This comment is a few weeks old, but I think it's appropriate to post on this day anyway. From rabbit on Madrid Day 7: Easy As Two-Three-One:
The news of Roger's defeat made me so down yesterday. I lost my cellphone in the morning, but when I read about Roger's defeat, I really started to feel pretty bad about the day.
Is this the year that years ahead, people will say marked the decline of Federer? The year that he struggled through his slam victories and lost against some unremarkable or streaky players. I hate to say it but in that final match, it seemed David was the higher seeded player who had an answer to every one of Roger's plays. Craig says that Roger depends on luck; well, I partly agree. 2007 is the first year I will say Federer truly deserved less than the slams he won. Wimbledon was won because of a Nadal error on a crucial break point. The US Open was won because Djokovic seemingly didn't play to win. The Aussie Open was one of his virtuoso performances. The rest of the year seemed to be a dreary ride and often downhill.
The thing with Federer is that his fans love him not so much because he wins but the fashion in which he wins. His classic 6-0 sets against Roddick, Blake and Hewitt come to mind. The crisp backhand passes, the out-of-nowhere forehand winners, the ridiculous defense, the near-impossible anticipation and the lavish use of creativity. This year, though, it seems these things are coming only in small measures, in spurts rather than in gushes. I thought that his play against Murray last year (when he got beaten) was strange, but seemingly that has become his norm in playing against players like Davydenko this year. Compare his match against Hewitt in Cincinatti this year versus his classic US Open final with Hewitt. There's something that is slowly getting lost...
Come on, Roger, give us some more of your finest! We know that it takes so much more to be #1 for so many weeks than to make a week-long impression. But the "premature declarations about where tennis is headed and who will take it there" are well-justified. We have seen you operate at your best; we know you are not a couple-of-round streak but can sustain your jogo bonito for the full tournament duration. Give us back a little more of your magic! We want a lot more 6-0 sets in 2008.
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