective of his skills. So, when Federer went for the medical time out, which itself was a rare instance in his more than a decade long career, Mallisse could not have asked for a better opportunity to repeat his Davis cup performance in 1999, which was the last time he had ever beaten the Swiss.

The injury hit Federer finally came out and the signs of his physical problem soon became visible as he hardly seemed to move around the court. Things began to worsen as Mallisse was able to break the out of sort Federer’s serve thereby leading the set 6-5 on serve. But as the adage goes “Cometh the hour, cometh the man”, the former world no.1 was able to reverse his own fortunes by breaking back the Belgian’s serve and in the process, pushing the set to a tie-breaker.

More than for Mallisse, it became an important set for Federer to win as his physical condition started to haunt him so much. Losing the first set would mean more harm for Federer who would be left to perspire fighting with the experienced veteran to seal the match from thereon. But as it had been always, Federer fought back. He was able to win the tie breaker with as much ease as possible, in the most dominating fashion thereby closing out the set 7-6.

The rain could not have come at a better time for Federer as he required more than a break that a player gets at changeovers. Out came Federer with Mallisse after a half an hour break and from thereon in the second set, we saw the most complete player in full swing. Ofcourse, he was not moving well as you would like to see him do but nonetheless, he was picture perfect in the placements of his shots which stunned the Belgian who lost the set with only one game against his name.

Serving forward in the third set, immediately Federer found his serve broken and was never able to break the Belgian back bringing in the memories of the last year’s quarterfinals which he played against Tsonga. Federer lost the third set 4-6 and Mallisse added more salt to the wounds by breaking Federer’s serve yet again at the beginning of the next set. The Belgian managed to hold on to his next service game and soon he found himself leading 2-0 over one of the greatest players of the game.

But it was Wimbledon where he has been in seven successive finals. The rejuvenated Federer started hitting winners of his backhand without chasing down the balls both from the baseline and also from closer to the nets, establishing why he is being referred to as the most complete player ever. Soon he broke Mallisse twice out of nowhere due to solid backhand winners, wrapping up the set and match finally.

Now the point is Federer had to lose a set against Xavier Mallisse who was an unseeded player. Does that sound disgraceful? I would not say yes for this. Yes, he lost a set and came close to losing the first set also but if it was someone else in the present era of tennis, even be it Nadal or Murray, had they carried the same sort of back problem going into the match like this against a veteran like Mallisse, they would have lost the match for sure in 4 sets instead of winning it. Not that I am writing this to establish Federer’s superiority over the others, but the fact is what the Swiss can do to less talented players, despite carrying injuries, other players, who are precisely baseline ralliers, will not be able to do.

There has been a lot of criticism on Federer for not giving his best to chase down the balls like Nadal or Djokovic do. But all those critics overlook the fact that Federer’s game does not necessitate him to go after the balls corner to corner to keep the balls on play. Besides, Federer has a great court coverage himself but that is not always blatantly visible to the spectators because he always tries to finish up the points by hitting winners rather than keeping the balls on play.

Since he has the variety of shots to play and the ability to hit winners from anywhere, he was able to survive yesterday though he could hardly move. He hardly strained himself which was very much evident from the way he played in the last three sets yesterday, but still against a worn out player like Xavier, he was not at all threatened. He finished off the points very quickly instead of trying to indulge in baseline exchanges which would have aggravated his back problem and could have seriously halted his progress going to the last eight.

With the same sort of problem, if a player like Rafael Nadal plays a match against whomsoever the opponent is, he would not have made it. It is because unless and until he gets a proper bounce on his forehand which is his strongest area, he will not be in a proper position to hit winners from anywhere on the baseline. His game is all about fetching the balls from everywhere only to keep them on play which forces the errors from the racquets of his opponents. So, when he plays such a game carrying a back injury such as this, he would have his injury extended further and could have completely made him immobilized. Then a stationed Nadal would not be able to tame his opponents and eventually would have given away the match. It is not only applicable to Rafael Nadal but to all the baseliners who rely on their fetching ability rather than on the shots that they possess in their quiver.

Federer, of course, could not have won with this sort of condition if he had to play against Novak Djokovic or anyone inside top 10 but the fact is against the lesser players an 80% fit Federer is more than enough to secure a victory. Other players would need to grind themselves harder and harder to explore the ways to fetch points and so even though they are 80% fit as the game goes by, their fitness level would have started to reduce further and further which means even against lesser quality opponents, their bodies won’t last long.In short, I would rate variety of shots and the completeness in the game better over the unforgiving chasing that the players of current era do. The former is always useful for surviving as a tennis player for a longer term and the latter is just good enough for a very short term, unless you are so good at it.