Staff writer Shane Lambert explains his position on Federer and why he won't do as well in Grand Slams anymore.
Roger Federer is not an active Grand Slam title holder at this point in his career as the Swiss Maestro failed to defend his Australian Open title from 2010. The last time that Roger Federer was not the holder of at least one Grand Slam title was back in 2003, prior to Wimbledon that year.
Federer has a demonstrated ability at this point in his career to win ATP events as he crushed the competition in Doha, he won ATP Stockholm, he won ATP Basel, he won ATP Cincinnati, and he's the current ATP world champion from the London finals.
However none of those tournaments are Grand Slam events and that means that none of them required 7 match-wins for the title in a best of 5 set format.
Players, like Federer, that are approaching 30 years of age are really disadvantaged in the Grand Slam format, especially in the late rounds, because their bodies tire sooner than the guys who are in their mid-20s and younger. As a result, expectations should be lower for Federer and he will do well to make another final in a Grand Slam tournament during the remainder of his career.
But in my opinion, last year when Soderling took Federer out of Roland Garros, it was the beginning of the end of the Swiss Maestro and it won't be too long before he suffers a 4th round defeat in a Grand Slam. He could even end up ranked 5th by the time the 2011 ATP season is over and that will mean tougher matches in earlier rounds in majors.
