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Wednesday, 20 June, 2007
Federer Focuses on Fifth Title
By Alix Ramsay, Wimbledon
It is no wonder that Roger Federer loves Wimbledon. In the home of
tradition and history, the champion feels at one with his surroundings.
He is, after all, a creature of tradition and habit and over the past
four years, his habit has been winning.
This year, though, is
different. His beloved Centre Court has been stripped bare in
preparation for the new retractable roof (it will be here by 2009)
while Federer himself is trying something new.
Normally he
prepares for his Wimbledon challenge by winning the title in Halle,
happily shaking the red dust of Paris from his shoes and getting back
to what he does best – playing, and winning, on grass. And once he has
won in Germany, he comes to SW19 and wins here as well. It all has a
certain symmetry to it and, as winning formulas go, it cannot be
bettered. As the tournament began, he had not been beaten in 48 matches
on the green stuff.
But this year the mighty Swiss opted to
take a few days R&R after his clay court run, a few days off to
rest his weary bones and clear his head. Halle was given a miss. The
season so far has been hard work and even masters of their craft get
tired once in a while.
In March, Federer began a run of poor
form unprecedented since he became the world's top ranked player. For
the first time since February 2004, he failed to lift the trophy in
four successive tournaments. Now, for most people, the thought of
lifting four trophies over the course of an entire career is a goal to
aim for, but not Federer. Cursed by his own success, any level of play
less than perfection is deemed a disaster. Or it is by those who follow
him.
The master, though, is not a man for over reacting. He
merely took the run of duff results as a sign that something had to be
done. The question was: what? When a chap has won everything in sight
for years, when everything he has touched has turned to titles and when
everything, bar the French Open, has seemed his for the taking, he has
to be very brave to change the recipe. And, anyway, the frightfully
nice Mr Federer is not one for personal confrontations, not away from
the match court at any rate.
Still, decisions had to be taken.
So Federer parted company with Tony Roche, his coach of the past two
and a half years. The announcement was made in a quiet and dignified
manner late on a Saturday night during the Italian Open – and just as
the press pack had sat down to dinner. Never has a restaurant emptied
so quickly and never have so many sports desks been rung in between
mouthfuls as when the word came through.
As was to be
expected, the parting was done in a decorous fashion. They had just
gone their separate ways, Federer was appreciative and grateful to
Roche for his efforts – and that was that. Two of the sport's gentlemen
were moving on and the rest was private.
From there, Federer
headed to Hamburg and won the title – and beat Rafael Nadal on clay, to
boot – and went to Roland Garros feeling a little brighter. But for the
second consecutive year he stood one step away from an historic win: to
win the French would have left him holding all four Grand Slam trophies
and would have ensured his place as one of the true greats of the game.
And for the second consecutive year, Nadal snatched the chance away
from him and beat him in the final. "It was the same last year,
and I could feel such a pressure," Federer had said before the final,
before Nadal had run his friend and rival ragged. "I really wanted to
win that match last year against Nadal, because I knew what it meant
for my career, for myself. And it's just the same thing one year later.
"But, I have more experience now. I'm more mature. I can better
manage the situations. The opponent is the same, and a final in a Grand
Slam tournament is never easy. And playing Nadal on clay is always
difficult." Quite how difficult the young Spaniard is, only
Federer knows. Nadal on clay is almost impossible to deal with but when
he sees Federer on the other side of the net, he raises his game to yet
another level. After another loss, Federer broke with his own
traditions and went home for a sit down and a think. Yet the
All England Club works a special magic on certain players. Ask Pete
Sampras. However bad his year had been, he took one look at the Fred
Perry Gates and started to smile – and won seven titles here. He was
coming home. It is the same for Federer. "I love playing on all
centre courts around the world but Wimbledon was the first one that
really hit me in terms of being the nicest one ever because of the
atmosphere," Federer mused. "Centre Court in Wimbledon is always full,
there's only the Royal Box with a few empty seats sometimes but the
other seats are always taken by fans, not by VIPs, which makes it a
great atmosphere." Federer is not in crisis – far from it – and
his year has been spectacular, save for a minor hiccup in March and
April. Now he is returning to his favourite place, the place where he
has been the undisputed king since he beat Mark Philippoussis to win
that first title in 2003. If he wins again this year, he will equal
Bjorn Borg's record of five titles in a row. Even Borg is relishing
that thought and will come to the final if Federer gets there. "You
do forget about the French Open right away, if you win Wimbledon the
following month," he said, speaking as a man who has done just that
many times. "So that kind of overshadows the French Open by a mile. "Once
you get on the grass, everything else is in the past. I'm very excited
about the grass season. This is a huge opportunity for me once again,
Wimbledon, to win there and, hopefully, win my fifth in a row. That
would be absolutely incredible."
Last year it was Nadal who
surprised everyone by lining up against Federer on the final Sunday and
the mighty Swiss would not bat an eyelid if he were there again to make
life uncomfortable.
"When you win one Grand Slam tournament,
you can win the others," Federer said. "It's just like me, when I won
my first Wimbledon, I thought, "Well, I know how to win a Grand Slam
tournament, so I can win the US Open, the Australian Open, and Roland
Garros." It gives you motivation and confidence. And given his final in
Wimbledon last year, he knows that on all other surfaces, he can win
the title."
But Federer in SW19, like Nadal at Roland Garros, is
a different animal. This is where he feels he belongs; this is where he
knows he can win. This is where he has been untouchable for four years.
The place may look different this year, Federer may have
changed his run-up to the tournament but it would take a brave or a
foolish man to bet against the most traditional of outcomes at this
most traditional of events.
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