Surya Sripati

Disclaimer: I've never touched a tennis racket and I don't consider it to be necessary to write this post.

It pains to see Roger Federer lose a game and more so the way he is losing. After Steffi Graf this is the guy I watched almost every game aired on TV and its been well worth the time spent all these years. I fear if it is going to be the same from now on though!

At Indian Wells, he lost to Andy Murray 3-6, 6-4, 1-6. Yes he lost the 3rd set 1-6 - This gave me so much pain that I can't quite remember when was the last time I was so deeply hurt watching a game (not even India losing the game in 2007 cricket world cup).

I quickly googled to find out when was the last time Roger lost so badly a set - Answer, in May 2008 (10 months back) to Rafael Nadal on Clay courty at French Open Finals. On a clay court and against Rafael, I thought what the heck and searched for other most recent badly lost sets and here are the next few:

• May 2007, against Tommy Robredo at French Open Quarter-finals
• May 2006, against Rafeal Nadal at French Open Finals
• Oct 2003, against Tim Henman at BNP Paribas Masters Quarter-finals (Oct 2003 is not a typo)

Such was his dominance in the last 5 years that he hardly lost games, leave alone losing sets and more so losing sets 1-6 or 0-6. Since 2003, he has lost only 55 matches in 510 matches he has played - Win percentage of 89.22% - Awesome. Here is a year-by-year record:

Year	Won	Lost	Won %
2003	72	15	83%
2004	70	5	93%
2005	80	4	95%
2006	90	5	95%
2007	67	9	88%
2008	63	14	82%
YTD 09	13	3	81%
TOTAL	455	55	89.22%

For a while I thought, Am I making too much fuss about Roger losing the match and set - I'm afraid I think NO! Reason, the way he lost!

Roger was awful in 1st set against Andy Murray and awesome in 2nd set and awful in 3rd again - This is not the Roger that I know. He was always consistent, not awful sometimes and awesome other times. Even in the matches he lost to Rafael at French this year and Wimbledon last year he was awesome and it is just that Rafael was better - You never mind losing knowing that you have played well.

What recent loses have made is that, entering into a match Roger knows he can be beaten - all this while he never thought he will lose entering into a match. What a difference it makes - In anything we do if we know (and hence think) that we might not succeed, our approach will be different. For, we know Failure is a neighbor of Success at all times!

Knowing the he can be beaten Roger is doing things that he otherwise has not done - He is taking too many risks in making a point and thus making so many unforced errors. Can you believe he made 47 unforced errors in the game against Andy Murray - To put in it perspective, 47 points would equate to 12 games, almost - He gifted 12 games to Andy out of the 18 games Andy won in the match.

Opponents are taking notice of this trend and actually are sitting on the sidelines without forcing the point knowing well that Roger will force the point. In wanting to force a point, Roger is getting eager to hit the ball hard and is losing timing and eventually the point itself!

I'm not therefore suggesting that Roger is dumb ass - He probably know this and must be playing on his mind. However, in a match situation it is easy to get sucked into the ball-to-be-hit-next and forget the pre-match strategy.

At 27 (he turns 28 in 8th Aug), he still has good 2-3 years tennis left in him. If he can make minor adjustments to his game, I'm hoping he continues to play amazing tennis and win games.