Roger Federer… personifies elite performance… intense, sustained, consistent excellence… 23 straight grand slam semi-finals, which is incredible. If you think that he would have played 5 rounds per tournament to get to the semi’s, with probably an average of about 2 hours per match (give or take), then thats 23 hours of tennis when you’re in the ascendency. That’s almost 10 days of non-stop, unbeatable performance. That’s without even considering that he went on to win most of those semi finals and managed to win 16 of the finals he got himself into. A phenomenal record, made all the more impressive by the fact that the next best record is that of Ivan Lendl, with 10 straight semi final appearances. 10 is pretty good – that’s two and a half years of being in every grand slam semi-final.
Federer is now at almost 6 years running without missing a semi. Testament to his incredible all round ability – physical resilience, physical readiness, mental toughness, unshakeable confidence and not to mention his incredible technical and tactical abilities that he uses superbly. Within that time he’s had some fantastic support around him from the people that matter most to him and he’s been able to adapt to the different challenges of playing on clay, grass, hard court, in sweltering heat, dank english weather, covered stadia, uncovered stadia open to the whims of the wind… against left handers, right handers, serve volleyers, baseliners, big servers, speed demons… ths list goes on and on.
Every single one of those players would have taken extra pride had they taken the scalp of the all time greatest player to have lived. Our hats go off to the man who personifies elite performance better than anyone we’re ever going to be privileged enough to see the like of again. A source of enormous inspiration!