Is Federer on a come-back trail?

Its strange to even ask the question; is Federer on a come-back trail? He reached the semi’s of the Australian Open despite being unwell, got to the finals of Rolland Garros and Wimbeldon and yet, everybody seems to be asking this almost silly yet somehow very significant question. After visiting Tennis.com and reading Steve Tignor’s predictions for the Masters series in Madrid, it seems that the answer is a resounding no!! Steve seems very much certain that Federer won’t win, in fact, Roger supposedly won’t even reach the semi finals – Del Potro however, after being unable to even beat Murray at the US open is predicted to reach the semi’s; very strange indeed!!!! I decided to go for a second opinion, just in case, after all, Steve thought that Roger wouldn’t even get to the semi-finals of the US Open… could it be that he was wrong again? I therefore looked to ESPN’s Ravi Uhba and surprisingly, I confronted the same prediction – Del Potro over Federer. It was truly strange, Roger Federer, one of the greatest of all time who just won the US Open having to pass Novak and Andy. It then hit me, it must be because Novak was tired and Andy didn’t play his best game… it must be that the critics feel that Federer isn’t back, he just got lucky. Being lucky enough to win a grand slam…. that’s definitely a first but I decided to overlook this assumption.

Perhaps Steve and Ravi have good reason to rate Del Potro over Roger. Roger was pretty dismal at his last two master’s tournaments. But I still wasn’t convinced, it still felt quite strange and bizarre that Del Potro, a player that seems to think that the baseline should rarely be crossed can defeat Rogers elegant all-court game. Okay, fine, perhaps I’m not giving Del Potro enough credit; his wins at the Davis Cup were pretty impressive – there was a lot of fantastic hard-hitting from the young Argentine… but still, to rate him above a player that has won 13 grand slams and counting… I mean I don’t think anyone will be surprised if Del Potro never wins a grand slam. In the end, considering Roger’s status in the game, and his overall performance this year, it seems only sensible to place him above Del Potro. Anybody that says, “Nadal will beat Federer” may have a point; I mean after Wimbledon, that statement has a lot of credibility but “Del Potro will beat Federer”; that just sounds quite absurd no matter how you look at it.

Now it may be the case that Del Potro beats Roger, and Steve and Ravi end up being right… I’m not saying it won’t happen but to make that prediction now seems unjustifiable. The question that keeps striking me pointedly in the head when I even try to give some credibility to the prediction is this simple statistic – Del Potro = 0 grand slams, Federer = 13 grand slams. Yes yes, Del Potro’s just a youngen, but do we give youth that much value and 13 grand slams so little value????? I look forward to a competitive encounter between them and if Del Potro’s industrial baseline play triumphs over Roger – fine, and it might not even shock me but to predict it will happen – that just seems a tad disrespectful. The king of tennis may not yet be back in full flight and he may have lost the coveted no. 1 ranking but he’s still royalty and well….. Del Potro isn’t..... not yet.