真-小X無双

Never heard of Roger Federer? You are missing out!

I just saw a few clips of Roger Federer’s tennis game on youtube and they prompted me to write this piece about Federer and tennis in general. Maybe with this little introduction, you will start to take an interest in professional tennis. Anyway, ever since Michael Chang’s dramatic run at the French Open, I have been a fan of professional tennis. I believe there was this tennis frenzy in Taiwan because of Michael’s miraculous and somewhat unorthodox win. A lot have happened in the tennis world during these past 17 years. On the women’s side, there was Martina Navratinova, a natural lefty, whose longevity in the tennis world can only be summarized as: 20+ years, 18 grand slam titles and countless admirations from the tennis fans. Also, there was Steffi Graf, who was almost invincible in her time except for Monica Seles’ rather short-lived 2-year-reign. Of course, then there was the German fanatic who stabbed Seles during her game against Graf and sent her to the realm of perdition. Several years later, a baby-faced player, who was named after Navratinova came to the scene and dazzled the world with her brainy approach both around the baseline and at the net. In the mean time, Anna Kournikova provided us with a little distraction with her 15 minutes of Hollywood blunder. After that, there were the years of the William sisters and the years of the Russians.

On the men’s side, we have seen Stefan Edberg of Sweden, Ivan Lendl of Czech, Boris Becker of Germany and the two amazing American athletes in Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Who could forget the “David v.s. Goliath” match between Miahcael Chang and Ivan Lendl? Who could imagine Pete Sampras, who was in tears mourning the death of his coach, could fight back his emotion and Jim Courier’s juvenile comments to win his Wimbledon title. Then, at 5’11”, Andre Agassi showed the world that even a man with small stature can win games against 6 footers with his mesmerizing baseline and return-serve technique. Many thought they have seen the tennis best rivalry in Andre Agassi v.s. Pete Sampra and the best tennis player in Pete Sampras. Well, aren’t we tennis fan grateful to see that’s not true after all. Why? Roger Federer has come knocking on the heaven’s door.

Just exactly how good is Roger Federer ? He just won the Australian Open without dropping a set. I mean, GOOD GRACIOUS, 8 rounds of tennis against the best players from around the globe and nobody could take a set away from him? There were some who came close but man, we all later found out that it wasn’t THAT close. He has been No. 1, since February of 2004 and at the same time, he’s breaking all kinds of records and whenever I see him play, he’s getting better and better. I have seen a lot of tennis but really, I don’t recall any player who could quite measure up to him. I mean, serve-and-volley has always been the winning formula until the 21st century when baseliners were getting more and more proficient with their passing shots. Roger Federer started as a baseliner and a pretty good one at that. He could serve 120-130 mph, which may not be the fastest among his peers but his toss is so tough to read and his serving location is so accurate that other players are having trouble returning his serve. Even perhaps the best returner of all time, Agassi, had trouble returning his serve at times. People tried to attack his backhand thinking that it should be his weakness but tough luck for them, Federer has good variety of weaponry in his single-handed backhand. He can blast it down the line or go cross-court with a lob/top-spin shot or stun his opponent with the heavy slice. More recently, people tried to do approach shot/volley to mess with his rhythm and guess what? He made one passing shot after another and to add insult to the injury, he did his own version of approach shot/volley, an even better one than those of his opponents. Further more, every now and then he would do a slicing drop shot that just tails away from his opponents. Crazy filthy stuff! He has excellent foot work and never seemed rushed. He always seems to be at the right position no mater how hard the return was. He’s no psychic but rather, he reads his opponents well and anticipates their return.

Again, just exactly how good is Roger Federer? He made his opponents shake their heads in disbelief game after game. His constant circus shots and quick-reflex volleys made some of the top players shake their heads wondering, “What do I have to do to get to this guy”? Some expressed their admiration through frustration: The man who possesses the biggest serve in all of tennis, Andy Roddick, launched a tennis ball out of the stadium during a semi-final showdown with Federer out of frustration. And guess what the commentator said? “Even Roddick himself was surprised that Federer didn’t get to that one.” Ouch! It’s no wonder because Roger Federer served him a bagel set (6-0) before that. Federer’s opponent in this year’s Australian Open final annihilated his opponent, who is also a top hard-court player in the semis and it seemed that he, Fernando Gonzalez stood a chance before the Almighty. Well, in the final, Federer made Gonzalez’s biggest weapon, his bullish forehand, look rather ordinary and unthreatening. When asked, Pete Sampras jokingly admitted that Federer is not aiming for his 14th grand slam title record but rather, that of Jack Nicklaus who was a golfer and holds 18 major titles. In his U.S. open final speech, Andre Agassi grabbed Federer’s hand and said to the crowd, “he’s better than Pete Sampras”. I totally agree.

Federer is on his way of changing history and us as fans don’t want to see him get there so comfortably. He’s still vulnerable on clay court so I guess he still has that hurdle to overcome. Other than that, I sincerely wish that someone can come along and challenge him outright, elevating the quality to tennis to an even higher level. Don’t you just wish Graf and Agassi could procreate a little bit earlier so that their kids can face Federer? Until then, we just have to sit back and enjoy this tennis god at his prime.

Peter

posted by Anonymous @ 9:42 PM