The Ups & Downs of Roger Federer

By Mason Walling

To the average tennis player, a win-loss record of 40-14 and a singles title to go along with it sounds like a great year.  For Roger Federer, stats like these are unheard of.

It’s no secret that 2013 has been a less than perfect season for Federer.  Despite the aforementioned record and lone singles title, Federer has only managed to win one match this year against a top-10 opponent.  This victory came all the way back in January when he downed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was ranked number eight at the time, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

Adam Hunger/Reuters

Federer’s latest slip up came in front of his home country at the finals of Swiss Indoors against Juan Martin del Potro.  After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, Federer rallied to take the second set 6-2.  Del Potro battled back to steal the third set 6-4 and, in the end, the Swiss championship. 

Now before you write me off as a Federer hater, let me tell you the silver lining to this story.

On Wednesday, Federer defeated Kevin Anderson in Paris in the second-round of the BNP Paribas Masters, the final tournament of the year before the ATP World Tour Finals.  This win secured Federer’s spot in the final eight that play for the year’s end title.  Up until this week, Federer’s fate was very uncertain.

Nadal, Djokovic, Ferrer, and del Potro are the four shoe-ins ahead of Federer, who is most likely going to fall into the fifth slot.  After these five, nothing is a guarantee. 

Tomas Berdych looks to be the safe front runner for the sixth invitation.  Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Willy Tsonga would receive the last two invites if the season ended right now.  They are only separated by a mere five points in the ranking.  From the outside looking in are Richard Gasquet and Milos Raonic, who would need to at least reach the final in Paris and hope for an early exit from one of the last three in.

The Tour Finals are slated to begin on November 4, in London, England.