Federer Wins First Title of 2008

Over the past four years, Roger Federer winning a title that wasn’t a grand slam wouldn’t be headline news. Heck, even Federer winning grand slams became so routine that it was just another blip in the sports section.

However, Federer won his first title of 2008 at the Estoril Open after Nikolay Davydenko retired with a leg injury. Federer had won the first set 7-6 and the second set was at 1-2 when Davydenko cried uncle. Even though the title came by such a default move, I can’t imagine Federer is going to be too upset about it. It’s a title – something he’s been without since the Masters Cup in Shanghai last November.

Pete Sampras is backing Federer, though and I’m much more willing to take his word than a bunch of non-descript sports reporters who think they know tennis.

“He’s created this monster of winning so many tournaments and so many majors and doing it with ease. He hasn’t lost his edge. He’s lost a couple of matches and, if anything, that’ll do him good. It’ll get him going and fired up,” said Sampras.

I think that’s pretty close to the mark. Federer had a strangle-hold on the tennis game for four years (except for on clay where he fell just short of winning the French). That’s a long time – that’s a college-degree, three promotions or a wife and kid amount of time we’re talking about. Just because some of the other players have closed the gap means only one thing: some rockin’ tennis tournaments for us to watch!