Federer adds sweet 16th to trophy collection

I have well over 16 books, and over 16 photographs displayed in my room. I have 16 playbills on my wall of shows I’ve seen in my four years at Columbia. All of that pales in comparison to Roger Federer, who just won his 16th Grand Slam title in Melbourne on Sunday morning.

I’m strictly a Rafael “Rafa” Nadal fan. I jeer at Federer’s custom-made shoes for Wimbledon and the winner’s jacket he wears out onto the court following his match, even though you know he’s got to be sweaty. I felt satisfied when Rafa slaughtered him in the French Open in 2008. I told him to keep it together when he started bawling after losing the Australian last January to Rafa.

But there are some things you just can’t deny. One of those is that Trix cereal was infinitely better in the shape of fruit rather than spheres. Another is that Federer might just be the greatest tennis player to play the game.

He broke Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles just two years after Sampras and doesn’t look to be stopping with 16. He’s 28 and still dominating a sport filled with 21-year-olds.
So when Rafa retired due to knee problems at the Australian Open, my first thought was, ‘Well, add another notch to Federer’s belt.’ The Spaniard is my favorite tennis player—I have a picture with him on display in my room—but his game takes a serious toll on his body. And so the only person with an all-time winning streak against Federer slipped quietly out of the Open.

Sixteen. Somewhere in his house in Switzerland, Federer has on display 15 Grand Slam trophies, and when he returns from “Down Under,” he’ll add the 16th. Can you imagine the reaction of house guests?

Federer: Oh, those, yeah, you know...work. They keep giving me Employee of the Year awards. At first it was nice. Now it’s damn annoying.

The thing that makes Federer so amazing is that he’s dominated the sport for so long. He won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003 and he sat atop the ranks as No.1 for four straight years before Rafa dethroned him in the middle of 2008. The guy was in ten consecutive Grand Slam finals. It got rather repetitive, to be honest.

That’s one of the reasons I became such a fan of Rafa. Finally someone who could figure out Federer. Someone Federer was afraid of (Federer flew a left-handed player from the Stanford tennis team to Dubai so that he could practice against him to prepare for Rafa).

And I could not have been happier when Rafa put Federer away at Wimbledon in 2008—ending Federer’s five-year winning streak there—in a five-set thriller that John McEnroe dubbed “the greatest match of all time.”

It’s not that I want Federer to fail. It’s just boring when he wins. The guy hits shots no person should be able to hit and does it with grace. He scoffs at the Hawk-Eye line system to eliminate mistaken line calls. Federer doesn’t make mistakes like that. He has been one of the world’s greatest athletes for seven years and his biceps look more like an eighteen-year-old’s.

So when I watched Andy Roddick get eliminated last week, I lost a little more hope that the final would be something interesting. Roddick pushed Federer to a five-set tiebreaker at Wimbledon last summer. After holding serve for over three hours, the one time Roddick allows a break he loses the whole thing.

Novak Djokovic lost, too. The young Serb stole the Australian from Federer in 2008, surprising nearly everyone who hadn’t watched the young man handle Federer in another, smaller tournament in 2007.

All that was left for Federer was Scotsman Andy Murray, playing in his second Grand Slam final. Though he’s improved greatly over the last two years, Murray went down easy, losing 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11).

Another boring title. Another boring presentation ceremony with Federer assuring us, “No, this one is really special. It’s going to be front and center until I win my next one in a couple months. Swear.”

But now, one thing has to be on Federer’s mind, the last thing he has to accomplish in the sport that should be called “Federer’s Day Off”: Grand Slam. The elusive, almost mythic calendar-year Grand Slam. Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open. Hasn’t been done since 1969.

Rafa held him off for four years, winning at least one of those and sometimes two. But after an injury-plagued year, it looks like the last line of defense is weak.

Can you imagine having 19 Grand Slam trophies to display? He’d need to add a room onto his house for those things.

Holly MacDonald is a Barnard College senior majoring in History and English.
sportseditors@columbiaspectator.com