Roger Federer's Excuse

Those who follow tennis were probably surprised at Roger Federer's poor performance at the Australian Open. He looked sluggish the whole tournament and not just during his loss to Novak Djokavic. He definitely didn't look like someone who was about to break Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. Roger's fans, myself included, wondered what exactly was going on. It looked like he was sluggish and even lazy. We knew that he battled food poisoning during the days leading up to the match, but all signs pointed to a full recovery. He referred to his sluggishness in his post match interview when asked how much effect his illness had on him during the tournament.

"Well, obviously the approach has been unique this year, you know. It's the first time I've been ill before a Grand Slam. I would still rather have it before than during, that's for sure. But maybe it did have. I answered the question already before. It might have had an effect on my movement, I don't know. But I definitely didn't feel as quick, you know, as some other times. I practiced really hard. I can't practice much harder in the off‑season, you know, so I did everything the right way. And maybe I did pay the price for being a little bit ill."

Roger admits that he may not have been at 100%. Recently, he blogged that he had mono through the whole ordeal, including during the recent loss in Dubai to Andy Murray. This probably explains why he does not look like the Roger we knew over the last 5 years. Let's look for cracks in his armor during the Pacific Life Open happening right now. If he does well here, let's expect more of what we're used to. A repeat of the French Open and Wimbledon battles against Nadal is certainly something we all want to see.
If Roger performs poorly, then at least he can still beat Pete Sampras.

Speaking of the Pac Life open, check out Donald Young. It seems that the top players on tour figured out Andy Roddick, and James Blake is getting older. This young man may be the next best hope for American tennis. I've only seen him play once where he beat a 6 foot 10 Croatian named Ivo Karlovic. American tennis fans should look for hope as Don takes on the 2nd best in the world next round. This is a great chance for a coming out party.