Monday, November 20, 2006
My 2006 Athlete of the Year: Roger Federer
His arrogance can be a bit unsettling. But when Roger Federer begins a post-match news conference by saying, “I played unbelievable today,” it’s usually difficult to disagree with him.
Federer completed perhaps the greatest men’s season of the Open Era (post 1967) Sunday at the ATP Championships by demolishing James Blake, 6-0, 6-3, 6-4, to become the first tennis player ever to top $8 million in a single season (after becoming the first player to top $7 million just a week earlier).
But money is hardly a measure here. Federer completed his 2006 season at 92-5 to become the first man to win more than 90 matches in a year since Ivan Lendl in 1982. Federer made it to the final of each of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2006, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open and falling in a four-set final to world No. 2 Rafael Nadal (2006 record: 59-12) in the French Open.
Federer has won five of the past six Grand Slams and an astounding eight Grand Slams in the past three years (by comparison, only five men in the history of tennis have won more than eight Grand Slams). He swept Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back for the third straight year, making him the first men’s player in tennis history to accomplish the feat.
And he’s only 25.
“The way Roger plays the game is phenomenal,” Martina Navratilova said at US Open. “He’s just a genius with the racquet.”
To understand Federer’s domination, simply look at the year’s final event. Federer went 5-0 in round-robin and single elimination play; Blake was the only other member of the eight-person field to post a winning record, and he went 3-2. That means the Top 7 players in the world not named Roger Federer all lost two matches at the ATP Championships. Federer lost five matches all year.
“I’ve probably run out of adjectives to describe him on the court to talk about his excellence,” Blake said after the ATP Championship final. “He’s just unbelievable.”
With Lance Armstrong now running marathons rather than riding bicycles, Federer has easily assumed the title of world’s dominant individual athlete. The best comparison would be Tiger Woods’ run in 2000, when he won the US Open by 15 strokes and the British Open by eight strokes. This year Federer won Wimbledon by taking 21 of 22 sets, and the US Open by winning 21 of 23 sets; he was never stretched to five sets in either tournament.
For an encore, Woods won the Masters in 2001 to complete the so-called “Tiger Slam.” With legitimate aspirations to win the first Grand Slam (all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year) since Rod Laver in 1969, Federer’s encore in 2007 could be even more astounding.
Federer completed perhaps the greatest men’s season of the Open Era (post 1967) Sunday at the ATP Championships by demolishing James Blake, 6-0, 6-3, 6-4, to become the first tennis player ever to top $8 million in a single season (after becoming the first player to top $7 million just a week earlier).
But money is hardly a measure here. Federer completed his 2006 season at 92-5 to become the first man to win more than 90 matches in a year since Ivan Lendl in 1982. Federer made it to the final of each of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2006, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open and falling in a four-set final to world No. 2 Rafael Nadal (2006 record: 59-12) in the French Open.
Federer has won five of the past six Grand Slams and an astounding eight Grand Slams in the past three years (by comparison, only five men in the history of tennis have won more than eight Grand Slams). He swept Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back for the third straight year, making him the first men’s player in tennis history to accomplish the feat.
And he’s only 25.
“The way Roger plays the game is phenomenal,” Martina Navratilova said at US Open. “He’s just a genius with the racquet.”
To understand Federer’s domination, simply look at the year’s final event. Federer went 5-0 in round-robin and single elimination play; Blake was the only other member of the eight-person field to post a winning record, and he went 3-2. That means the Top 7 players in the world not named Roger Federer all lost two matches at the ATP Championships. Federer lost five matches all year.
“I’ve probably run out of adjectives to describe him on the court to talk about his excellence,” Blake said after the ATP Championship final. “He’s just unbelievable.”
With Lance Armstrong now running marathons rather than riding bicycles, Federer has easily assumed the title of world’s dominant individual athlete. The best comparison would be Tiger Woods’ run in 2000, when he won the US Open by 15 strokes and the British Open by eight strokes. This year Federer won Wimbledon by taking 21 of 22 sets, and the US Open by winning 21 of 23 sets; he was never stretched to five sets in either tournament.
For an encore, Woods won the Masters in 2001 to complete the so-called “Tiger Slam.” With legitimate aspirations to win the first Grand Slam (all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year) since Rod Laver in 1969, Federer’s encore in 2007 could be even more astounding.
# posted by EJ @ 11:28 AM 
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While I agree with your argument for Federer as athlete of the year (as the Rog says, he's about the coolest Roger going right now), I'd raise a related question: Is his greatness/dominance good for tennis, from a popularity-of-the-sport standpoint? Is he so good that you have to watch, even knowing that he's almost surely going to win, or is it getting to the point where viewers who don't appreciate the subtle parts of the game just get bored seeing him win?
Personally, I haven't seen enough of him to get bored yet. The US Open final was thoroughly enjoyable.
Personally, I haven't seen enough of him to get bored yet. The US Open final was thoroughly enjoyable.
Unlike Sampras, whose dominance (and personality) bored people, Federer's has been a major boon for the sport. It helps that it does have a rival in Nadal to remind people that he can be beaten, but I think most of Federer's popularity stems from the fact that he plays so beautifully -- he moves effortlessly, can hit winners from impossible positions and create angles that simply aren't there. His game is so elegant and so unlike anything tennis has ever seen that fans really want to see it in person. Plus, he has been a great ambassador to the game -- along with Nadal, Roddick and others.
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