Expressly Fed: Several Years Aboard The Federer Express

EXPRESSLY FED

By Matt Zemek

Copyright 2017 by Matt Zemek

Smashwords Edition

Cover design and artwork by Joleene Naylor, JoleeneNaylor.com

Cover image Copyright 2009 by user Squeaky Knees at Wikimedia Commons

Image used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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With gratitude,

To Julie, P.J., and L.J., for giving me a start. Thank you for opening your blog space to me and being so generous of heart and spirit.

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INTRODUCTION

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The first thing to say about this collection of columns on Roger Federer (or rather, the second thing to say after thanking the three Australian women who enabled me to begin a life of tennis blogging seven years ago…) is that it is not the final story on the man who has remade tennis for so many people around the world.

In 2013, it was easy to think that the end of Roger Federer as we had known him – a relentlessly consistent and dogged champion who always worked his way to the end stages of major tournaments – was not going to exist that much longer.

Yet, here we are, in 2017. As I type this very sentence at my keyboard, the night is Tuesday, June 27, 2017, with Federer preparing for a Wimbledon tournament in which he is a leading contender – and in many eyes, the favorite.

He is a month and a half from his 36th birthday.

Federer is redefining longevity as a male tennis player and as an elite athlete. Barring a severe injury, it seems more likely than not that he will play in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, especially since an injury prevented him from participating in the 2016 Rio Games. Olympic longings aside, it appears that Federer – purely on merit and form – is likely to be a factor at majors for three more years anyway, making 2020 not just a sentimental target for a possible farewell tour, but a year in which he can still be robustly competitive. Heck, when Federer turns 40 in August of 2021, would anyone be terribly surprised if Roger is still a factor at majors?

His career is a continuous and still-evolving testament to – as the spiritual gurus would say – being in the now and not rushing to premature conclusions about what tomorrow will bring.

I say this as though I offer the appearance of wisdom. As you’ll see in these collected writings on Federer from my blogging career, I engaged in a lot of speculation about where Federer’s career was headed at various points along the way. In many cases, I did refrain from the firm and fixed declaration, but I hardly registered a perfect score. I also succumbed to the temptation to think history and its forces had already placed Federer into certain limits.

Being candid, I did indeed think Federer would continue to have chances to win majors for a long time – in that sense and to that extent, I did not write him off at all. Yet, I won’t hide from the fact that I never thought he’d ever again beat Rafael Nadal in a best-of-five-set match at a place other than Wimbledon.

I didn’t close many doors on Federer in the past three to four years, but I did close a few, and in 2017, Federer has busted through them.

He has a way of doing that.

These writings below, dating back to 2011, contain rich veins of praise and admiration, but they are not monochromatic. To fully appreciate an athlete and sportsman of Federer’s scale and significance, one must write about him in the bad times as well as the good, in the moments of pain as well as the occasions of joy. One of the most thoughtful people – and Federer analysts -- on #TennisTwitter, Andrew Burton, has eloquently stated how losing makes it possible to appreciate winning to a much greater degree, and vice-versa.

Indeed – the context of Federer’s career is enhanced and given multi-dimensional textures precisely because of the losses as well as the wins, because of the ways in which my assessments (and the assessments of other writers) fell short of the mark, not just because of the ways in which I trusted that Federer could still be a factor in men’s tennis just before turning 36.

I will write another book on Federer (and on the other members of this era of men’s tennis), but those books will come after they have retired. This might be a book about a player who turns 36 in early August of 2017, but after the first six months of 2017, it feels more like a mid-career collection of writings than an end-stage summation. What also deserves mention here is that I did not have the ability to blog in a public capacity on the prime of Federer’s career. Only in 2011 did I begin a journey in which four different blogging outlets – amplified by Twitter – have broadcast my work to a larger audience. When I do write a book about Federer after he retires – which might be 10 years from now, who knows? – I’ll revisit the earlier years.

For now, sit back, relax, and enjoy several years of tennis blogging expressly devoted to Fed… and the moments, men, and matches of the latter period of his shimmering career. This period of his tennis life seems poised to extend for several more richly fulfilling and fascinating tennis seasons.

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ALL ABOARD THE FEDERER EXPRESS: BLOGGED THOUGHTS SINCE 2011

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JANUARY 29, 2017

Roger Federer doesn’t live in a castle atop the highest alpine summit in his native Switzerland — not literally.

Figuratively, he has.

Yet, as he prepared to take the court inside Rod Laver Arena on Sunday at the 2017 Australian Open men’s singles final, he knew that as much as he has soared above the clouds throughout his tennis career, one man might fly even higher.

Rafael Nadal Parera is nothing if not dogged and determined. A man one could call The Hound of Tennis Heaven has certainly hounded Federer for a very long time — from that first meeting in Miami in 2004 to the Rome 2006 final he snatched from Federer’s grasp; from the 2006 and 2007 French Open finals when he stopped the Swiss’s pursuit of a Grand Slam, to the epic 2008 Wimbledon final; from the 2009 Australian Open final to the 2011 French Open final.

Nadal was always there to thwart Federer’s grandest ambitions.

Nadal is the main reason Federer has never won the Monte Carlo or Rome Masters tournaments, the main reason Federer has only one Roland Garros trophy, the main reason the Swiss doesn’t own a far more expansive hold on the tennis record books in the Open Era. (Novak Djokovic is second — prominent, but second.)

Nadal became, for Federer, the relative you don’t necessarily dislike, but always enjoy more in private settings and not in front of a crowd at a big party. Nadal was the person who changes the energy in the room just enough for other party-goers to notice — not because he’s in any way rude or unpleasant, but just because he’s different… and different as a carrier of brilliance, not as any kind of bizarre freak show.

Imagine, then, Federer’s inward twinge of exasperation — he certainly thought about it if he didn’t feel it deep in his bones — when Nadal made his way to this Australian Open final.

Federer, back after six months off from tour, dealt with a hellaciously difficult early-round draw, having to face top-10 players in the third and fourth rounds due to his injury-based rankings fall, which made him the No. 17 seed in Melbourne. He got lucky when Mischa Zverev upended top-seeded Andy Murray to create an easy-breezy quarterfinal, but that reprieve was temporary.

Federer then had to walk over the hot coals of his second five-set match of the tournament against Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals. He was fighting against the run of play in the fifth set, but by saving a break point and hanging on by a fingernail, he gave Wawrinka a chance to choke. Serving at 2-3, Wawrinka did just that by donating a service game to Federer. Up a break at 4-2, Federer emphatically held twice to reach the final.

Three wins over top-10 players.

Two five-set wins at the same major for the first time since Roland Garros in 2009, his only major title in Paris.

A points pickup which pushed him into the top 15, when a loss to Tomas Berdych in the third round would have pushed him outside the top 30. 

Federer had done so much, against the odds, in the first six rounds of this tournament. Moreover, Novak Djokovic bowed out in round two, so there was really only one scenario Federer would have dreaded in the final.

Sure enough, Rafa was there. He’s always there — not literally, but seemingly every time Federer stands on the cusp of achieving something huge in tennis.

In a recent episode of the mystery series Sherlock — spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it; scroll down two paragraphs — Dr. Watson’s wife Mary goes to a far-flung location to tend to personal business. Someway, somehow, the great Sherlock Holmes found a way to track Mary to that place after zig-zagging all over countries and continents.

Federer was Mary, Nadal Sherlock. He always figures things out, standing there waiting for you just when you think you’ve escaped.

The reality of seeing Rafa reach the final brought forth a lot of uncomfortable realities for Federer, none more imposing or worrying than this: Nadal had not lost a best-of-five-set match in this rivalry since 2007 at Wimbledon. Following close behind that was the fact that Rafa had never lost a five-setter against the Swiss at a major tournament outside of Wimbledon.

Nadal will always be five years younger than Federer. When Roger was in his prime — at age 25 — he won that 2007 Wimbledon five-setter only because Nadal was not quite at his peak. In 2008 and later in 2010, Nadal reached that zenith.

After that 2007 Wimbledon final, Fed famously said, I’m happy with every one (title) I get, before he takes them all. He knew Rafa was coming for him. Then, as the sands of time continued to fall through the hourglass, the five-year age carried Fed beyond his prime… and Rafa into the heart of his own prime.

In 2011 at Roland Garros, and then in Australian Open semifinals in 2012 and 2014, Nadal bullied Federer around the court, bossing rallies and forcing Federer to work extremely hard for points. Indoors and in best-of-three-set matches, Federer still found circumstances and conditions in which he could gain the upper hand, but in virtually all outdoor matches and any five-setters, Rafa reliably wore Federer down.

This match came three years after their previous meeting in a major tournament, so in a sense, there was a measure of freshness in this reunion, but at age 35, the calculus couldn’t have been overly encouraging for Federer. A quick, clean, three-set victory in which every shot clicked — think of his 2015 Wimbledon semifinal masterpiece over Andy Murray — figured to be the way in which he’d most likely topple Nadal.

Winning a five-setter, with all the work and the shotmaking and the persistence that required? History — not just one year or one match, but 10 years and several major-tournament failures — said Federer wouldn’t have enough against The Hound of Tennis Heaven.

Into this fire-pit Federer walked in Melbourne.

The imposing figure on the other side of the net suggested that this story — like so many other Fedal stories — would not have a happy ending. This was the foremost adversary against which Federer, author of so many staggering achievements and milestones for a decade and a half, did not write the perfect fairy tale.

A large part of Federer knew this was the toughest matchup he could have asked for in the final, but on the other side of that realization came this point, which Federer fans carried in the backs of their minds but didn’t want to publicly broadcast in the face of so many five-set setbacks against Nadal since 2007:

What if Roger wins?

What if he conquers the beast? What if he slays the dragon?

What if this forever-quest — to beat Rafa one more time in a five-setter — somehow reaches fulfillment at an age (35) when very few men make (let alone win) major finals?

Could Federer actually write this fairy tale?

It is by walking through this process — a journey freighted with a full decade of failure against Nadal — that the enormity of Federer’s achievement in Rod Laver Arena becomes apparent.

The man who won a career Grand Slam; reached No. 1 in the world for over 300 weeks; made 23 straight major semifinals and, separately, 18 finals in a span of 19 tournaments — this man, who had been there and done that many times over, had not yet arrived at the greatest achievement of his charmed career.

This match, this win, this cathartic and cleansing five-set triumph forged in three hours and 38 minutes over Rafa, is the greatest thing Roger Federer has done on a tennis court.

It’s bigger than Roland Garros 2009. It’s more poignant than the 2007, 2009 or 2012 Wimbledon titles. As Federer himself told ESPN after his 18th major title had been secured, this one stands alone.

It truly does.

What is instructive is HOW Federer made it happen… and how Nadal — albeit with only the slightest of flinches — let it get away.

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To say something briefly about Nadal, this contest recalled the 2012 Australian Open final against Djokovic. Nadal had a break lead in the fifth set but missed a backhand he normally makes. Djokovic broke back and overtook him to win the title.

This was very similar.

Up a break at 3-2 in the fifth, Nadal missed a routine forehand (something he did a lot more often against Grigor Dimitrov in the semis) to keep Federer in the game. Another forehand miss a short while later, on a ball which hit the tape and bounced wide of the sideline, did the same thing. Federer, given small but timely boosts, managed to break back. After that point, he found the final infusion of energy and clarity he needed to close the sale.

Nadal will rue how he handled that moment at 3-2, but other than that, he didn’t give anything away.

Federer had to take this match from his fabled foe. The difference which emerges most clearly — the reason things worked out for him this time — is the Swiss’s change of mindset.

The typical Fedal pattern at majors over the past 10 years involved a few common threads:

1) Federer would get roped into long, brutal, physical exchanges. 

2) He wouldn’t get nearly enough cheap points on serve to be comfortable. 

3) Flowing from 1 and 2, Federer had to hit more overall shots, from more difficult positions on the court, under more pressure — either scoreboard-based or opponent-caused.

Nadal was able to stay on court long enough, and create a physical enough match, that if Federer couldn’t score a clean, three-set kill or finish the job in four, Rafa would own the fifth.

This time — and in spite of the fact that Federer was the one asking