Roger Federer systematically and comprehensively dispatched Novak Djokovic in their Shanghai Masters semifinal encounter yesterday, 6-4, 6-4. Peter Bodo, for one, thinks that the Fed Express has the arsenal to reclaim the No. 1 ranking on the ATP World Tour. That may be, and the numbers don't lie: With the victory, Federer snapped Djokovic's 28-match winning streak in Asia (dating to Fall 2013), and upped his records against the current world No. 1 to 14-13 on hard courts and 19-17 overall. (Sidebar: Federer's coach, Stefan Edberg, and Djokovic's mentor, Boris Becker, met on ATP singles courts a total of 35 times, one fewer than these active legends.)
There's no doubt that Federer takes a measure of pride in boosting his stats against Djokovic, almost inarguably his main rival of the past three years. (Conversely, Fed's returns against Rafael Nadal in recent years are less than encouraging.) All numbers aside, this is the enduring moving image that will stick in my mind, and quite likely yours, in the wake of the latest bout between these titans:
It came after what was hardly Djokovic's best shot of the day, as evidenced by another Vine clip. Suffice it to say, this father-in-waiting has a historically intense relationship with the Shanghai event, having taken a chair umpire to task there last year. Interestingly enough, that's the same umpire, Ali Nili, who Federer relatively excoriated during his quarterfinal win this year against Julien Benneteau, which culminated in a 7-6, 6-0 victory for the Swiss mister.
It's hard out there for an ump. Meanwhile, Federer's serve-and-volley prowess of late is making what some thought impossible for him—a return to the ATP penthouse—entirely plausible. There's a proverb, said to be Chinese in origin, that says, "The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it." Federer is in the midst of living that out.
(Video via Vine user tjc05.)
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