Roger Federer continued what has truly turned into one of the finest non-Grand Slam winning comebacks in recent tennis history on Sunday afternoon in Switzerland, earning his fifth title of the ATP Season with a dominating 6-2, 6-2 victory over David Goffin in the final of the 2014 Swiss Indoors Championships.
Outside of being marginally pushed during his semi-final showdown with Ivo Karlovic, winning this tournament for the sixth time in his illustrious career was as arguably as easy a win as the seventeen-time slam champ has had in some time. This event has always been a special one for the former World No. 1, as Basel is city in which the Swiss Maestro was born.
In a year in which Federer has already appeared in ten finals, the season’s last two big events just around the corner and the potential level of competition being somewhat watered down, one can’t help but wonder if the owner of eighty-two career titles may not be on the verge of completing one of the finest late season surges we have seen in some time.
With Rafa Nadal mere days away from having his appendix removed and Novak Djokovic likely far more focused on the recent birth of his son rather than the end of ATP Tour campaign, Federer is staring at the very real possibility of finishing off the year in a spot he is quite familiar with….atop the ATP World Rankings.
Should the thirty-three year old find a way to pull out wins in both Paris and London and have Djokovic underperform in either one or both of the final two stops of the year, Federer will once again finish the year as the No. 1 player the world. Considering back in early March he had seen his ranking fall all the way down to No. 8, it would not exactly be a stretch to suggest absolutely no one would have predicted this was coming and yet here we are.
With his latest victory Federer has now closed the gap between himself and the twenty-seven year old Serbian to less than 500 points with another 2,500 still up for grabs between the BNP Paribas Masters and Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. While Federer did manage to reach the semi-final in both events in 2013, Djokovic comes in as the defending champ for both and having not played a match since being bounced in straight sets in Shanghai thanks to a near flawless performance from Mr. Federer.
Once you combine that result, with the top seed’s lack of court time and having to defend his points from a year ago, not to mention the most recent edition to the Djokovic clan, expecting the seven-time slam champ to be in top form upon his return could be asking a tad much. While at the other end of the spectrum, Federer is arguably playing as well as he has at any point over the last three years.
Having said all of that, Roger Federer will still have his work cut out for him to go out and ultimately overtake Novak Djokovic as the No. 1 player in the world. However, the fact we are even having this discussion is nothing short of staggering. One could argue that Federer has had more than a few things go his way in 2014 but at the end of the day, it is up to the player to produce and to his credit…he has gone out and done exactly that.
