The New Year Wouldn't Be Complete...

without a token Roger Federer post. I don't know if you watched his five setter over this past weekend, but it was unreal. He played, horribly. And by horribly, I mean he was a disaster.

The first two and even three sets, he looked like a girl who takes tennis class in college just to get a tan and exercise going up against the retired high school tennis player dude, who's frosted tips and tremendous ego got him playing about 4th singles on his team, but he was all state once he stepped foot on the college intramural hard court.

Federer was just flat struggling. He couldn't connect on his forehand to save his life. But the biggest thing with Federer is when he let's his opponent dictate the match. Federer spent so much time dominating, winning with intimidation alone, that when someone actually mans up to him, it throws him off. Players, like Nadal, have realized that the only way to compete with Federer is to take whatever he gives you and throw it back in his face. Make Federer prepare for you, play your own game, and do what you do best, not try to get in the way of Federer's strength. At this point, you might be able to sneak by him before he wakes up.

Unfortunately, for Tomas Berdych, he didn't get lucky. After dominating Federer for two and a half sets, that whole, "Hey, I'm Roger Federer. What the hell am I doing thing..." happened and though it took a few games, after Federer won the third, anyone who thought that Berdych had a chance was smoking fine Australian grass. Though Federer struggled a little to hold serve in the fourth, it was over. You knew he would hold enough with the amount of breaks he was getting.

So Federer after a long, grueling five setter moves on to play the eighth seeded Juan Martin Del Porto and you'd think that a young player could capitalize on the five sets needed to dismiss Berdych? An hour and twenty minutes later, Federer was walking off the court with the scoreboard reading 6-3,6-0,6-0 and already thinking about his upcoming match with Andy Roddick (who's actually playing quite well from what I've seen).

Usually I root for America but Roddick acts like he's more French than anything. But if he can be aggressive with Federer, because he's going to win enough points off his serve, he might be successful. But don't get your hopes up.

Hopefully, Federer has realized his need to dictate play again and it's importance to his success. At this point, his 19 straight major semi-finals record is pretty indicative of his dominance, but to seal the deal, he needs to continue to take his play to his opponents, at all costs. I hope he can.