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After Roger Federer cleared the quarterfinal hurdle that’s Fernando Gonzalez in the 2008 French Open, I excitedly declared to my friend: “My gut feel tells me that this is going to be the year when Roger Federer finally wins Roland Garros. You’ll see.”
Apparently, I spoke too soon. I was shocked by the way he suffocated from Rafael Nadal's dust rather than capturing the crown in that one elusive clay court in the City of Lights. 6-1, 6-3, 6-0, IMAGINE? It's the most shockingly disappointing finals I've ever seen from the supposed "greatest" tennis master! He was absolutely grated by Nadal! And, that's only because he let the powerhouse Spaniard step all over him. Even Nadal himself didn't seem to enjoy mincing an opponent without a real challenge - he even apologized in the end. Nadal was probably expecting to be pushed to his limits, but Federer didn't seem to have a strong resolve to tackle Nadal and win this year's French Open.
Although he lost the opening set in his quaterfinal match with Fernando Gonzalez, Roger Federer came back in a big way - with great confidence, patience in picking up points one by one, staying unperturbed by Gonzalez's charged assault, and impressive variety in his game that I've never seen him display on clay before, so awesome! Although I have to admit that his semi-final win over Gäel Monfils was less than impressive while Nadal delivered an exciting win over Novak Djokovic in his own semi-final match, still, I thought Federer's feat against Gonzalez was going to be a preview of his championship performance. I was so wrong.
And the problem was not that Nadal was playing exceptionally well, because he wasn't. He was playing his usual power game, no extraordinary never-before clay tricks. In fact, some of his vintage Nadal patents, such as dive-for-the-ball, shoot-to-the-air-like-a-rocket-to-save-a-set-point, were never displayed! The problem was, right from the first set, Federer seemed to have doubted his ability to win. All throughout the match, he wasn't trying as hard as he should to win points. His volleys lacked the commitment to get the ball through to the other side of the net, his approaches to the net were so tentative rather than aggressive that didn’t intimidate Nadal at all, and his back court offense lacked the variety to undo Nadal’s usual power defense on the baseline.
The whole of first set, Federer decided to stick to his usual baseline play even when it was clearly not doing anything to dismantle Nadal’s game and instead making him enjoy picking up the points in his comfort zone. Federer lost 6-1 in the process, leaving Nadal unchallenged and bored. He should’ve realized after his serve was broken by Nadal in the very first game of the match that Nadal was willing and prepared to cover the back court all the way to the baseline from side to side - because he can, and therefore must be forced to get inside the court when he least expected it. At a point when he clearly knew that he will not win the first set, it would've increased Federer's chances of winning if he used the remaining games to experiment on effective ploy to derail Nadal, and used it in the second set. Instead, Federer scurried to his defeat in the set, squandering points, finishing without a clear gameplan and with Nadal's championship plot left undecoded. It made me wonder what was happening inside The Master's mind at that time. Whatever it was, it must have been ugly.
In the second set, Federer attempted to serve and volley, approached the net to get Nadal scramble for the ball, but he was not prepared with a plan that will shock and force Nadal to miss. Instead, he handed Nadal several in-your-face opportunities to hit the ball and send it flying behind the ironically enough unsuspecting Federer! Rather than calming himself down, moving on, thinking of a better tactic and fighting back, because, clearly, when Nadal is forced towards the net not in his terms, he misses, either Federer defeatedly hang his head or screamed at himself in frustration – so uncharacteristic of the tennis living great that he is. After his serve was broken at 4-3, he clearly gave up Roland Garros this year. In the third set, he didn't even try: 6-0 in favor of Nadal. And it was painful to watch him reduce himself absolutely remote to the lethal athlete and out-of-this-world tennis genius that he is, eating dust at Roland Garros rather than conquering it.
I imagine that the tremendous expectations by many of a probable date with history was by far a greater burden than actually winning the match, but Federer's classy mastery of the sport always seemed to have immuned him from pressure and he rarely succumbed to raw rage of missing shots eversince he became #1 in the world. That's why it was totally surprising to see him openly showing his frustration in the key points of the match.
Although I still believe that he is the best male tennis player today, and arguably, the best ever, it was disappointing to see that the usually cool and composed Swiss champion was not playing his quiet but aggressive brilliance that always defined his artful mastery and dominance of the sport! He seemed to have lost confidence in his own talents and the motivation and tenacity to win the points one by one through to the championship point! Given that clay is his least favorite surface and that he may not have Nadal’s athletic physique that allowed the Spaniard warrior to move with tremendous flexibility and speed on clay, Roger Federer had the mental toughness, the innate talent that's bigger than anyone else's today, and intelligence to figure out an opponent’s game and come up with a counter attack that forces his opponent to play in his terms. This, while hitting the ball with awesome grace and precision in an artistic tennis court dance that other tennis players could only wish to immitate. Obviously, his advantageous attributes, which may have been enough to disprove Nadal's invincibility on clay, or at the very least posted a threat to Nadal's reign as the King of Roland Garros, were missing in this year’s championship match. I guess, one may be the biggest talent in his sport, but when one lacks faith in his own talents and the commitment to win, some other hungry talents will snatch the prize away from him. Judging from his 35 unforced errors - five times more than his opponent's, this year in the French Open, the worst of Roger Federer defeated the champion in him and handed Rafael Nadal the prize. That may not be fair to Nadal, because surely he, too, is an awesome champion, but I'm pretty sure he would have enjoyed an impassioned challenge from the #1 player in the world and make his historic four straight years of championship victory at Roland Garros as sweet as it should be!
Anyway, next year is another year... El Maestro can try again, and he will. He should. Hopefully, when he returns to center court at Roland Garros next year, and I hope I'm not speaking too soon again, he'd take his awesome genius along and remember what a great champion he truly is! In the meantime, he should figure out how badly he really wants the French Open crown.
