Who Will Beat Roger Federer This Year?

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Last year’s Wimbledon final was a heartbreakingly awesome.  Nadal won the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back both at the expense of Roger Federer.  That was the year that Rafael Nadal broke Roger Federer’s back, taking away from him everything, well almost, including the much coveted number 1 ranking in all of tennis.

I couldn’t believe what happened, even as big as a Federer fan like myself, I thought that was the start of Roger’s decline from being a tennis god to being a pedestrian player like most players on the tour, though certainly still leagues higher over average tennis Joes.

Then early this year, Roger announced that him and Mirka were expecting their first child and followed that one up with a wedding.  I thought, ‘well, there’s goes the neighborhood’.  And it seems as though the writing was on the wall.  Roger Federer was happy, his personal life is coming together, and he’s had so many victories and triumphs that I felt like there’s no need for him to feel hungry anymore.  That he spent so many months without a tour victory and experienced very early exits in tournaments he entered only made things worse for a fan such as myself.

I almost lost interest in tennis, until Roger made his present felt once again at the Mutua Madrilena Cup in Madrid, besting the pride of Spain nonetheless in front of hugely partisan crowd on clay.  True, Nadal was hurting even then but I thought that victory sparked something in Roger.  It must have lit-up his slowly dying fire in his belly.

And early this month, he finally won the French Open, tying Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slams and becoming only the sixth tennis player in the world to have the full Grand Slam set sitting in his trophy room.  Everything was coming together for the Fed Express.

And Nadal, well his unbelievably physical type of play is finally catching up with him.  He lost early in the French, something that was totally impossible to most fans.  And now he withdrew from the Wimbledon Tournament leaving the field wide open for Roger Federer.

The question now is who will stop Roger Federer on grass?  Novak Djokovic?  Certainly the Serb has had pretty good success against the Swiss master, winning their last two meetings.  But that was before Federer got his mojo back, and certainly not one of those victories came on the grass where Federer lives and breathes.

The only person that I could think of that could beat Roger Federer on grass this year is the young Scot, Andy Murray.  This kid has got Roger Federer figured out (or so he thinks) winning their last four meetings and he loves the grassy surface as well.  He has also acquitted himself really well during the pre-Wimbledon tournament winning the title in Queens and becoming the first Brit to win on grass in 71 years.  He’s full of confidence and he just might be the one to break the Federer/Nadal domination on grass.

I still think that Roger will be the man this year.  Without Rafael Nadal’s shadow hanging over him, he just might make everyone look foolish in this tournament like the way he played Lu Yen-Hsun in the first round.  It’s when he’s like this that Roger is at his most destructive, like he’s on autopilot or something.  Everyone else, well they could all just hope to make it to the finals and stop there.
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You may want to read the following related posts as well:

1. Roger Federer Won! Takes A Step Closer To the French Open 2009 Crown
2. Federer Wins Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open 2009
3. Roger Falls, Nadal Wins
4. Roger Federer | Proud Father of Twins
5. Federer Finally Wins A French!
6. Who’s Your Daddy?
7. Australian Open 2009 Winners

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