The End of an Era

Roger Federer got beat yesterday in the quarterfinals at the French Open by Robin Soderling of Sweden. This loss in the quarters ended a streak of 23 consecutive semi finals appearances in a major tournament by Federer. The last time the Roger Federer was not in a semi final at a major was in the French Open in 2004. Robin Soderling, who Federer beat last year in the French Open final will now move on to play a Federerless semifinal against Tomas Berdych. This was the first time in 13 matches where Federer had lost to Soderling, and clearly an important time for Soderling to get the win.
Roger Federer did this with so much class. He was, and still is, one of the most graceful tennis players the world has ever seen and I for one was cheering for this record to never be broken. It had to eventually come to an end, and Soderling was the guy for that in the quarters at the French. When I sit down on my comfy couch to watch the semifinals a couple of days, it will be sad not to be able to see that sweet one-handed backhand that Federer made so popular. It seems like every single time that I watched a Federer tennis match there is a few points where you say out loud, "Wow, did he just make that shot?" He never did it with amazing power or huge ground strokes, although he was no softy, but his angles and technique were truly amazing to watch. Congratulations to Robin Soderling for knocking him off, and congratulations to Roger for this amazing streak. With Rogers streak of 23, he more than doubled the next guys in line. Ivan Lendl in the mid 80's and Rod Laver in the early 60's are tied for second with just 10 straight trips to a semifinal. What Fed did is more than amazing. Year after year after year Federer's opponent brings his best effort with a chance to knock down one of the greatest ever, and time after time Roger won at least until the semis. Lets not talk about how much of an upset it was to see Federer go down, but instead lets celebrate the streak because it was so amazing. Hats off to you Mr. Federer, you make tennis a great sport to watch and follow. And you never know, he is still great, maybe there is another run left in the guy. Now if somebody can just beat Nadal it won't be a terrible Grand Slam after all.