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September 11, 2007
Under pressure, the maestro continues to find right answers
By Rohit Brijnath, The Hindu
For the third time in four years Federer has won three
of the year’s
four Slams, writes
Rohit Brijnath
Psychologists have probed for it, coaches speak authoritatively on it,
rivals have been stung by it and neurosurgeons have probably seen it.
But no one really understands it. This foreign place that champions go
to under stress where they discover serenity, this hidden lockbox in
the brain labelled “Use in emergency” where a reserve supply of
confidence lies. Science will one day find a way to analyse the
cerebral journeys of the champion. How clarity arrives a
midst the inferno, why winning decisions are made, and what makes Roger
Federer unique.
In a U.S. Open final (won 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 by Federer against Novak
Djokovic), whose fickle quality was compensated for by a throttling
tension, Federer’s tennis lacked its usual icing of inspiration. He was
nervous, inconsistent, and often the lesser player.
Abandoning error
Yet down five set points in the first set, an erratic Federer
abandoned error; down a mini-break in the first set tie-breaker, he did
not panic; down a break in the second set and struggling, he exploded
to break the Serbian to love; down 5-6, 15-40 and serving erratically,
he produced eight consecutive first serves to win the game and second
set tie-breaker. It was a masterclass in cool.
Sitting on his chair, Federer occasionally resembled a man ready for
his last cigarette and a blindfold, yet every time Djokovic pushed, he
responded, he kept himself alive. Later, Djokovic spoke of searching
for a calm he couldn’t find, a calm that would have allowed him to walk
that fine rewarding line between risk and conservatism on big points, a
calm Federer invariably seems to own.
Before the match, Djokovic said he was “ready”. Ready perhaps for a
Grand Slam final, but not yet ready for a Grand Slam final against
Federer. The Serb said later: “(Federer’s) biggest strength is his
mental strength. He gets advantage over the players in any match he
goes into because the players are thinking, ‘Okay, I’m playing Roger
Federer, one of the best players ever.’” If it was any other man,
Djokovic would have been champion. But he was playing not just a man,
but a reputation. Auras are hard to beat, halos hard to handle, history
hard to subdue (Federer has never lost a Grand Slam final outside
clay). Even when a man is in the lead against Federer he questions
himself.
Intimidated
In the first set, Djokovic lost six points in his first five service
games, yet from 40-0 up while serving at 6-5 till he lost the
tie-breaker he produced three key double faults. It didn’t matter that
he’d beaten Federer in Montreal, or that the crowd was holding his
hand, or that he’d patrolled the baseline like a dutiful sentry. He
appeared unsure of himself when it mattered, almost intimidated not by
what Federer had done but was bound to do under pressure.
Instead of shutting the door, he showed the Swiss an inch of
daylight and it is from such tiny acts of inadvertent generosity that
great escapes are constructed. The Swiss understands the psychological
processes of winning a Grand Slam tournament while the Serb is a lesson
or two away from earning that degree.
Federer will go home relieved, but having reminded us as he did in
the Wimbledon final that while he dines with Vogue’s Anna Wintour and
designer Oscar De La Renta, away from the table he exhales a
Liston-like toughness. For the third time in four years he has won
three of the year’s four slams. It is astonishing for Sampras did not
even do it once.
Djokovic will go home knowing that Federer will be thinking of him,
and while disappointed the Serb should remember that defeat is a great
teacher, an idea articulated beautifully in an old Michael Jordan
advertisement: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career; I’ve
lost almost 300 games; 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the
game-winning shot, and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over
again. That is why I succeed.” The final reminded us that Federer is
No.1, but also that Djokovic is the future No.1. The first is a fact,
the second is almost a certainty.
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