MEN’S tennis has never been in such fine health. Evergreen Roger Federer, the elder statesman on the men’s Tour, is nicking trophies left, right and centre even at the ripe age of 36. Playing sublime tennis, Federer bagged the Shanghai Masters title beating arch-rival and world number one Rafa Nadal last Sunday.
For the organizers and fans in Shanghai, it was a blockbuster final - Federer taking on Nadal. For the two tennis legends, it was just another opportunity to emerge victorious and add to personal trophy cabinet. Federer obviously picked up his 94th career trophy win while Nadal remains pegged at number 75. Incredible stats!
This season, Federer and Nadal have been in imperious form, picking up two Grand Slam titles each. Clearly, the 36-year-old Swiss and the 31-year-old Spaniard are in no mood to let others win. They almost seem to be becoming trophy thugs, if one may be allowed to say so.
Winning and dominating the Grand Slams or the Masters Series events like the one held in Shanghai is proof that Federer and Nadal make things happen on the men’s Tour that has been missing top guns Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Andy Murray of Britain because of injuries.
Federer, clearly, has raised the bar and just yesterday announced that he won’t be putting out a retirement date anytime soon. The 19-time Grand Slam champion says he feels fine on the circuit, taking forced mid-season breaks to allow himself enough time to recover from fatigue and exhaustion.
There’s plenty of motivation for Federer to keep appearing at events - he is playing his home tournament at Basel this week - to win trophies. If he wins the Oct 21-29 tournament, Federer gets closer to becoming world number one once again. With injured Nadal not playing in Basel this week, Federer stands a very good chance of going all the top to the top of the tennis peak.
Federer is also keen on playing the season-ending championships in London next month. The tall right-hander skipped the entire clay-court season including the French Open in order to gear up for Wimbledon and the US Open. Federer won the Wimbledon title for the 8th time in his career to leave fans gasping for more.
“For me, I have come to realise that sometimes less is more,’” Federer said recently. As far as the tennis fans are concerned, the more Federer plays, the better for all of us.
