CAMELOT FANTASIES

The Swiss Assassin could have easily retired, similar to Sampras, and sailed into the sunset with tremendous glory after winning Wimbledon in 2012 in his 1050th match, and getting back to #1 at age 31 whilst Djokovic and Nadal were still in their prime.  But he didn't. 

Why? He wasn't ready to stop. He enjoyed the game and all it's benefits.  But in late 2012, instead of his usual serious training block in Dubai, he went on that exhibition tour of South America for enjoyment of fans and himself.  I think he paid the price for it in 2013, and he hurt his back. But even then, he kept trying to play, which he later said was a mistake on his part, but he also changed his racquet to a bigger head size (97 sq. in) for the first time since very early in his career (he went from 85 to 90), and had his worst year since 2002.   

However, by the time 2014 rolled around he had trained hard in Dubai in the off season and went on a tear in 2014 and 2015 where he won 11 titles out of 22 finals losing most of them to Djokovic and got back to #2 in the world and even had a chance at #1 in late 2014.  Nobody on tour played more than Federer in 2014, and only Djokovic did better overall.  No, he didn't win any majors during that time, but to make 3 major finals at his age, is still amazing, and certainly reflects the hard work he did.

Federer continued to train hard at the end of 2015.  He trained with Pouille in Dubai, and the Pouille team was astounded by how hard Federer trained.   They said they saw his routine,  training from 1pm to 8pm, finally finishing, and getting into an ice bath.  They said it was a real eye opener because most people think all comes easy for Federer.  But to stay competitive with the world's top movers, he knows he has to train hard as possible, especially the older he gets.  But then he said he hurt his knee in that freak accident after the 2016 AO, and had to take time off and was recuperating as well as he could to get ready for the grass season.  You could see at Halle he still wasn't moving well, but by Wimbledon he looked better.  But then against Raonic in the semis he took that tumble and landed squarely on his knee and you could see his leg go up and down in pain.  So he decided to skip the rest of the year and try to rest and recuperate, then be as fit as possible to try for 2017 playing in his 36th year on the planet. 2016 hasn't been about winning titles for Federer, it was about injury and recovery at age 35.  And still he hasn't announced his retirement. We'll see what happens with him.  Maybe the knee won't recover sufficiently and forces him to retire. Maybe it does recover and he goes on to play, who knows?  But to play he'll have to work hard, and his knee will have to recover enough to withstand the work and play against the best player, or else he'll just be playing for the "fun of it". 

The hard yards have to be done at some point in training.  There is no way around the hard work if you want to stay relevant into the deciding sets in the current men's game.  The older you get, the harder it gets. 

General Hercules and I have been looking for a similar thing from Rafa, similar to what he did in 2012-2013.  He took time off after WImbledon 2012, recovering and preparing, skipped the AO, returned in South America, built confidence and match play, and took 2013 by storm winning RG and the US Open and many masters in between, and was rewarded as the Year End #1 player for 2013.   But then in late 2013, he went on the exhibition tour on hard courts naturally.   He didn't have time to train hard for 2014.  Stan injured his back in the final of the AO when Rafa had to extend himself dealing with Stan's heavy pace.  Fast forward to the clay season where Rafa was trying to get matches in, which he did, and he got his last RG win.  But then he suffered his myriad of problems with wrist, more back problems, I think the stem cell attempt, and then finally was coming back to play and had the appendicitis, which for some strange reason he tried to play through.  But he was just losing fitness and didn't get it back even in the off-season it continued, and in 2015 he was healthy again, but had his first year without winning a major.  He lost to players left and right he had never lost to before even on clay.  Fognini beat him 3 or 4 times.  Rafa had and has been a shadow of his great self and he continues to try to grind on hard courts.

General Hercules and I could both see Rafa wasn't and hasn't been fit.  The whole world could see it.  He was struggling after playing one good set.  Players could obviously see it.  When that happens, players lose their aura.  Players don't walk on the court thinking they don't have a chance against Rafa anymore. Instead they are all gunning for him in his weakened state.  This is normal.   Rafa was playing and his team and him were saying the right things like they were looking for solutions to his anxiety, etc.  But there was no overlooking the fact that his serve was deteriorating, his return very short, and his movement no longer was allowing him to cover his forehand wing when running around his backhand.  To play the topspin game and have great success, on any surface, but especially clay, one must be fit.

Rafa has now played close to 1000 matches.  Almost all modern players (not Rosewall and the like), win their last major before 1000 matches.  Rafa won his last at something like 834 matches.  General Hercules and I hoped that he had one more in him between then and now.  But to get that, he would need to work extra hard, build himself up. The topspin game needs a lot of strength.  We just haven't seen it from him.  Maybe he doesn't want to make that effort anymore.   Who can really blame him after all he has accomplished?   But on the other hand, he is still playing, saying he is missing something and trying to find it.  Maybe he can.  But he is a shadow of himself every few matches when he reaches the better players.

I think what General Hercules and I are saying is that if he wants to go for a last slam, if he wants to become consistent again, he has to put in the work so he can be very fit and have his best chance to beat the better players.   If he doesn't want it, then it just won't happen.  Fine.  But as one of Rafa's biggest fans, I completely understand why General Hercules is saying the things he is, wanting for Rafa to make the effort to be his best again before he has to call it quits. 

Of course, only Rafa can make that decision, not Uncle Toni or his team, certainly as fans we have little influence.  But we do have our wishes.  Obviously our wishes may be different than his or others, but we are only suggesting what needs to be done for him to have a chance at going after it. 

When it doesn't happen then we call it as we see it.  That's it.
No rose colored glasses of the understanding and sympathetic fans, no delusion of the fanatical fans, just the way it is.

Respectfully,
masterclass