Roger Federer has had an illustrious tennis career, but it's fair to say that any chances of winning a 17th Grand Slam title were firmly extinguished in today's semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic in the French Open.
The Swiss maestro hasn't won a Grand Slam title now since the 2010 Australian Open, and although he is still considered a potential winner for future Grand Slam events, is that a realistic prospect? He was never really going to win the French Open with Nadal waiting in the final, but defeating Djokovic would not only have given him the foothold of retaining that No.1 ranking, but also confidence going into future Grand Slam tournaments. He was very fortunate to overcome Del Potro in the quarter-finals. If the Argentine wasn't suffering from injury, he would have comfortably beat Federer in straight sets. But today's match showed why the Swiss is struggling. He can't close out sets, let alone matches. This isn't the first time that Federer has failed to close out against Djokovic. The 2011 US Open will bring back memories for both players when Federer had match points against Novak, and somehow Djokovic saved them and went on to win the match. That memory turned into reality today for Federer, as he yet again failed to even close out a set he was two breaks up from, and this shows more of the mentality of Federer's game which is clearly fading. The problem appears a lot when he faces Nadal, but it now seems to occur when up against Djokovic.
He now not only has to overcome old foe Rafael Nadal, but also inform Djokovic and this is something he just isn't use to. He has no more hidden techniques that he can unleash on his opponents and with both Djokovic and Nadal improving, he's almost facing an impossible task to ever win a Grand Slam title again. The despair he must be feeling on losing yet another semi-final must be hard to take, and I can only see Federer losing in earlier rounds in slams to come. His most dominant display has always been at Wimbledon, with six titles to his name, but the last two years has seen him drop at the quarter-final stage. Whats the chances he will lose at the same hurdle again? Fairly probable considering how much Berdych, Tsonga, Ferrer, and Del Potro's game have all improved on the grass.
Most tennis pundits think that Federer has at least one slam left in him, but I really don't see where that is going to come from. I feel that this is his last realistic year of winning anything major and I know for a fact that Federer will want to win the Olympic Gold Medal, as this is the only major to elude him. But where slams are concerned, it's definitely the end of the road. Let's just enjoy what the Swiss legend still has to offer.
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