Twilight

"I have a great record against anybody right now, so it doesn't really matter who I play in the final. I'll be in there as the big favorite. But I play my best in the finals, in the important matches. That's why I'm number one. There's no secret...I'm not overconfident, but very confident."

I think anyone who even remotely follows professional tennis knows this Federism isn’t exactly in line with his performance in the past few years. My love affair with Roger Federer has definitely heated and cooled over the years. However, I don’t think I’m too far out on a limb to say that I’m with most tennis-lovers who want him to pull through against Robin Soderling on the red clay in Roland Garros today.

Federer came onto the scene in 1999 as one who served well, hit his baseline strokes well, volleyed well, and moved well. But he did nothing extremely well, at least not right away. In a matter of a few years he cut off the pony tail, kept grinding against the best in the world, “well” became “exceptionally well,” and a legend/machine was born.

Federer’s play started to rise significantly at the time when the Agassi/Sampras rivalry started to fade. My Agassi memories go way back to me falling to my knees and yelling with delight at a restaurant’s bar in Mt. Bethel, PA after (an also pony-tailed) Andre beat Goran Ivanisivic in five sets at Wimbledon in 1991. I was 10. Let’s just say that the twilight of Agassi’s career at the turn of the century was a twilight of sorts for me too. I was still grieving and not ready to embrace a new hero just yet. When Roger started winning all the time, it was kind of cool at first, but then he kept winning…easily…all the time. Then he started giving really arrogant press conferences and wearing cardigans to trophy presentations and I thought, “Enough’s enough. This guy’s a prick. I will root against him.”

And so it was. And I did. I’d follow the headlines of major tournaments and always hope for the number 1 seed to fall. He practically never did. Australian after Australian, U.S Open after U.S. Open, Wimbledon after Wimbledon were pretty anticlimactic for me.

However, I watch tennis in spurts. Tennis is weird like that. It seems to cater to the jobless because it’s on from 9-5 most of the time, and you kind of have to watch a whole tournament unfold to really get sucked into following it professionally. During a spurt while in Grad school, I kept watching tournaments in the summer and I kept watching Federer. He was still winning handedly at that time (although Rafa had just started giving him trouble, but on clay only) and I knew a “W” was almost a foregone conclusion when he came through the tunnel. I don’t know what happened, but the completeness of his game just started to grab me as I kept observing it. The guy was great at EVERYTHING. I have played competitive tennis at the high school level and watched enough pro tennis to know that most guys (and gals) have one or two things they do VERY well. They try to use some combination of their strengths and others’ weaknesses to fight for the win. When I was playing my best, I could serve and volley well. I was winning when I was killing my first serve for winners and getting to the net for a quick put-away. If you could keep me back on the baseline hitting sub-par backhands and moving like Greg Oden, you had a nice chance.

Roger had everything in his prime. He moved like a ballerina. He could rack up 30 aces a match. He combined grace and power at the net. He had trick shots…I kind of just morphed into a fan. He could accept a trophy wearing a Speedo for all I cared. Then Rafael Nadal started to put it together on all surfaces and some of the best tennis in the last twenty years was brought to the main stages. I shared many a Grand Slam Final with my brother, David marveling at these freaks who could run down every ball, hit baseline winners from their knees, and who always seemed toughest with their backs against the wall. But, I always pulled for Federer. And at first it was kind of cool to see him struggle against Rafa. It was cool to see him run into an obstacle (for once) right as he was about to eclipse Pete Sampras for most Grand Slam Championships ever. Then it kept happening. Then Roger stopped shaking his head after matches, and he started crying. Can anyone say “Uncomfortable?”

Roger has a chance today to win a title on the red clay at Roland Garros to complete a career Grand Slam. This hasn’t been done since my man Agassi. Federer also has a chance to get his fourteenth total Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras. If he gets fifteen to become the all-time leader, his recent struggles with Nadal will be considered part of his legend and add to his iconic stature. If not, the story may turn into a bit of a tragedy…some might even say he was a let-down. Sampras dug deep in his twilight and pulled out his fourteenth Slam at the U.S. Open against his old rival Agassi to become the all time Slam leader. Pete never won at the French. Andre won all of them at least once, but never enough times. Let’s hope Roger can unequivically pass them both by overcoming his nemesis of surface today, and then his true nemesis, Mr. Nadal, to get to 15 Grand Slams. After that, he can accept his Championship trophies naked for all I care…