ROGER FEDERER- A LIVING LEGEND....

The game of lawn tennis is both historic and legendary. The game has seen a lot of legendary players stun the world with their brilliant performances from time to time. The Grand Slam Championships are as special to the fraternity of tennis fans and lovers as they are to professional tennis players. Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Boris Becker to name a few, are all eternally shining stars in the galaxy of lawn tennis. They commenced playing at the international level like all other less prolific professional players of their time did, but they won a million hearts with their unique, breathtaking and memorable performances on the court.

During the infant years of the millennium, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick ,Tim Henman ,Lleyton Hewitt  and Marat Safin were the ruling lords of tennis. In 2003, what was largely believed to be an-easy-to-win Wimbledon Championship final  for American tennis player Mark Philippoussis, marked the dawn of a new era in tennis. It actually turned out to be the first Grand Slam win for a future legend , a legend like-no-other, a legend who’s from time to time been attributed to being ‘The greatest of all time’, a legend who ushered in an entirely unique era of tennis, a legend who is known to maintain his calm temperament even during the most treacherous and threatening moments of the game, a legend who has a plethora of records to his name ,a legend who’s both equalled and surpassed records set by former champions of the game like Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras. Yes, you guessed it right........Ladies and Gentlemen, ’The greatest of all time’, ‘The Living Legend’ is none other than Roger Federer or simply known by his nickname ‘Fedex’.

 In plain words, Federer literally took the world of Men’s tennis by storm. Ever since he won his first Grand Slam title, there has been no looking back for him and he’s played some very phenomenal tennis to the delight and awe of the huge fraternity of his fans worldwide. His magical footwork and the phenomenal level of his body stamina are the key ingredients that ensure he covers the whole of his court like a house on fire and at the same time he is mighty successful in delivering some very unique and marvellous shots at regular intervals, to which sometimes his already tormented opponents have no answer to. He’s seldom, or for that matter never ever been seen in a frustrated mode during his career on court and its extraordinary that he’s managed to pull off some really phenomenal victories after rescuing himself from the onslaughts of his opponents with a calm temperament and an absolutely undeviating concentration level as his prominent weapons(The way Federer survived Andy Roddick’s consistent onslaughts in the form of his signature aces in the 2004 Wimbledon Men’s Singles final and managed to pull off  an outstanding victory is highly commendable. It was said that Roddick had never before played so ferociously than in that particular match) . His forehand and an equally effective single handed backhand (He weaves magical shots out of the two) together with an explosive serve create a lethal combination, and a very select few of his opponents survive his onslaughts for more than three sets. He’s bagged five Wimbledon C’ship titles in a row(equalling the previous record set by former tennis player Bjorn Borg), the Wimbledon C’ships being the closest to his heart is another story. His game, basically based on the Serve-and-Volley technique at times has known to surpass all previously attained levels of unpredictability. His ability to stun his opponents from time to time by his brilliant placing of some quite unbelievable and unconventional shots is what makes his style-of-play outshine other players’. All of this is the extraordinary result of the long hours Federer spends fine tuning his game during rigorous practice sessions.

 Some of Federer’s tough opponents include Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic  and Robin Soderling, among others. Rafael Nadal, the undisputed ‘King of Clay’ has stopped Federer from lifting the winner’s trophy at Stade Roland Garros three times in a row. Whenever and wherever pitted against each other on court, Nadal and Federer  are known to extract the best out of one another. Anybody who’s witnessed the 2007 Wimbledon C’ship final between the two would understand the true essence of the above mentioned statement. The phrases ‘Nail-biting Drama’ and ‘Overtly-Close encounters’ are what best describe the situation when Federer plays Nadal.

What other former tennis greats took 10-15 years to achieve, Federer has managed to achieve much more in a relatively short span of 5 years.2004-2009 may well be marked as ‘half-a-decade of Federer’s complete dominance in the world of Men’s tennis’.

END OF A LEGACY OR NOT....

Of late there has been a widespread belief among tennis critics of Federer’s dream run to ‘Being the greatest of all time’ hitting a rough patch.What the world got to watch of Federer earlier seems to be slowly fading away. The record breaking tally of his Grand Slam wins failed to register even a single increment, a highly unusual occurrence for a player of his calibre, post his 16th major title win at the 2010 Australian Open. It is actually too early to comment on what future would unveil in terms of Federer’s career.For now, it would be better to shrug off Federer’s unexpected string of Grand Slam knockouts/losses as simply being what every legendary player in the past has faced some or the other time in his career, which is a period wherein one’s game reaches a level of saturation and things do not work according to one’s expectations. But with strategy analysis and review , and ofcourse determination to strike back  with full zeal and vigour, the element which Federer has enormous reserves of,everything falls back in place again. Its actually too early to infuse surety into the fact that Federer’s legacy has finally come to an end.All of 29, Federer has many more and hopefully glorious years of tennis left in his life. With a record 16 Major and numerous ATP titles in his enormous tally of wins   , Federer is raring to come back to his usual form and add more Major as well as ATP titles to his name. For now, as I finally decide to cease writing further, somewhere in the Swiss mountains a legend is training hard, fine tuning his game, practicing those enormous serves and his signature shots, gearing up for the forthcoming Grand Slam season 2011. Hail Federer! The Greatest of all time!

                                                                                   -PRANAV S. GANDHI

                                                                                    B.TECH(II),CIVIL ENGG.,

                                                                                    NIT,SURAT.

                                                 

NOTE: THIS IS ABSOLUTELY AN ORIGINAL PIECE OF LITERARY WORK , CONTENTS OF WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN FROM ANY SOURCE WHATSOEVER. INSPIRATION THOUGH CAN BE SAID TO HAVE BEEN DRAWN FROM FEDERER’S FAMOUS DOCUMENTARY ‘SPIRIT OF A CHAMPION’.