Roger Federer is leaving Beijing with gold.
It wasn’t the gold medal that was expected of the most dominant tennis player in the world, but in the midst of a frustrating year it’s an important milestone.
“Sort of a dream-come-true moment,” Federer said. “Maybe it comes around once in a lifetime. It’s almost disbelief, to some degree.”
Disbelief has set in now that Federer’s Grand Slam total is stalled at 12 and his 4½-year reign atop the ATP Tour rankings just ended. French champion, Wimbledon champion and now Olympic champion Rafael Nadal completed his ascension to the world No. 1 ranking.
After all, Nadal showed an unrelenting determination in July stopping Federer from winning a sixth straight Wimbledon title, ending his 40-match winning streak at the All England Club. Soon after, many columnists started to question what’s wrong with Roger, questions that reemerged with fervor after his Olympic quarterfinal loss.
Federer has been venerable this year, no doubt about it. But, SI’s Jon Wertheim brought up a good point; a lot of players ranked No. 2 still win majors. There's still one major left and Roger is showing championship mettle.
Finally in 2008, Federer was able to celebrate a big victory. He had some help from countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in toppling Simon Aspelin and Tomas Johansson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3.
But for the first time in three Olympics, Federer is a medalist, standing atop the podium.
That’s something for the Swiss to smile about.
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