Federer now declining. Not in his prime anymore

[latinking]

Whats funny is that he can have half as good years as he had the last couple and still smash Petes record. only needs 4 to tie and 5 to break. He can be off and still break it in a couple years. I think he will still take Wimbeldon and US open this year.

[Taram_Nifas]

Too soon to tell, but we could be seeing a slide with Federer where he is no longer winning 80+ or 90+ matches a year and losing only a handful. You can't really expect Tennis Players to keep up that kind of an insane pace.

[Baghdatis72]

It's reasonable for Federer to have some unexpected losses this year because he's not perfect and everyone declines at some point. His #1 reign is not over yet though and the beginning of the end will be when someone beats him at Wimbledon or at the US Open.

[ibemadskillzz]

is he plays like he did against volandri against nadal, he would get bageled every set.

[Taram_Nifas]

Hmm, that's interesting trivia. Was Fed ever bageled on the ATP tour?

[rafan]

I thought the interview he had after he was beaten by Volandri was unfair and over the top. The interviewer really put the pressure on as to why he lost - as Federer said he simply did not know. He has played some splendid tennis and needs a break from constantly being expected to win. In any other sport such as football the expectations of an individual player are not nearly as high.

[Taram_Nifas]

Insane pressure from his crazy fans who live vicariously through him. Just read Federer's Homepage and guestbook or the lost to Volandri. I don't speak French, Spanish or German but pathetique is pretty easy to translate...

[Pete Semper]

Feddy aint at his best...but its way too soon to say he s definitly declining, 26 years old aint that old, just remember Agassi he was at his best in 1999 and he was 29-30 !

[Jules]

After his loss to Volandri Federer stated that a piece of the lead tape he applied presumedly around 12 o'clock on his racquet flew off during a frame-shot in one of the first games, and he wasn't able to find it anywhere on the court. The seriousness of the matter occured to him when he realized that his swingweight had dropped from around 370 to around 350. In the extraordinary second (because of the unexpected loss) press conference according to italian media he said:

"It was the worst thing for me to happen that I lost some of the lead tape. The drop in approx. 20 points in swingweight brought me out of the max spin-zone on my Ncode...ehh ehem...I mean Kfactor and into an uncontrolable power zone. It was ridiculous, no matter what I did, the balls where flying everywhere. I need a serious talk with my racquet technician who applyed the new paint on my raquet. The texture of the paint doesn't allow the glue from the lead tape to grip in the right way, so that it could slip out from under the bumper guard...I am of course very dissapointed and will look for new ways of applying the lead tape. Probably, I will go back to my old way of applying weight which i to put it in a special shape under my overgrip around 8 1/2 inches from the butt. Or maybe I will have to get a new paint for my frame in 2008...by the way, I probably will anyway."

After his statement Federer quickly left the building together with Mirka and Tony. According to 47 year old Italian eye witness Francesca Tagliatella he "seemed to be in pain and had tears in his eyes".

[diegaa]

mmmm. too soon to state that if u ask me. lets wait a bit.

[jackson vile]

Honestly I think there are two scenarios here

#1Roger is more worried about grass ie keeping Nadal from winning Wim, as Nadal is preparing for grass right now also

#2Roger is saving himself ie not working so hard so that he has more left for the FO

[armand]

Originally Posted by Jules

After his loss to Volandri Federer stated that a piece of the lead tape he applied presumedly around 12 o'clock on his racquet flew off during a frame-shot in one of the first games, and he wasn't able to find it anywhere on the court. The seriousness of the matter occured to him when he realized that his swingweight had dropped from around 370 to around 350. In the extraordinary second (because of the unexpected loss) press conference according to italian media he said:

"It was the worst thing for me to happen that I lost some of the lead tape. The drop in approx. 20 points in swingweight brought me out of the max spin-zone on my Ncode...ehh ehem...I mean Kfactor and into an uncontrolable power zone. It was ridiculous, no matter what I did, the balls where flying everywhere. I need a serious talk with my racquet technician who applyed the new paint on my raquet. The texture of the paint doesn't allow the glue from the lead tape to grip in the right way, so that it could slip out from under the bumper guard...I am of course very dissapointed and will look for new ways of applying the lead tape. Probably, I will go back to my old way of applying weight which i to put it in a special shape under my overgrip around 8 1/2 inches from the butt. Or maybe I will have to get a new paint for my frame in 2008...by the way, I probably will anyway."

After his statement Federer quickly left the building together with Mirka and Tony. According to 47 year old Italian eye witness Francesca Tagliatella he "seemed to be in pain and had tears in his eyes".

I don't believe this story because Federer is European and would use the metric system.

[ckthegreek]

Federer last week was the GOAT, this week he isn't and if he wins Wimby this year he may be.

Let's hope the stupid debate ends right now and resumes in 2012.

[ckthegreek]

Originally Posted by armand

I don't believe this story because Federer is European and would use the metric system.

Can't even believe some people fall for this cr*p!

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by Jules

After his loss to Volandri Federer stated that a piece of the lead tape he applied presumedly around 12 o'clock on his racquet flew off during a frame-shot in one of the first games, and he wasn't able to find it anywhere on the court. The seriousness of the matter occured to him when he realized that his swingweight had dropped from around 370 to around 350. In the extraordinary second (because of the unexpected loss) press conference according to italian media he said:

"It was the worst thing for me to happen that I lost some of the lead tape. The drop in approx. 20 points in swingweight brought me out of the max spin-zone on my Ncode...ehh ehem...I mean Kfactor and into an uncontrolable power zone. It was ridiculous, no matter what I did, the balls where flying everywhere. I need a serious talk with my racquet technician who applyed the new paint on my raquet. The texture of the paint doesn't allow the glue from the lead tape to grip in the right way, so that it could slip out from under the bumper guard...I am of course very dissapointed and will look for new ways of applying the lead tape. Probably, I will go back to my old way of applying weight which i to put it in a special shape under my overgrip around 8 1/2 inches from the butt. Or maybe I will have to get a new paint for my frame in 2008...by the way, I probably will anyway."

After his statement Federer quickly left the building together with Mirka and Tony. According to 47 year old Italian eye witness Francesca Tagliatella he "seemed to be in pain and had tears in his eyes".

Top players have the weighting done before painting so lead tape is not exposed and visible.

Or maybe Federer is not a top player any more

[z-money]

you all are wrong. He is fine he has only lost 3 times this year. still better than any other pro. he is doing fine. so he probably wont win the french. big deal neither did pete(they both got close though). Wait and see what happens when he gets back to wimbledon! if he loses there then he has really fallen off. but if he puts on a show like at AO then all of you will be silenced. I am not a federer fan, but i know roger will still do fine because he doesnt want to lose his status as # 1 yet.

[z-money]

when roger gets on a surface he likes. he will smack anyone. u just gotta get under his skin. rumor is pete didnt like rafter. so everytime they played rafter would get smacked. he did win a few but they were really close. but out of the 48 sets they played Pete won 32 of them. and half of those were double breaks. If roger gets on grass or carpet, probably even hard court. he is gonna win unless someone plays the match of there life.

[fastdunn]

Originally Posted by Jules

After his loss to Volandri Federer stated that a piece of the lead tape he applied presumedly around 12 o'clock on his racquet flew off during a frame-shot in one of the first games, and he wasn't able to find it anywhere on the court. The seriousness of the matter occured to him when he realized that his swingweight had dropped from around 370 to around 350. In the extraordinary second (because of the unexpected loss) press conference according to italian media he said:

"It was the worst thing for me to happen that I lost some of the lead tape. The drop in approx. 20 points in swingweight brought me out of the max spin-zone on my Ncode...ehh ehem...I mean Kfactor and into an uncontrolable power zone. It was ridiculous, no matter what I did, the balls where flying everywhere. I need a serious talk with my racquet technician who applyed the new paint on my raquet. The texture of the paint doesn't allow the glue from the lead tape to grip in the right way, so that it could slip out from under the bumper guard...I am of course very dissapointed and will look for new ways of applying the lead tape. Probably, I will go back to my old way of applying weight which i to put it in a special shape under my overgrip around 8 1/2 inches from the butt. Or maybe I will have to get a new paint for my frame in 2008...by the way, I probably will anyway."

After his statement Federer quickly left the building together with Mirka and Tony. According to 47 year old Italian eye witness Francesca Tagliatella he "seemed to be in pain and had tears in his eyes".

Ha ha ha. This joke does not quite work for tennis fans, IMHO.

He changes his racquet every 4 games.

[Mikael]

Federer may be declining, but that's not saying much... considering his 2004-2006 years, it would've been extremely hard for him to keep repeating the same results over and over again. I'm actually surprised he had such an amazing 2006 year, I would've expected his results to start declining earlier than this.

So, the decline seems to have begun, but that doesn't mean he'll stop winning slams. If we draw a parallel with Pete Sampras, Federer's career 2007 onwards could be similar to Pete's 1997 onwards, except Fed will probably dominate more than Pete did, considering Federer's prime (03-06) was much more impressive than Pete's (93-96). Still, after the 97 AO Pete did win 5 more slams (only one of those wasn't Wimbledon though, Pete was definitely NOT dominant outside of grass during those years). Similarly, I expect Federer to win at least 3 more Wimbledons, and probably a few AO/USO on the way.

But if I had to guess I'd say there will be a few more "Volandris" in 2007. Federer's total loss tally could get up to 10.

[jrachiever]

Federer was bageled by Rafter, Byron Black and Vince Spadea all in 1999. I actually remembered the Rafter one off the top of my head, which I'm kind of proud of.