The word ‘great’ is overused, overrated. It gets blown around and planted on anything from a pair of socks to top sportsmen. With Federer, ‘great’ doesn’t quite sum up the man’s career. To say he owns most of the records in tennis, to say he’s won more Grand Slams than anyone else, to say that he’s now into his 30th Grand Slam semi-final would be a great injustice to Federer’s career.
In case you didn’t know, Federer hasn’t just won he’s thrilled and amazed crowds all over the world for the best part of ten years with shotmaking and vision that most people would be happy with in a tennis video game. I still watch a Federer match and exclaim out loud “incredible, that’s just impossible!” His hunger for tennis is out of this world.
And so it continues. On Tuesday he toyed with Juan Martin del Potro and masterfully took him apart in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Roger Federer must now be the favourite to lift Australian Open 2012 and notch up his 17th Grand Slam. Asked what he thought about the match, Federer said:
“I’m very happy. I thought it was a great match. It was tough with the sun and shade creeping across the court but I thought we did well. I thought it was a high-quality match.”
And a happy Roger Federer is a danger for everyone else. At 30 Grand Slam semis Federer’s now only one behind Connors, and will surely beat that record as well. Because there will be many more matches to add to the spectacular 1000 he’s played thus far.
Source: ABS-CBN News
