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May 22, 2007
Federer plays by his own rules
By Rohit Brijnath, The Hindu
This wasn't Federer with a paintbrush but a hammer and in an oddly murderous mood, writes ROHIT BRIJNATH
The excellent athlete bewilders us with
his acute sense of the moment. He owns not just the ability to act but
intuitively recognises when he must act. In a way he is a
scene-stealer, addicted to the spotlight.
This astonishes even his peers, who ask, as Ian Botham was famously queried by a teammate, "Who writes your scripts?"
How do champions do this, we wonder, like
trigger victory on a dead day on an inert pitch in Adelaide during his
farewell Ashes as Warne did.
Perhaps the accomplished sportsman, who is
instinctively an entertainer and lives for the stage, has an uncanny
feel for the occasion, a knowledge that the world is watching me, right
now, and automatically responds.
This sense of theatre, Roger Federer
understands. His gift for timing is not restricted to how fluently he
hits a ball, but extends to his talent to make a powerful statement
when it counts.
Of course, he was going to answer questions
about his hesitant form eventually (at Wimbledon perhaps), but to do so
in a clay final (on Sunday in Hamburg), against a stalking Nadal, after
a stammering early tournament, and a limp first set, and down break
points in the second set, well, that is the very definition of style.
Making a statement
Federer did not merely interrupt Nadal's spell
over him on clay, or break the Spaniard's 81-match clay winning streak.
He ripped it from its hinges and sent the tired claycourter to the exit
with a 6-0 farewell set — the Spaniard's first since 2005. This wasn't
Federer with a paintbrush but a hammer and in an oddly murderous mood.
His tennis was emotional and his every belted shot appeared to ask:
"What slump?" He has made us look silly. But few will mind.
Federer, like his extraordinary bretheren,
refuses to be shackled by convention, and does things his own way.
Michael Jordan was told no player could be the NBA's Most Valuable
Player and leading defensive player in the same season, it was too
tiring, and of course he achieved it. Serena Williams was informed it
was impossible to get match-fit during a grand slam event and then win it, and then did just that at this year's Australian Open.
Similarly, it is accepted that the modern
athlete is enhanced by his entourage. The supportive parent, the
reassuring coach, the nodding psychologist, the flexing trainer, the
sympathetic girlfriend, all allow the athlete to focus solely on eat,
sleep, play. Federer has never embraced this idea, yet after four
successive tournament losses and evident on-court irritation, perhaps
even he, understandably, might have craved some extra encouragement.
Yet his response was not to increase his tiny entourage of girlfriend and coach by summoning a battery of soul-soothing gurus, but to cull
it by parting with Tony Roche. That he did this on the eve of the
French Open, the grand slam tournament he desires most and where he
requires every assistance, appeared such a defiance of custom that he
was even acccused of panic.
Except, in the first event back on his own, he triumphs! Evidently Federer writes his own rules, and his own scripts.
Certainly Federer's individuality would have
pleased old-fashioned champions, whose only regular companions used to
be fellows named Heineken and Carlsberg. Jack Nicklaus, the golfer,
mentioned last week that entourages were not sinful but occasionally
limiting.
"Not that they (athletes) don't need it, but
they rely on it," said Nicklaus. "They need to get away from that and
learn to take care of their game themselves. Learn yourself." Federer
learnt from Roche, yet is also, evidently, his own best teacher.
Certainly it is refreshing to see a struggling athlete reach within to
discover a solution.
Federer labelled his win a "breakthrough", and
it was, an overcoming not just of a super opponent but of doubting
self. But it will stand alongside his acquiring of self-control, his
learning of the art of shot selection, his subduing of Hewitt after
endless losses, as a pivotal career moment only if he translates the
confidence into victory in Paris.
Next week will be five sets, Nadal will be
rested, hungry, favourite. Roland Garros is the Spaniard's stage. And
it will take some stealing.
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