On Federer's recent first round loss

My favorite tennis player, Roger Federer, has just lost to young Briton Andy Murray in three sets in the first round of the Barclay's Dubai Tennis Championships. This is probably the first time he has lost in the first round of a tournament for a fair number of years.

He had previously lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open to world number three Novak Djokovic and had back-to-back losses to long-time nemesis David Nalbandian late last season.
To many this string of recent losses is shocking. But to me, it's just another blip as any other loss is. Of course, it's always sad to hear about the champion getting upset by so-and-so player. But what choice do we have? He's the number one tennis player in the world right now and any loss to any other player--who are all (surprise!) ranked lower than he is--will always be an upset.

At the same time, I am also very much aware that we can't expect him to win every match he plays. The fact that Federer had been virtually winning every tournament he played these past four years or so is already in itself an incredible achievement. The great Pete Sampras himself couldn't do that! My mind however cannot fathom how he can continue playing at such a high level for several years so should be unrealistic for me to expect him to win everything.

In fact a loss here and there is normal for a tennis player or any athlete for that matter. It just so happens that this is Roger Federer who has demonstrated that he is capable of raising the bar impossibly high--call it "creating a monster" if you will. Even his so-called "mediocre" 68-9 win-loss record for 2007 was the best compared to everybody else's in the tour. It's just not as good compared to his own jaw-dropping records in the years previously: 74-6, 81-4 and 92-5. And that in three consecutive years no less!

So I'm not sitting here stunned and staring into space nor losing any sleep tonight. After all, Federer has nowhere else to go from this "slump" except upwards.
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