adminAge shall not weary Roger Federer nor the years condemn, but still the veteran Swiss master could not summon up enough to break the spirit of Novak Djokovic. Turning 33 next month and now the father of four, the extraordinary Federer somehow managed to turn last Sunday’s Wimbledon final into a marathon and gave himself a fleeting sight of victory that may have become a reality against anyone else.
Saving a match point in the fourth set and spurning a break point in the decider, he made a nonsense of the 2013 final — won by Andy Murray, of course — being the most difficult act to follow.
Federer came so close to providing something equally poignant but the difference this time was that the Centre Court, replete with a full quorum of A-listers, did not get the winner it wanted as Djokovic finally prevailed 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in just under four hours. It might be unfair to cast the 27-year-old Serb as some Blackheart figure, but again he will have felt almost friendless, faced this time with the ageing hero rather than his British contemporary trying to make history.
The one-sided nature of the crowd was a disadvantage but his most potent opponent other than the man across the net was the demon left inside him from so many recent Grand Slam final defeats.
Five times in his last six championship matches he had been beaten, usually from promising positions, and that gnawed away as he desperately tried to close out a rampaging Federer in the fourth.
Federer was playing a different game, and not just how he sought to attack the net in a way that will have had many of the watching champions such as Rod Laver purring.
For Federer this was about adding to his 17 major titles and achieving a historic eighth at Wimbledon. He was playing for his legacy and the chance to put distance between his personal tally and that of the chasing Rafael Nadal, who is on 14. Achievements already banked can mean less pressure, yet he also aware that time is running short. Who knows, we may look back on this as when time ran out, for he will be close to 34 when he returns next year.
If so, his last appearance in a final at SW19 will leave the hazy memory of someone who matched effortless style with a competitive spirit so evident in a fourth set of mesmeric theatre.
The third-set tiebreak had been an exemplar of why Wimbledon 2012 is the only Grand Slam that Federer has won in the last four and a half years.
Faced with the warrior spirits of Nadal, Djokovic and (sometimes) Murray, he had again flinched when it most matters. This is what happens with the onset of age and perhaps, the statistics suggest, the burden of parental responsibility.
It was there in his hesitant approach to the net at 2-3, or the edgy forehand error at 3-5, the marginal lack of conviction that does not afflict his younger rivals as much.
And it was there at the start of the fourth set when Djokovic took advantage of his heavy-legged positioning to break for 3-1, as the crowd resigned itself to consoling their idol and being back in the bar for Pimm’s o’clock
Federer’s comeback for 2-3 was a false start as he was broken again, but from 2-5 down he extracted one throaty roar after another from the Centre Court crowd as he reeled off five games with a combination of groundstroke winners and finely judged forays to the net.
Djokovic loves a target at the net and passed him repeatedly, but Federer would not be daunted as he preyed on the doubts that he knew would float to the surface for an increasingly agitated opponent, who was demanding more respect from a reluctant assembly.
At 4-5 down Federer saw off Djokovic’s first match point with one of the 29 aces he sent down during the course of the afternoon.
The line judge’s naked eye disallowed it and ironically it was HawkEye, an innovation the Swiss has so often sniffed at, that was needed to confirm its authenticity. When Djokovic sent a forehand long to concede the set, what would have been arguably the greatest Federer victory of all, given his creeping years, looked on.
In the last of their three Wimbledon finals, respective coaches Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg played a five-setter and here was another, with Federer starting it looking much the fresher. Djokovic needed to summon the physio to rub a sore calf muscle after the third game and at 3-3, 30-40 came Federer’s chance when he got the serve back but was forced deep and wide on to his backhand and could only float the ball into the net.
Djokovic’s return of serve, a shot he has improved to the point of being the all-time master, so nearly brought him the next game but the seven-times champion three-times saved himself. Only at 5-4 did the pressure tell sufficiently for Djokovic to gain the winning break of serve, with anti-climactic ease. — Daily Mail.
Online Reporter