The Lord of the Strings: The career (up to this point) of Roger Federer

The title of this post is clearly inspired (if not in a cringe inducing way) by the J.R.R. Tolkien masterpiece of three volumes. While this may be corny enough, like the infomercials always say "But there's more!" I have split up the career of Roger Federer into three parts based on the three volumes of the story.

Part 1: The Mellowship of the King (I know mellowship isn't a word. Just play along)

As you may or may not know, Roger was once a very vociferous and short-tempered individual. There was many a match when yelling at the umpire, throwing the racket and cursing could be observed from Federer's side of the court. The trantrum throwing brat has now been replaced by a metrosexual man who is often seen crying after a big match (win or loss) and seen carrying a man purse (Not sure what he puts in there because he has a bag for rackets as well). This may present an image problem of its own but on the court, Roger has become a quite and graceful athlete. To be honest, Federer would probably be more well received in North America if he did still have some of that John McEnroe complex.

Part 2: The Two Towers (This is exactly the same as the title of the book which means I am now plagiarizing)

From 2004-2007 Federer was nearly impossible to beat. Then came along a young Spaniard who made his way into the elite company of Federer (Nadal was there from 2004-2007 but didn`t really make a breakthrough on any surface besides clay). These two towering figures in men`s tennis (you get the reference now) had some epic battles in their rivalry including the 2007 and 2008 Wimbledon finals, the latter being hailed as the greatest match ever played. Then they played another epic match in the 2009 Australian Open. Nadal, having won the last three meetings in a grand slam final with Federer, wrangled the number one ranking from Roger`s grasp and began forging his own legacy. Most people started writing off Federer as a great athlete who`s career was starting to go down hill. Some thought he would never win another grand slam.

Part 3: The Return of the King (More plagiarizing. I guess there's no harm now.)

Several months into 2009 and Federer had still not won a title at any event. Part of this was due to a back injury that plagued him starting from the end of the 2008 season. The other part was probably due to a mental block of losing his invincibility on the tennis court. At the same time, Rafael Nadal was winning every title in the clay court season and poised to take another at the Madrid Masters. That was until (as a shock to most of the tennis world) Federer reached the final and beat Nadal on clay in straight sets (a feat reminiscent to beating Michael Phelps in the pool). This provided a little more drama going into the French Open but most still thought Nadal was a lock to take his fifth title in a row at Roland Garros. Everything seemed to be going as planned until a tall Swede came along and ousted Nadal in 4 sets, setting the table for Federer`s first ever French Open victory. Like Pete Sampras, Federer up to that point was a great player but one who had never won a grand slam on clay. With his victory, Roger finally got the monkey (we`re talking bigfoot size) off his back. Everything was set for Roger to win his 15th grandslam and claim the most prestigious record in tennis at the Championships Wimbledon. The only man who bothered to stand in his way happened to be Andy Roddick (a man who probably would have been King had Roger not pulled his racket out of the anvil. A reference to King Arthur). After an awkward 4 hours and 18 minutes (the match reminded me of two people trying to walk through a narrow tunnel only to meet at the middle and then trying to squeeze past each other to get to their desired destinations). In the end, it was Andy who begrudgingly let Roger walk through the tunnel first, into the bright forever of tennis immortality. Now Roger has regained his number one ranking and is playing with a lot of confidence. It seems his career is far from over and who knows, maybe a lost manuscript of J.R.R. Tolkien's fourth volume of the great story will be found someday.

P.S. Sorry to the readers who don't know much about tennis. In my opinion, it is a great sport to watch and an even better one to play.