Roger Federer and Beauty of Tennis

Tennis, like the truly great sports, provides an arena where human prowess can be appreciated and savored. In essence tennis is a gladiatorial format, where the two contestants go head to head with everything they can muster. It puts a wide variety of qualities under a magnifying glass and allows us to watch them at work. Speed, dexterity, skill, judgment, competitiveness, fitness, strategic planning and sheer inspiration, all become palpable in the course of a good tennis match. And of course that allows us to appreciate a really great talent like Roger Federer. If there really is anybody else like Roger Federer.

But why really is he considered so great?

Well for starters, he has all the shots; a crushing forehand, a very beautiful backhand, pin-point volleys and laser sharp overheads. And then he's an all-court player, brilliant at the net and awesome from the baseline. He moves like a dream, gliding with great efficiency and ease. And the serve - well it's just one of the best in the game, period. Yesterday, playing the much vaunted Djokavic, he out-aced the big server. But Federer's qualities as a player extend even beyond his formidable skills. In yesterday's final at the US Open he faced five set points in one game on his opponent's serve. He saved them all and went on to win the game and the set. Time and again, watching him play, we have seen him raise his game at just the moment when he comes under greatest pressure. The experience is odd, almost magical. However much you analyze Federer's comprehension of the geometry of the court and sense of pacing, there is in the end something quite beyond our ken about his ability to keep on arriving at a winning position ahead of his opponents. Perhaps that's why fascination with him continues to grow. His play suggests qualities and possibilities in all of us that we don't yet understand. To watch him is to apprehend that any of us might tap abilities that we can't even name. It's the prospect of being more than we thought we were. How wonderful!