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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Without Peer
In winning his fourth straight U.S. Open crown and 12th Grand Slam title, Roger Federer left little doubt that no one in the world does anything as well as he plays tennis
By S.L. Price, Sports Illustrated
The moment of consolation came late
at the 2007 U.S. Open, but it was not for Roger Federer's latest
victim. This one was for the crowd, for the 25,230 unsuspecting fans
who had come to Flushing Meadows to take in a New York spectacle, watch
some tennis and overpay for food and drink, and who suddenly found
themselves lacking. This one was for those who'd tracked Federer's
elegant ride into history for the last two weeks, who'd seen him rise
to every challenge with otherworldly calm and brush aside all comers
like lint off a lapel. "Congratulations, Roger!" one miserable
soul had yelled after one of his wins. "I hate you!" Who wouldn't feel
inferior when faced with such imperious talent? Federer's opponent on
Sunday, the dynamic and doomed Novak Djokovic, had dubbed Federer "the
untouchable one" and was now, stroke by hapless stroke, proving the
point. After a while it became impossible not to scan all the famous
faces in Arthur Ashe Stadium and engage in pop culture's newest reality
show: Roger Federer Is Better Than You . There sat Oscar-winning
actor Robert De Niro, rocker Gavin Rossdale and mogul Donald Trump.
Sorry, boys, but here's the truth: Federer plays tennis better than you
act, rock and mogul. But don't worry. Plenty of boldfaced names paraded
to the Open -- Chevy Chase, Liza Minnelli, James Taylor, Christie
Brinkley, Vera Wang, Michael Bloomberg, Charles Gibson -- and they too
came up short. With his 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory in the final, the
26-year-old Federer has won four straight U.S. Opens to go with his
five consecutive Wimbledons, has taken 12 Grand Slam singles titles in
just five years and is only two away from Pete Sampras's record of 14.
Hey, Tiger, with your 13 majors over 11 years, relax and join the club.
You'll have to search long and hard to find anyone who does something
as well, with more style and less effort, as Federer plays tennis. "A
lot of times you don't understand how he can do it," says the 2007 U.S.
Open women's singles champion, Justine Henin. "The way he covers the
court, it's like he's never forcing his game. He's everywhere. His
attitude never changes -- winning, losing, if he doesn't play well --
he's very calm. He is going to be the best player ever. I don't see
anyone who can stop him now." No one does, and the ease of his
conquests can be daunting for the rest of us mortals. After all,
Federer won this major -- just as he won Wimbledon in July, just as he
won six others -- without a coach. "I don't need to sit down and talk
about an opponent for an hour," he said after sweeping aside No. 4
Nikolay Davydenko to reach his record 10th straight Grand Slam final.
"Takes me basically 15 seconds [to come up with a game plan]. I know
everything I need to know." So when that moment of consolation
came Sunday, with Federer up two sets to love and leading 4-3 on
Djokovic's serve, who could blame the fans for reacting the way they
did? At 30-all, Federer raced to net, homed in on a sure winner -- and,
like any Sunday hacker, dumped his forehand volley into the net. The
crowd sent up a celebratory roar, the loudest of the match. Federer was
shocked, but how could he possibly understand? If only for a second,
there was this comforting revelation: He's human too! It didn't
last, of course. Two games later Federer punished Djokovic for caving
on the seven set points he had squandered in the first two sets,
breaking him with the same vicious backhand that had torn up every
other opponent this fortnight, and reclaiming the U.S. Open title and
the crowd's collective awe.
"It's important that people respect
what I do, and I think over the past couple years that has happened,"
Federer said late Sunday night. "There were times I felt people were
like...." He shrugged. "It was a bit strange. But now I almost have the
feeling [they know] they're watching greatness. Especially after that
fifth Wimbledon, that really put me in a different league. That
Wimbledon and this U.S. Open are going to change a lot of things." The
Open has long been the tennis year's defining event, and this fortnight
was no exception. Both Federer and fellow No. 1 Henin -- who scooted to
her seventh Grand Slam title without dropping a set, rolling over
Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 in last Saturday's final -- emerged as the
class of their respective tours. After again raising his game just
enough to dispatch a frantic Andy Roddick (now 1-14 against him) in
straight sets, Federer walked off the court, bumped into the CEO of his
racket sponsor and giggled, "Did you enjoy it? Me too!" He had no idea
that, just minutes before, Roddick had stalked into the locker room
screaming, "F------ A, Andy! F---! F---!" And Federer cared not at all
when, despite the effort by some reporters to clarify, Roddick inflated
one of Federer's benign postmatch comments into an insult and cursed,
snapped and fumed his way through his press conference. Indeed,
heading into the final stretch, it seemed the Open would be permanently
marred by the churlish exits of its homegrown heroes. Serena Williams
cemented a reputation for unsporting self-delusion when, after getting
trounced by Henin 7-6, 6-1 in the quarters, she said Henin had hit "a
lot of lucky shots." Even the more charitable Venus Williams, victim of
Henin's superior conditioning and -- yes -- power in her 7-6, 6-4 loss
in the semis, took some of the gloss off Henin's win when she
complained afterward about a mystifying dizziness. Venus, said her
mother, Oracene Price, learned that she had anemia after Wimbledon, and
she was afflicted with a form of vertigo throughout the hard-court
season; Price wants her daughter to get a complete medical workup. But
until the doctors' diagnosis, Venus's complaint comes across as another
example of a Williams sister's refusing to concede a loss. After all,
Henin played all tournament with shoulder problems and asthma. "I'm
surprised," Henin said, rolling her eyes at Venus's excuse. "I had some
breathing problems for a couple of months, but much more the last two,
three days. I saw the doctor also. I could say I wasn't 100 percent,
but I was fighting on every point." But by then, and from the
most unlikely of places, the Open had already found the antidote to
such pettiness. Last Thursday night, after easily beating onetime No. 1
Carlos Moya in the quarters, the 20-year-old Djokovic launched into
hilarious oncourt imitations of Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic's spot-on impressions of Sampras and Federer had grown into
YouTube staples over the fortnight. At the request of USA Network's
Michael Barkann, Djokovic hiked up his shorts, minced to the line and
served up a perfect Maria, followed by a leaping, flexing,
wedgie-digging Nadal while the Ashe Stadium crowd, and his shocked
parents, howled. Djokovic had played in the tournament's best
match -- a five-set epic against Radek Stepanek in the second round --
and his raucous corps of Serbian fans had jump-started the crowds, but
for him to deliver one of the best postmatch scenes in Open history was
another thing entirely. With the men's tour still reeling from a
gambling investigation concerning Davydenko, Djokovic's singular
ability to combine levity with grim purpose, to hit winners from every
angle and to spark members of his entourage to tear off their shirts
and hurl them into the crowd after he won, imbued what has become an
increasingly saccharine event with some of that old-time Flushing
Meadows chaos. But the No. 3-ranked Djokovic, who had beaten
Federer last month in Montreal, was more than a circus act, and Federer
knew it. His hands shook and were cold to the touch before Sunday's
match. "I do ask myself the question, How long is this run going to
last?" Federer said. "And the more I win, the more I ask myself. But I
didn't come here to lose in the final. I came to win." Federer
outplayed Djokovic on nearly every big point, won his third major of
the year and passed 11-time Slam winners Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg on
the alltime list. "I'm chasing down Sampras," Federer said afterward --
and he's already got an answer for people, such as Sampras himself, who
question the level of his competition. "I disagree," Federer said. "I
think the depth [on the men's tour] is much better now, 1 to 100." The
competition might look weaker, he said, simply "because I've taken all
the Grand Slams with Rafa. If [Marat] Safin or Roddick and all these
other guys would've gotten more, people would think there is much more
depth now. But they didn't. Because I've taken them all." In
other words, world, take your consolation where you can. Federer has no
rival, not really, not anywhere. And he's ready to make the case, with
his game and with his mouth, until you understand.
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