Watching the ATP Basel final yesterday I couldn’t help but feel the desperation in Roger Federer. He was more animated than I’ve seen him in a long time, talked with himself, contested the umpire, shot a ball into the roof of the stadium and seemed agitated with every shot that didn’t go his way. This wasn’t the pre-2013 often magnanimous Federer, this wasn’t a maestro, this was a player fighting to play his best. Although he lost the final in the end, 6-7 6-2 4-6, he can take many positives out of his hometown tournament and the main thing was …
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World Tour Finals
Yes, he didn’t win. I don’t think anybody thought he would. But he won a set. He threw a tantrum*. He fought hard. And he forced Nadal to play his best tennis to win. This was the real Federer, the one who can play better tennis than anybody else on the planet when he’s on his game. It’s pretty clear that Federer can be brilliant in streaks, the question is of course how long he can make those streaks last. Against Nadal he had a few and it was a true relief for a Fed fan to see, although Nadal …