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Friday June 17, 2005
Federer is king but the court is restless
By Stephen Bierley, The Guardian
Rising pressure and fatigue are main dangers for champion
John
McEnroe was his usual blunt self. "If Roger Federer plays well then
there is no way he's going to lose, and I could see him not playing his
best tennis and still winning." So on Monday the Swiss world No1 will
step out on to Centre Court - the cathedral of tennis - twice blessed
in the past two years and the overwhelming favourite to win his third
successive Wimbledon title. On grass, more so than
any other surface, everything comes totally naturally to Federer. He
has not lost on it since he was beaten by Croatia's Mario Ancic in the
first round of Wimbledon in 2002, a run of 29 consecutive victories at
the All England Club and Halle. There seems no obvious reason why he
should suddenly lose his pre-eminence this year. Indeed
Federer, who opens against the young Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu,
appears to have a relatively trouble-free run to the quarter-finals,
and may meet Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, in the last four. But
sport is not about perfection. It is about confidence, a quality that
is slowly built and can be destroyed in minutes. And being the world
No1 brings heavy responsibilities, both in terms of pressure and time. "There
are so many media requests, so many sponsor appearances, so many
tournaments," Federer said yesterday at the All England Club. "Before I
would arrive here on a Thursday or Friday, now I arrive on a Tuesday.
These all take days away from you being at home and doing other things,
so I cherish every moment when I win a tournament because I know how
much effort I put into it. You never know when it's your last." Last
autumn, after he had won the US Open for his third slam title in the
calendar year, he was immediately hailed as one of the all-time greats,
a player who might one day overtake Pete Sampras's record of 14 majors.
Federer, a
modest man, demurred, preferring to talk about the relative strengths
of his current rivals and the attributes of those who had been multiple
grand slam champions of the past. He might also have said that Sampras
was a quite different animal, one who restricted his outside
commitments to a minimum, never doing a huge amount, apart from his
brilliance on the court, to sell the game. Recently
dominance in men's tennis has been the exception rather than the rule.
Since 1998, when Sampras ended his run of six successive years at No1,
there have been 26 slams with 14 different winners, and 11 different
men have captured the last 14 majors. Small
wonder that when Federer won four of the six slams between Wimbledon
2003 and last year's US Open he was anointed by some, perhaps
prematurely, as one of the greatest who have played the game. It was
perfectly understandable, for the Swiss player's amalgam of skill and
power, coupled with that timeless one-handed backhand, was a throwback
to the golden days. Now,
after two semi-final slam defeats this year, the first against Russia's
Marat Safin in Australia and the second against the Spanish teenager
Rafael Nadal at the French Open, the doubts have started to creep in.
Could it be that he is beginning to find the pressure of being top of
the tree too much to bear? "The
way to beat a great player if you cannot match his game is to play with
as much intensity as possible. If Federer feels you want it really
badly, then that levels the playing field a bit," said McEnroe. Certainly
Safin, with Federer's former coach Peter Lundgren at his shoulder,
played out of his skin in Melbourne, and Nadal, who has risen from
outside the top 50 to world No3 this year, has played with a fervour on
clay that has been immensely intimidating. The
nearest Sampras, seven times Wimbledon champion, ever came to reaching
the final of the French Open was in 1996, and that same year he lost in
the quarter-finals at Wimbledon against the Dutchman Richard Krajicek,
the champion that year. The physical and mental energy he expended at
Roland Garros had taken its toll, and some will wonder if Federer's
first semi-final in Paris will have a similar effect. He himself has no
such qualms. "I think the way I came back straight after Roland Garros
and won the title in Halle proved the point." McEnroe
concurs. "Last year I thought Andy Roddick played his best match ever
in the final. Federer did not play his best and yet he still won. When
I saw Roger win his first Wimbledon title I thought he'd go on to win
at least five times and there is no reason for me to think otherwise at
the moment." Federer
smiles. "You always have to believe that it's possible to break
records, but I'm not thinking about not to be beaten in five years. I'm
just trying not to be beaten this year. That's already tough
enough."
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