The Hindu : Sport : A short journey into the mind of Federer

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Tuesday, Apr 05, 2005

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Sport

A short journey into the mind of Federer

Roger Federer is a bare-knuckle fighter dressed in a Hugo Boss suit. His prettiness conceals his merciless nature, his elegance disguises his grit, his flair masks his fury.

In Sunday's Nasdaq Open final, he was two sets down and 3-5 in the third-set tie-breaker to the stirring Rafael Nadal but refused to succumb. He littered the court with 74 errors but stayed faithful to his attacking philosophy. He even lost his composure but not his way. As Marat Safin recently said: "I'm not like Roger, he's way too high. Even when he's not playing well, he has enough talent."

Sunday was Federer's eighth tournament win in his last nine events; since last year's U.S. Open he has won 48 of 49 matches; in his last 18 finals, he is yet to lose. He has beaten Agassi the last seven times, Roddick the last four times, Hewitt the last seven times, and hiccupped once against Safin in the last four meetings. Nothing lasts forever, but his reign is assuming the point of the ridiculous.

But for all this, do we truly comprehend Federer, the strength of his intimidation, the confidence that sustains a No.1 player? Earlier this year I asked Mats Wilander, winner of seven major titles and world No.1 in 1988, these questions and received a short sermon on greatness.

"I think the No.1 ranking is totally irrelevant to someone who is No.1 in the world," said Wilander. "Obviously the ranking is irrelevant to Roger Federer — he is playing to win these tournaments.

His advantage

"I think that the advantage Federer has is that he's not worried about how he's playing. When you're No.1, when you feel like you're the best player in the world, you are not worried about how you are playing. It doesn't boil down to the tennis anyway, it boils down to the mental side — that's why you're No.1. It's not suddenly that your serve is much better or your forehand is much better, I think it's just that your whole game raises because your mind is so much stronger.

"Mentally you're there all the time, you're focused every shot, every moment, every second, and there's no doubt in your mind that you're doing the right thing. Even if you're losing there's no doubt you are doing the right thing."

At this moment of such complete command, a No.1, says the Swede, feels as close to omnipotence as a player can. No doubt, no fear, not even a need for encouragement.

As Wilander said: "You can feel the other guy is worried more about me, than he is about himself, and I am not worried about myself whatsoever. I am focused on him and I am going to make him play terrible and I am going to raise my game. There's no fear when you are playing that well, there are no options but to win.

"When you're playing that well, very little clouds your head. It's not important what other people think, you're strong enough yourself, you don't need anyone to root for you, you need nobody in your box, you need nothing. I say Roger wears it (the No.1 ranking) better than anyone I've seen in a long time."

An aberration

Although Safin would interrupt Federer's domination in Australia, it has since seemed like an aberration, and what bewilders Wilander is the refusal of Federer's peers to psychologically disturb him.

"I think right now Roger is so mentally strong that he intimidates guys once they get on court", said Wilander. "The other guys are actually not that sorry to lose to him, which I kind of miss a little bit. They're not doing everything within the rules to disturb him, like talk to him, or nudge him, or get in his head. Can you imagine John McEnroe not getting into Roger's head? No. Jimmy Connors? No. Boris Becker? No.

"I think there's fire in players to beat him because he's a great player, but there's no fire to beat him because they don't like him. I've played a lot of matches where I didn't care if (the opponent) was a great player, I just didn't like (him). I didn't dislike (him personally), but I could find something in (him) that I didn't like to fuel me. And I think maybe you've got to find something to fuel you against Roger Federer, because it ain't enough to just play tennis."

Bad news for tour players only gets worse. For all his raging beauty, Federer is not yet, said Wilander, the finished product. "I think with Roger, as good as he is, it looks like there's room for improvement, he does sometimes hit a few loose shots. He's so talented that he knows there are shots he should be able to handle that we can't even relate to."

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