Federer far from fading away – By: Matt Cronin

Written by: Staff on 25th January 2013

Federer far from fading away - By: Matt Cronin |

MELBOURNE – The commitment is still there, his shot-making is still there and he works super had on his fitness, so even though he looked a little weary after his 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(2) 6-2 defeat to Andy Murray in the semifinals of the Australian Open, Roger Federer isn’t going away as an elite player.

Put aside that he is 31 years old and that he hasn’t won a hard court major in three years now, he did win his record 17th Slam at Wimbledon last year and he continues to go deep at nearly every major he plays.

Yet, as he admitted, Murray outplayed him, but he’s been very adept at reconfiguring his game to keep up with the younger players so given the right time, place and opportunity, he still stands a chance to raise more Grand Slam trophies

“I’m sort of out of the business of predicting Federer,” Andre Agassi said. “For half his career he impressed me and surprised me; now he no longer surprises me. He just continues to impress me with what he’s able to do. “

With Rafael Nadal set to come back on clay in two weeks time, tennis’ Big 4 of Federer, Nadal, Murray and Novak Djokovic will be complete again. But Federer is five to six year older than all of them and while it could be argued that the sore-kneed Nadal is exiting his prime, Murray and Djokovic are right in the midst of theirs. Murray has reached the last three Grand Slam finals and Djokovic has reached seven out of his last nine, winning four of those.

But Federer believes his still firmly in the mix.

“Nothing has changed,” Federer said. “I’ve played these guys, what, 60 times, the three guys around me in the rankings. So we know each other really well. We play each other very close very often. Keep on trading wins and losses. Novak has done probably the best job getting more wins than losses. That’s why he’s ranked where he is. I enjoy the matches with Rafa, Novak, and also Andy again tonight. It’s nice playing five sets against him. It was tough tennis. I enjoy that. So I go from here with a good feeling for the year. I didn’t play a tournament leading in, so now obviously I know where my level is at. Also knowing I have even more time to work on my game, work on my fitness this year. It’s something I’m excited about.”

Federer’s love of the game is palpable. Unlike some other players who don’t want to see a ball struck when they aren’t on site or playing, Federer inhales the sport. In Melbourne, when he wasn’t the star attraction during night matches, he stayed up to watch others slug it out under the stars.

He was up to 3AM the morning that his friend Stan Wawrinka fell in a five-set classic to Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.

“I think it’s the right thing to do to finish a match like that,” Federer said. “I tried the same thing with Lleyton [Hewitt] against Marcos [Baghdatis] years ago. I bailed out when Lleyton was up 5‑1 in the fourth, and it still ended up going five sets. I can’t believe I went to bed. Anyway, that was my lesson not going to bed anymore in a match.”

Even though he’s now 15 years into his storied career, Federer doesn’t get bored with work. He paces himself now, but does not consider tour life a grind despite having a wife and two young daughters whom he often travels with. He seems to have struck a perfect balance between his personal life and his tennis. That’s why the Federer Express keep chugging along.

“I enjoy everything about the traveling and the tour and the matches and the rivalries and all that stuff and the records, you name it” he said. :So I see almost basically positives really. I really enjoy it. Back in the day when I was trying to get a feel for how the tour was working, things were much more complicated. Now it’s pretty straightforward. So it’s important to mix it up sometimes, change it up with who you practice with, where you do that at the tennis sometimes, how can you make it fun. That’s why I always love it when friends and family come around. Obviously I have my kids which totally changed my life in the last three years. It’s really nice.”

Topics: Andy Murray, Australian Open, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis News