A lawn unto himself

Published on Sunday 4 July 2004 00:08

THE trouble with Roger Federer is that we used up all the superlatives last year. His magical, emotional and tearful path to the title left everyone open-mouthed in awe. Six sets of brilliance had taken him through the final two rounds as he cut Andy Roddick and then Mark Philippoussis to ribbons.

Suddenly, the man who had previously been known as an underachiever or ‘the bloke who beat Pete Sampras in 2001’ was mentioned in the same breath as greats like Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg. He had power; he had touch; he had finesse; he was a shot-maker; he was a tactician and he was instinctive. In short, he was absolutely bloody marvellous.

Now he is back. And he is better, much better, than he was last year. What is there left to say about sheer genius?

Federer’s romp through the draw this year has been simply spectacular. He began in devastating form, and has just got better and better as the rounds have gone on. Every time he waltzed past some hapless opponent, the pundits would cry: "Ah, but it gets so much tougher from now on". Except it didn’t. When Ivo Karlovic, all 6ft 10in of service power, was in front of him, he demolished him in straight sets.

Yes, but wait for Lleyton Hewitt. The Australian was dispatched in four sets. Admittedly, Federer did drop his serve in that match - the first time he had been broken at Wimbledon since the quarter-finals in 2003 - but he was still head and shoulders above Hewitt. And Hewitt was playing the best he has played all year.

As for Sebastien Grosjean, Federer was in unbelievable form against the Frenchman. He did not just beat him: he played with him as you would a kitten. He moved him this way and that; he sent him scampering after lost causes; he left him flapping at thin air as he marmelised him 6-2, 6-3, 7-6. Not even the endless rain delays and aborted restarts on Friday could distract him from the job in hand.

On the resumption of play yesterday he came back from 4-3 in the third set - granted it took him a moment to find his timing as he was broken but broke straight back - but the champion was in championship winning form. He came back from 4-0 down in the tiebreak to crush Grosjean. He was ruthless in the way that Sampras could be ruthless and yet, unlike the clinical American, he was a joy to watch.

When most players make a major breakthrough, they try to use the experience as a building block for the next phase of their career. Federer took it one stage further and regarded winning Wimbledon as some sort of rebirth. He was good when he arrived in SW19 twelve months ago, but he was a changed man when he left.

"It kind of relaxed me more because I know, look, I don’t need to win my first grand slam any more to prove myself to everybody," he said. "For me it’s a totally different situation now because I don’t feel under pressure at all. I just want to do what I like, playing tennis at the best level."

Much has happened in the intervening year. He has compressed a career’s worth of experience and learning into a few short months and now, as he approaches the final hurdle in the defence of his title, he seems unstoppable.

His tennis is so good that no-one can touch him while his confidence is so high that no one can break it. And it all comes down to two separate weeks in North America - during one he lost to Roddick in Montreal and in the other he beat everyone in Houston.

At the time, that loss was devastating. Had he won the match he would have overtaken Andre Agassi as the world No1. Faced with such pressure, he choked horribly. Three months later at the Masters Cup, he was playing poorly, he was tired and he was facing the top seven men in the world. He had no chance to claim the top spot in the rankings but he did have a great deal of personal pride riding on the result.

Over the course of seven days he beat Agassi, David Nalbandian, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roddick and Agassi for a second time in the final. All were opponents he had struggled against in the past and all of them were men who haunted him in his lowest moments.

"Houston was very important for me," he said. "I had problems beating Agassi, Hewitt, Nalbandian. I beat Roddick again after he beat me in Montreal.

"For me, that was like an unbelievable turning point in my career. Beating all these guys, I feel now there’s not many guys left who have really an edge on me.

"I feel much more confident when I walk on court. I know what I’ve got to do now. Before I was always going on court with a little doubt. If today doesn’t work, you know, I cannot win. Now I feel even if I’m playing bad, I can win matches. That is for me a big improvement I’ve made."

Just as it was with Boris Becker, Wimbledon has been the making of Federer. From that moment three years ago when he beat Sampras in the fourth round and was tipped for greatness to the moment he won the title and achieved greatness, it was the place where he knew he could prove himself. Now that he is established as the best player in the world and is fast being recognised as the greatest player of his generation, Wimbledon is his stage to show the world how beautiful tennis should be played.

"That’s always something I’ve been fighting against," Federer said, "not to be remembered as the guy who beat Sampras at Wimbledon." Now he will ever be remembered as the man who replaced Sampras. What on earth are we going to say about him next year?