Down Goes Federer

 

Holy smokes, talk about ending a streak. Yesterday, Robin Soderling defeated Roger Federer in the Quarterfinals of the French Open, halting Federer's consecutive Grand Slam seminfinals streak at 23.

Are you kidding me?

Those among you not impressed go ahead and raise your hand. Are you serious? Fine, let's go ahead and put it in some perspective.

Let's compare it with the major sports in America. Obviously, it is very difficult to compare a team sport to an individual sport. However, hockey, basketball, football, and baseball still provide a pretty decent comparison. The playoff formats all of those sports have are similar to Grand Slam tournaments. They both are head to head matchups where the better competitor on that day is victorious (unlike let's say golf, where the winner of the tournament is the best competitor, on average, over 4 days). Quickly perusing through the history books you'll discover something immediately: No team in those four sports has ever come close to making it to the semifinals 23 straight times. If you check out football, no one is even close to that streak. The Montreal Canadiens, between 1974 and 1982, went to 8 straight semi-finals, which, although impressive, is not 23. The Lakers have 9 division titles from 1982-1990. Same with the Celtics, who had that run from 1957-1965. What about Da Bronx Bombas? Of any team, you'd think they'd have the best shot, right? Even if you just focus on the AL Penant and you count wild card berths and AL East Division titles as "making it to the final 4" then they have made it to 13 in a row (1995-2007), half way there!

I know what you may be thinking, "Federer's streak only lasted for 7 years (04' - '10). These teams all had "final 4" streaks lasting over that."

True, but thinking about it with regards to years instead of titles isn't logical for this comparison. Federer went to 23 straight semis. To me, that matches up perfectly with anything these teams accomplished.

Another thing that's crazy is how Tennis varies from tournament to tournament. The US Open and Australian Open are both held on hard courts, French is on clay, and Wimbledon is on grass. Each provides different obstacles for the players and changes the game dynamic immensely. Tell a football franchise to make it to 23 NFC or AFC championship games in a row and of their divisional games make them play 12 on grass, 6 in the snow, 4 in the pouring ran, and 1 on concrete.

Even still that wouldn't do Federer's accomplishment justice. Players on teams get injured, get suspended for one reason or another, even "become distracted", and yet the presence of a strong supporting cast makes the absence not as felt. What Federer did, he did alone.

So give him some credit. Sure, he's made some stupid decisions (didn't know that "15" was Swiss German for "I want to look like a tool"), but he has always accepted his championships gracefully, he has always complimented his competitors, he has succeeded without injury (knock on wood) or "distraction," and I'm excited to see how he bounces back.

Also, I'm excited about Soderling. Other than looking like my landlord from 2 years ago (those who know who I'm referring to, "It's coming outta your deposit"), this guy's got some good stuff. Can he be the one who breaks the Federer/Nadal 1-2 curse currently on the Tennis world? I won't tell you what I'm hoping for with regard to the French Open finals for fear of jinxing us all again, but I'll give you a hint:

Oderling-say erse-vay Adal-nay, ematch-ray

Hah, try decoding that one, gods of the sports curse!