Federer's revival faces a crucible
For all those who questioned his form and cited his 'old age', Roger Federer has replied by playing top-notch tennis in the Australian Open - as if he just stepped out of a time machine.
- Greg Bishop
- Updated: January 21, 2014 12:10 PM IST
New racket, new coach, old Federer.
Or at least the tennis unfolded that way on Monday at the Australian Open, where Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray advanced but ceded the spotlight to Roger Federer, the "old man" of the upper echelon who so dominated that it looked as if he had stepped out of a time machine. His reward: the continuation of a brutal draw, a date with Murray in the quarterfinals Wednesday and a potential meeting with Nadal two days after that.
Just like old times, except earlier in the tournament than usual, and with Novak Djokovic looming on the comparatively boring side of the bracket.
Against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a Frenchman seeded 10th, Federer serve-and-volleyed. He attacked. He won one game with consecutive drop shot winners. He unleashed one-handed backhands down the line. He held and broke serve. He played loose.
In fact, Federer delivered his 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory with such ease that reporters wondered afterward if he considered Murray his first test of significance here, after the switch to a 98-inch racket head and the hiring of Stefan Edberg as his coach, which made for the celebrity coupling of "Fedberg." Federer shook his head.
"This is a big test for me," he said of Tsonga, a perpetual antagonist. "I don't need Murray for that test. The draw is a testy draw."
Still, Federer and Murray all but skated into their matchup, winning easily despite real concerns for both early in the 2014 season. For Federer, the doubts centered on whether he could contend for Grand Slam titles any longer. For Murray, they centered on his surgically repaired back.
Yet Federer seemed the least concerned of anyone, despite a disastrous 2013 season, at least by his impossible standards. He failed to advance to the quarterfinals in Wimbledon or in the U.S. Open. He did not advance to a Grand Slam final for the first time since 2002.
If that scared him or flustered him or left him vulnerable, Federer did not show any signs of mortality here. Before his match Monday, Federer and his team sat at a table in the players' restaurant, in matching red jackets. Mostly, they laughed. But they also eyed the competition. Nadal's match played on one nearby television; Murray's on another.
Federer played the same way as he scouted: unimpeded, relaxed. He broke Tsonga's first service game. He controlled the entire (no) contest.
In his on-court interview, Federer playfully chided his interviewer, Jim Courier, about Courier's backhand and an audience question about why Federer wore two pairs of socks.
"Are you checking me out?" Federer asked.
His news conference played out in similar fashion. A reporter wondered if Federer agreed that he had played a perfect match. Federer's review included "very pleased" and "extremely happy" and an "I was surprised how things worked out for me."
Yes, in other words.There is, of course, nothing funny about the remainder of Federer's tournament. Just the fourth seed (Murray) followed by perhaps the top seed (Nadal) followed by perhaps the second seed (Djokovic). Just the three players generally regarded as the three best in men's tennis.
Those three are all base-liners, but each plays a distinct baseline style, with Nadal and his lasso forehands, Djokovic and his Gumby flexibility, and Murray and his all-court prowess. As Federer noted late Monday, in order to run that gantlet, he would need to play three different types of matches, and play all three near perfection.
"Here we are again," he said.
Not that either Nadal or Murray looked infallible Monday, as three-quarters of the Big Four drew a packed house at Melbourne Park. Nadal snapped a shoelace and needed to fetch a pair of backup shoes from the locker room for the first time in his career. Murray botched a third-set tiebreaker and smashed a racket.
Nadal moved into the quarterfinals with a hard-fought victory. His opponent, Kei Nishikori of Japan, seeded 16th, wanted to set up inside or near the baseline, to take the ball earlier than usual. When done successfully, that disrupted Nadal's timing, as did a spat with the chair umpire who twice called him for time violations.
Afterward, Nadal said Nishikori's strategy was the hardest thing to do in tennis, because it required not only timing but also a certain fearlessness. He said Nishikori could become a top-10 player. But Nadal prevailed, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-6 (3). Each set lasted more than an hour.
While Nadal used much of his news conference to argue against time violations after exhaustive points in crucial situations, Murray stumbled briefly against France's Stéphane Robert, a so-called lucky loser on the tournament run of a lifetime. At 33, he was the oldest man to advance to the fourth round here since 2005. (He is, it should be noted, one year older than Federer.)
Murray won, 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-2. The additional set did not cost him much time, maybe an extra half-hour or so. But it did cost him one tennis racket.
"My racket bit the dust," he said, and he handed the broken frame off to a woman in the crowd who carried a Scottish flag.
As Federer slung Tsonga around the court, someone asked Murray what he thought of Federer now, compared with Federer a few years ago. It was an obvious but loaded question, and Murray responded with an honest answer.
"I mean, four, five years ago, he was losing like three matches a year," Murray said. "I mean, it was ridiculous. The last couple of years, he's lost a bit more. Last year, you could see at periods he was struggling with his back."
Thus the dance continued, three of the most famous players in men's tennis on one side of a crowded draw, so many dream matchups so close on the horizon.
© 2014 New York Times News Service