Australian Open 2015: Federer muscles way back into contention

The Swiss ace turns 34 this year, but the quality and consistency of his tennis is still remarkable.

Roger Federer of Switzerland practices serving at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

EVERY year when I come home to Melbourne for the Australian Open, one of the blokes I look forward to seeing is the man known to us all as “Muscles”. Ken Rosewall — a legend and the oldest man in the open era to win a Grand Slam title when he won the Aussie aged 37 years two months and one day back in 1972.

“Muscles” crops up plenty of other times in the record books: the oldest winner of the US Open and the second oldest winner of the French Open behind Andres Gimeno. However, the name that appears in so many other categories is Roger Federer and, for my money, he’s in with a great chance of also getting to the top of the oldies chart. Given the depth of quality in men’s tennis nowadays compared with Rosewall’s time, it would be an amazing feat.

Some might say it is it stating the obvious but Federer is astonishing. He turned 33 on August 8 last year and has four children. Yet I believe that this year’s title at Melbourne Park is between him and the top seed Novak Djokovic, with both men bidding to become the first player since Roy Emerson in the 1960s to win the Australian five times.

Maybe Federer isn’t right back to his best — that would take some doing. Yet with all due respect to Rosewall, Rod Laver, Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors, who else has achieved the level of excellence and consistency that Federer is showing at the moment?

Granted, his withdrawal from the ATP World Tour Finals last November because of a sore back is still fresh in many tennis fans’ minds but, look, that is the only physical blip he has shown in quite a while. And remember how he bounced back to win the Davis Cup for Switzerland a week later before opening this year by coming out on top in the Brisbane International.

The question I keep asking myself is: does he still possess the resilience to go out and win a five-set match before doing it again two days later? There is no denying his physical preparation is meticulous and Pierre Paganini, the trainer who ensures the fitness of Federer and Stan Wawrinka, the defending champion, must know his stuff.

I watched Federer doing some physical work behind the scenes in Sydney and it was committed stuff. Some might call it basic and a bit boring, but he was down on all fours doing stability work and core exercises to strengthen the muscles that protect the discs in his back.

Most people believe that Federer has never had to fight back from a serious injury, but he had a back condition a while ago and could still play sufficiently well that nobody really spotted it. He was losing matches that he would have been expected to win, but he managed to get out on court week after week.

There is far more to Federer’s longevity in the game and let’s analyse how he keeps doing it with his 34th birthday in sight. His vision is second to none. His athletic build also gives him an advantage, although he has to work to keep in shape. And he studies technology, employing a new, bigger racket when many thought he would see out his playing days with the smaller model he had always used.

To those who watch the game closely, it should come as no surprise that Federer mis-hits a large number of shots. His racket speed is so fast that this is almost inevitable and the mis-hits bizarrely give him an advantage because the balls wobble a little as they come off his strings and this affects his opponents’ rhythm.

However, he felt the need to modernise with a larger racket head and that has given him a larger sweet spot. The new racket has also allowed him to a return to a more attacking game, advancing to the net and finishing off points quickly with a volley

He mixes up his game so well and is so quick between points that the other guy finds it hard to settle. There is none of the protracted Rafa Nadal routine with the towel and the tugging of the shorts and none of the Djokovic repeated ball bouncing.

And to take Federer’s tennis to its most simple level, he clearly enjoys what he’s doing. There is hardly any angst or torment; he simply loves his life — and who wouldn’t with 17 Grand Slams and close to dollars 100m in prize money alone? If allowed, I would have put a bet on both those figures increasing in a fortnight’s time.

The Sunday Times