A Federer Fan has hung up his ninja gear for good
Now hear me out. Perhaps you think I am being irrational or unduly harsh in the face of a lone defeat but I am heartfelt in this sentiment. I have decided to give up tennis for a while at least and pursue other hobbies because of my dissapointment at the manner of Federer's loss. It is my fault that I have grown too pychologicallly attached to his success and this let down has left me completely drained and depressed for the forseeable future. The fact that Federer lost is not the main reason for my disgust. Only the manner in which he lost.
Today all of Roger's glorious achievements meant nothing. When somebody actually gave him a challenge he folded just like the Federer who folded to hewitt in Australia. Though I was sad after Federer's losses in Australia and Roland Garros I could deal with them because I felt Roger had played his heart out in Melbourne and never really looked right from the start at the FO semifinal. Here i cannot accept his loss. Sjengster was completely right about the growing fragility he sensed in Federer, especially on break point conversion. We saw the seeds of his defeat in the second and third sets of his US Open Final win over Agassi (also some shaky moments vs. hewitt, and many other matches this year) where he let Agassi off the hook in humerous service games when he was up 40-15 or 40-30. In the end it didn't matter there but the fault lines were clear to see for an inquiring mind. In today's match Federer had his moment of truth at 6-5 in the fifth.
He was just about to cement one of the greatest comebacks in recent years. The match was on his racket and he only needed to dig out four first serves and a few potent groundstrokes against a tight Nalbandian in order to save the day. It was here that Roger's true mettle was found wanting. A sign of a true tennis great is the ability to close out matters when blood is smelt. With a match on his racket Sampras never failed to deliver on the big stage. But amazingly Roger's serve, the assumed better serve of the two players in today's final, proved to be the more impotent one.
We saw that when faced with a talented and highly motivated opponent Roger does not have the ability to take a match out of their hands with forcing play like Pete could with his serve-and-volley game. He was at 30-00 and managed to double fault yet again, and then surrender the game in an astonishing display of fragility that harkened to his early days on the tour. In the ensuing tiebreak he managed to let Nalbandian get an early lead which the Argentine never relinquished and the five set conquest was complete.
I can honestly say that i am disgusted with Roger's performance today, injury or no. He realized the stakes and history on the line. but as soon as he won the second set on tiebreak he seemed so relieved that he immediately handed Davide the third set. Make no mistake, this final featured great play by Nalbandian and was markedly better than any other match at the Cup and many other matches played this year. But it was a choke of the highest order by Roger, and one that may be a turning point(for the worse) of his career.
The end of this year ends on a sharply sour note, he has once again let nalbandian pyschologically enter his head, and future success at the majors is less than clear if he meets similar resistance from other players next year without doing some soul searching, a lot of offseason work, and a retooling of his repertoire, game, and style of play. Roger's serve was so pathetic in this match that even at 40-00 I expected nalbandian to fight to deuce and eventually win the game. There was no certainty at all in his shots and his first serve percentage was attrocious. But I witheld my anger thinking that Roger would win the "big points" and not fail to capitalize on any big break tha came his way. Today he had the match handed to him on a silver platter and tossed it away. My respect for Federer dropped significantly. He lacked professionalism in closing out after having a two-sets to love lead. I believe this match will break his spirit much in the way that Sharapova's loss to Serena in Australia has seen her in a decline.
There is no excuse for the lacksadaisicalness and lack of focus and hunger Roger exhibited today, and I was ashamed to be his fan for the first time in my life. I cringed with each netted return, each netted first serve, each stoned volley. I could not see any areas in which Roches tutelage has helped him I am sorry to say. His netplay seems to have weakened since 2003. And his aggresiveness has waned since last year. He thought that slicing deep balls to Nalbandian, and playing half-hearted service games would get the job done against Nalbandian. Today we saw that Federer the headcase and choker we once new is not a vanished man but a persona hiding in Roger who only rears his ugly head when the going gets tough. I hope Roger had a good hard cry after this loss because I wouldn't want the match to hurt me more than it did him.
This was not one of those matches where you gamely sallute your opponents superior play and content yourself to the fact that you gave all of yourself. This was a loss that should make him weep, curse his weakness, and make him spend hours reviewing tape and retooling himself on the practice court. He blew it today. And I hope other federer fans don't meekly salute him for his "fight" in the last set but actually call him on his incredibly poor and "soft" performance today. I know some of you will try to laugh at the fact that I am criticizing one of four losses he has held on the year, but such is federer's position at the moment that one can never be content to look at a glass as half full but honestly evaluate his play. Please all of you tell me of your thoughts on this subject. Even if you say I am totally crazy, spoiled by Roger's successes, etc. I would appreciate hearing from you.
