Thursday, July 24, 2008

Federology of the Absurd


All this blah blah type type coming from the tennis commentariat--which, I'm afraid, is showing itself be be far less well-suited to its trade than practitioners of eras past--is beginning to wear on me big time.

Here, for example, is Tennis mag's Kamakshi Tandon's take on Federer's first round loss to Gilles Simon yesterday in Toronto.

Some sort of weird journalistic hysteria seems to sweeping the Web, as our fuzzy-ball scribblers ponder the state of the Rodge. I mean, c'mon, Tandon has the (for the moment anyway) world number one in tears, yet again. I think an adjustment of attitude, based on facts, is in order. To wit:

-Fed hasn't played in almost a month

-He's probably still kinda sorta sick from whatever was ailing him at the end of last year

-His confidence vis a vis Nadal may be declining, but I would hasten to point out that he has gotten to the finals of two of the past three slams, and was damn close at Wimbly. And besides, wasn't that supposed to the Greatest Match in the History of Mammals with Large Brains and Delicate Opposing Thumbs Walking Upright?

-Best 2/3 tourneys are quite a different story than best 3/5

Nobody wants to see R-Fed bow out early, least of all the Rogers tournament organizers, but I think we should also be conscious of over-worrying the man's recent struggles (if you can even call 'em that). What I saw in the first set yesterday, which he nabbed handily 6-2, was a player who still has more shots, more options, and more tactical variety than anyone else out there.

So how about we just relax and not fret so much? This playbok is well established. Later in his career, Sampras went through years when there were no Slam victories and he played not very well. In fact, my sense is that right now Fed may be going through a bit of a retuning of his overall game, to prepare for the next 2-3 years. A lot like what Tiger Woods has done several times now, retooling his swing, and generally coming back tougher. In Rodge's case, it looks as if he's trying to do more with his first serve.

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