Federer Is, Once Again, In a Class All His Own
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
SHANGHAI, China — Roger Federer hasn’t had to prove himself for a while now. He’s won 12 major titles and 53 titles in total. No one has stayed at the top of tennis for as many consecutive weeks. No one has earned more prize money in a season. No one has dominated both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open so thoroughly. And no one has possessed so many shots and so much mental fortitude.
But this week in Shanghai, where Federer won the season-ending Masters Cup over David Ferrer, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2, Federer acted as if he wanted to show us something a little extra — something to end the talk about whether a few men on the tour, namely Rafael Nadal, 21, and Novak Djokovic, 20, were closing in on him. Something to let everyone know he is fully in his prime and intends to remain there for a while yet. For the rest of the field, it’s a scary thought.
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