No one saw this coming, but I will say that two years ago, I thought Federer played better than he ever had in reaching the finals of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and by that, I mean he would have beaten himself from any other year. He was awesome, dismantling Andy Murray in the Wimbledon semis like no one ever has on grass and making Gasquet look like he was not a top 1,000 player at the U.S. Open.
But then in the finals of both tournaments, he looked nothing like that against Djokovic, whose game clearly intimidated him.
I give Ljubicic all the credit in the world for finally being the guy to convince Federer he had to play with more confidence in the big moments against big players because I don't think he ever had in his career. He won because he was better than the player in front of him, but when he wasn't sure he was the better player, he almost always lost.
Not now. He is hitting through his backhand like never before and keeping faith when the matches are tight. He still won't be able to beat Nadal on clay, but until Djokovic regains his form, Federer will go in as the favorite against everyone else on any surface. And I'd love to see a match against Djokovic in a slam final if they both play at the top of their games, which has never happened in any of their previous finals.
