Sports: Ill be back with a bang — Federer

The sense of shock that greeted Rafael Nadal’s exit on day one of these championships seemed but a ripple on day three when Roger Federer, whose greatness needs no more embroidering than does the Spaniard’s, followed him out of Wimbledon, beaten on merit and with distinction by Sergiy Stakhovsky, who was still numb from the achievement hours later.

The scoreboard on Centre Court said it ended 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 7-6 in the Ukrainian’s favour after exactly three hours. The split-second silence that preceded the gasp at the end described a more profound truth: this was the biggest upset in the history of these championships, possibly the game, at least in the reliable memory of anyone present.

The other candidates in the modern era might be Peter Doohan’s win here over Boris Becker, with two consecutive titles behind him, 26 years ago to the day, and the seven-times champion Pete Sampras’s farewell to Wimbledon, defeated in the second round in 2002 by Sebastian Bastl, a Swiss of altogether different pedigree to Federer (and who is still playing, bearded and winless, at 38).

By the time Federer had left the grounds on Wednesday night, Andy Murray was at home in Oxshott, 20 minutes away, watching one of his favourite TV programmes, the Apprentice. The US Open champion was determined to distract himself from speculation that the absence of his two great rivals, both on his side of the draw, had given him a splendid chance of winning Wimbledon for the first time.

This was a more seismic event than Nadal’s loss to Steve Darcis. This was the defending champion. This was Roger Federer, who owns seven Wimbledon titles. And this was Sergiy Stakhovsky, an honest tour professional, a decent man away from tennis who puts a good deal of his earnings towards his cancer charity but whose contribution to the sport has been more modest.

Federer, who might have won had he got into a fifth set (he won 161 points to Stakhovsky’s 162) was dignity personified in defeat, “I’ve had some great moments here but also some tougher ones. Yeah, can’t have ‘em all. What do you do after something like this? You don’t panic at this point, that’s clear. You just go back to work and come back stronger. This is clearly not what I was hoping for here today (Wedenesday).”

When it was suggested it felt like the end of an era, he paused and said, “No, because I still have plans to play for many more years to come. Its normal that, (my) losing early after being in the quarters 36 times, people feel it’s different. You guys hyped it up so much, me playing Rafa, and we’re both out. So there’s a let-down. Maybe it’s also somewhat disrespectful to the other opponents who are in the draw still. He was uncomfortable to play against. He served and volleyed really well.”

For those outside tennis unfamiliar with his deeds, Stakhovsky is 27, ranked 113 places adrift of Federer in the world, and, until his heroics on Wednesday, could fairly said to be a good universe removed in ability and achievements. That said, he made maximum use of his gifts on a day when the legend facing him did not. It was his first win over a top-10 player in 21 attempts.

He was ecstatic but struggling to cope with what he had done. “I have never played better,” he said, adding, “Beating Roger here on his court, where he’s a legend, is definitely having a special place in my career. I don’t really remember what he said to me at the end. I was kind of somewhere else. He’s the greatest player we had. He is the biggest name we had, and we still have, thank God.”

Nevertheless, there is a sense that Federer may be edging towards the concluding stages of a grand career. The evidence has been building slowly but undeniably for a while. He still has the movements of a gazelle but he is 32 in August. And gazelles are easy targets when slowed by age. Is the Golden Age of tennis coming to an end? It feels like it.

Federer had looked so good, too, in waltzing past Victor Hanescu on the opening day. But, for a man used to creating history nearly every time he steps on to a tennis court, he hit several landmarks of a less agreeable kind, among them this one: it was his worst defeat in any tournament since Mario Ancic, ranked 154 in the world, beat him in the first round here in 2002, the year of Sampras’s embarrassment.

Federer says there is more good tennis in him. And those who stood to applaud him on Centre Court – like Donald Bradman walking off the Oval in 1948 – will hope that what seemed like the lowest moment of his career was a blip. It may be a forlorn hope.