I was missing Federer news in last night’s media round up! Thank God for Douglas Perry at OregonLive.com. In his piece “Federer, Flawed Hero” Perry ponders if Roger, once considered Mr. “Perfect”ly Arrogant by his detractors, slick as Nadal is earthy, will soon be recast as the beloved veteran underdog looking for that one last Major.
Here’s the gist of Perry’s essay:
“Some people just couldn’t take such dominance by one man. Remember The London Times’ Patrick Kidd after Federer won the 2010 Australian Open? “Another trophy in the Roger Federer cabinet, and another reason to want to slap him,” Kidd wrote. He added: “There is something about his face that screams ‘I’m super.’ It’s the self-satisfied smirk, the sneer of his eyes and nose, that perfect hair. . .
“But that was then. Federer’s hair still looks pretty good, but maybe now the Haters will learn to love him. It’s hard to hate a guy when he’s down. And make no mistake, Federer is down. . .
This is all very disconcerting, even to the Haters. After all, the difference between the old Federer and the new one is almost invisible to the eye. He still floats around the court as if on his own personal cloud. He still hits steeply angled winners that no human has any right to hit. But of course there are no gradations for perfection. You are perfect, or you are not. And Federer is no longer perfect.“
Yep, it’s true. Federer is now a regular, flawed tennis player, a guy who makes me groan and slap my forehead more than gasp and beat my sternum in wonder. But I still prefer to live in a state of half-denial, to see him as Mr. Perfect, even when he’s not. Anything else is just too depressing. I don’t want Roger to have more fans, to remake himself as an everyman’s hero, a la Andre Agassi after he lost his hair and Brooke Shields. I want Federer to have more Major titles. A lot more. Feed the beast, Rog! Roawwwrrrrrrr!
And if it doesn’t work out, we’ll always have the hair.
And in other tennis news. . .a “vertical tennis match” on the side of a Madrid office building:
And this made me crack up, via Blick.ch:
Rasta Man vs. Stan! Dustin Brown upset Stan Wawrinka on Tuesday in Estoril, in case you didn’t get the headline.
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