Hi everyone. With 2011 coming to a close, we’re all pondering the year in tennis and the year to come. Since Roger Federer’s late season surge and big victory at the Masters, it seems like the tennis world is looking forward to Roger’s Major Comeback. I hate making predictions, but I do like watching Roger play. This fairly exhaustive collection of some of his most impressive shots from the past year – some of them coming during his toughest, most up and down losses at the US Open and Wimbledon – makes me wonder: are the highs not higher than ever, the backhand surer, the game plan at its most aggressive?

Perhaps we’ll look back at 2011 and think of it not as the beginning of the end, but as the year of the Great Retooling. Or am I just sticking out a thumb and hitching a ride on the Fed Fanatic bandwagon (driven this week by Tim Henman)?

If you want to compare highlights to highlights, here’s a collection from 2007:

So. . .what do you think?