Federer hits 900

Roger Federer became the fourth man, after Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Guillermo Vilas, to complete 900 wins in the open era by winning his fourth round match in the ongoing French Open. By coming back from two sets to one down to defeat Giles Simon, Federer also reached his 36th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal – more than double the next best streak. What remains for the Swiss maestro?   Naturally, the current tournament is his first priority, and while Djokovic and Nadal remain favoured, Federer has his chances. His next opponent is Jo Wilfred Tsonga, whose power game is particularly unsuited to the slow surface and Spain’s David Ferrer is a likely semi-final opponent. With Nadal and Djokovic in the other half of the draw, Federer can only meet one of them and not before the final.   Nadal and Djokovic are both harder hitters of the ball than Federer, make fewer errors and are able to dictate baseline rallies against him. On the slow clay in particular, his chances against the pair are slim, especially Nadal, whose heavy top spin makes the ball bounce spitefully and Federer’s one handed backhand is not up to the challenge of consistently taking shoulder high balls.    Federer will likely reach the final, but will need plenty of luck to win the tournament.    Next will come Wimbledon, and it is on grass that Federer has his best chance of adding another Slam. He has the best serve of the top players, and the low bounce neutralises most of his relative weaknesses.   With the ball rising but knee high, the one handed backhand remains consistent and even dangerous due to the greater scope for creating angles compared to the two handed shots of Nadal, Djokovic and Murray.   On the Rome clay recently, Federer serve-volleyed against Nadal, and was duly thrashed. It will not be possible for anyone to return as Nadal did then, from far behind the baseline, on grass and with Federer showing a willingness to ride the initiative, the strategy might well prove effective.   With 900 wins to his name, Federer might not be the best player in the world anymore, but it is still too soon to write off his chances of winning more slams.