Couch: Roger Federer Bails On French, Shows He's No GOAT
Tiger Woods once won the U.S. Open on a broken leg. Michael Jordan broke open an NBA Finals by scoring 38 points in his famous “Flu Game,’’ when he was so weak that teammate Scottie Pippen had to hold him up.
On Sunday, Roger Federer, saying he isn’t hurt or sick but that “it’s important that I listen to my body,’’ withdrew from the French Open a day before his match in the final 16.
Let me put this bluntly: The greatest of all time does not turn and run in the second week of a major championship without serious reason. The plain truth is that Federer is fleeing France because he doesn’t think he can beat Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal. To reach the final, Federer would probably have had to beat both of them after one more win.
This is a big mistake, a terrible look and a costly move for Federer’s legacy. How can Federer claim to be tennis’ GOAT (I already think that’s Nadal, anyway) when he’s deep into a major and so sure he can’t beat his greatest rivals from his own time that he just walks away?
If Nadal wins, history will show that he surpassed Federer in all-time major championship titles in the same tournament that Federer fled.
But Federer said that after two knee surgeries and over a year of rehab, it’s important that “I don’t push myself too quickly on my road to recovery.’’ Maybe so, but he’ll push himself as far and fast as possible at Wimbledon, which is only three weeks down that road.
Why? Because he thinks he can win there on the grass surface, where he has had his greatest, most recent success. The grass is speedy and less grueling and grinding on the body than the slow, red clay and long, brutal rallies in France. Federer thinks he has a chance there.
Since when does the GOAT get to pick the time and place?
No, this looks as if Federer is just afraid of Nadal and Djokovic in Paris. If he thought he could beat those guys, it’s a good bet he’d have stayed and played them. He’s trying to find a way to win another major, afterall.
But it’s hard to imagine, say, Michael Jordan, ever thinking he couldn’t have beaten someone, much less walking away from the challenge.
I know that Federer is 39 and returning from a long layoff. And even before the French, he said it wasn’t realistic to think he could win, and that he was, instead, using it to get match-tough again before Wimbledon.
So Wimbledon was his focus, his aim.
But he had looked so good in the first week of the French. Today, he would have played Matteo Berrettini, a basher who Federer has beaten twice without losing a set. That would have put him in the quarterfinals against, most likely, Djokovic.
There’s no guarantee, either, that Federer will reach the quarters at Wimbledon. He might well be throwing away his last great chance to win another major. And maybe he’s listening to his body, which is telling him, “You’re going to lose. You’re going to wear down. You can’t beat Nadal.’’
But maybe Federer’s head and nervous system are doing some talking, too.
Beating Nadal at the French Open is the toughest thing to do in any individual sport. That’s partly why Federer skipped out on a few French Opens along the way. Still, Federer might well be the third best clay court player in tennis history, after Nadal and Bjorn Borg, and certainly is among the top five.
Why doesn’t the GOAT see this as a challenge? Why isn’t he smelling the finish line? A great competitor doesn’t just tap out.
Federer is probably right that Wimbledon gives him a better chance. He has won there eight times and has just one French Open title, when he was able to avoid Nadal, who had gotten hurt and lost.
So strategically, maybe this makes some sense. And he did play 3½ hours in his third-round, four-set win over Dominik Koepfer. He said at the time that he was tired after the second set but took it as a positive that his body held up.
But Federer surely knew he’d have tough physical matches when he entered the French.
On the Tennis Channel, announcer Jim Courier, a former French Open champ, said multiple times last week that Federer was looking at this year’s French Open only as “batting practice.’’
The French Open is not batting practice or spring training for Wimbledon. It is one of tennis’ four majors. And if Federer wasn’t planning to try to get to the end of the tournament, then he shouldn’t have entered it.
Someone else could have gotten his spot in the draw, but was left out so Federer could take batting practice.
No, this was not the move of a GOAT. Only Federer knows his body, but it doesn’t look right to see him walk away from the fight.