Yesterday, Roger Federer silenced the critics who say that he is finished. Novak Djokovic had his unbeaten run of 43 matches suddenly abrogated when he met the master.
Throughout 2011, Novak was on a high and nobody could stop him. He was unstoppable on all surfaces and rivals were overawed by him. He seemed to have put on a new cloak of invincibility. When asked about the impending semi-final match, between Djokovic and Federer, Rafael Nadal commented that it was a match between the current best tennis player in the world against the best tennis player in history. That description said it all. If we were to predict from Nadal's description, it was fairly obvious who would win. The best player in history was still in excellent form and as recently as December 2010 defeated Novak in the end of season tournament of the masters in London.
When the match was played, it was clear why Roger Federer has the title of best player in tennis history. The gods of tennis inspired him to play some sublime tennis, we have not seen in recent times. He was simply magnificent. Novak was stunned and succumbed to Roger's super tennis in just four sets.
Poor Novak, had he simply won that match he would have secured for the first time in his career, the No. 1 position in the ATP world tour men's singles ranking even if he did not go on to win the Roland Garros tournament. However, there is still a silver lining in the clouds because Roger having undone Novak can make him again.
In his current form, Federer is primed to beat Rafael in the finals on Sunday. When he does that, Novak will then be No. 1 over Nadal. So you see, these days Roger Federer has arrogated to himself the power to do and undo.
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