A Rocky Balboa moment

So Roger Federer didn’t win at Roland Garros on Sunday; there was to be no satisfying victory over the great Rafael Nadal, his arch-nemesis, on the surface that has caused Federer the most grief. But I’ll say this – those who had hoped for a fairytale finish and are privately mourning another soul-crushing loss for Federer are missing the point altogether.

We were in fact privy to a Rocky Balboa moment this weekend. That’s what this was really about. The prettiest player in the history of tennis has effectively announced he is not above a scrap. Like Sylvester Stallone’s character from the franchise about the boxing underdog, Federer managed to show us that he still had it in him to fight with dignity and to surprise us with how much he could still do. There is barely anything left to achieve but he had a point to prove, and what a fine job he did with that: he may be ageing – even playing purely so his kids might one day watch him live – but reports of his fading are, even at this stage of his career, overrated.

In the final, for a change Federer displayed pluck. Beaten down in the first two sets after having led 5-2 in the first, and then trailing 2-4 in the third, the Swiss dug in and produced one of his most rousing fightbacks at Roland Garros against an opponent who had routed him 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 in the 2008 final. The owner of 16 Major titles, Federer is still showing signs of maturing.

Over the past couple of years Federer has gradually lost more often to journeymen, even struggled to win a set against them. At the peak of his powers Federer dominated the field like few others in history; yet paradoxically, Federer was not as mentally strong as some of the lesser mortals out on court. While he was never as hopelessly unpredictable as say, the lavishly gifted Marat Safin, and is usually efficient at closing out matches when ahead, over the course of his career Federer has often looked slightly vulnerable when down 4-5 and serving to stay in a set, and nervy when trying to hold out on breakpoints. His giant serves have not always come to his rescue.

This is an area where Rafael Nadal scores over him in debates regarding all-time greatness. All too often in the past, faced with the loss of a set in any of those French Open matches against Nadal, Federer would sulk; his shoulders would slump and he would give up the ghost. Six losses to Nadal in the eight Grand Slam finals they contested tell a peculiar tale: it defies logic that the supposed greatest player of all time isn’t even the most commanding player of his own generation.

But on the strength of his showing over the past fortnight, it seems entirely possible that like Pete Sampras, Federer might yet pull off a late-career resurgence. Towards the end of his career the American was still milking the applause at Wimbledon and made three consecutive US Open finals – the last of which he won, upon which he effectively retired. Federer will continue to remain a threat at Majors even as his intensity levels drop off at smaller tourneys.

This is not to discount the new order of things. Depending on their seeding and quality of opponents, Nadal and Djokovic will likely end up doing battle in future Slam finals. Federer will slip away, as is the way of the world. At any rate he’s determined not to go quietly. Remarkably, he still shows the motivation, the drive, and the hunger to keep performing at peak levels. His movement is as fluid as ever. All the effort he and his team put into planning his tournament schedule wisely over the past decade is now paying off. The spring in his step suggests he is capable of anything.

Even though Federer would love to outdo Pete Sampras as the player ranked number one for the longest period in history, you’ve got to question if the one week separating them makes any difference. He probably won’t ever return to the number one spot; more certainly, his current ranking doesn’t matter – using “world number three” as a prefix sounds faintly ridiculous when his name ordinarily suffices.

Federer is one of those rare sportsmen who rise above their sport. Victories and losses can no longer touch his place in the pantheon of greats. At the same time, let’s keep it real: he was never going to win on Sunday after the epic semifinal contest against Novak Djokovic – not against Nadal on Paris clay, as John McEnroe correctly conjectured late last week. It was just too much to expect. But I wouldn’t put it past him to conjure up one or two ethereal performances on grass or hard courts over the next year.

A Slam is certainly not out of the question; not when history and he are the best of friends.