By day’s end, not only was Federer no longer dominating, he wasn’t even playing. He announced that for the second straight year he’ll skip the clay season, and for the third straight year he’ll miss the French Open. Instead of needing Djokovic to challenge Federer, now the ATP may need the Serb to fill the potentially yawning Big 4 gap this spring.
“Yeah I decided not to play,” Federer said matter-of-factly, after losing to Kokkinakis. “I didn’t play great last week, either, I felt, overall. Nothing new, in my opinion. I’m trying to figure things out, so...I have time now.”
Federer said that against Kokkinakis, his movement wasn’t “absolutely working,” and “the ball, I wasn’t feeling.” This happens to every player at some point during virtually every tournament. On most days, Federer would have found a way to win anyway, or his opponent would have found a way to lose. To his credit, the 21-year-old Kokkinakis, who appears determined to claw his way back from injury and onto the big stage again, was good enough, and stubborn enough, to make Federer pay for his mistakes.
While an occasional loss by a 36-year-old is hardly a shock, it’s still amazing how quickly the landscape in tennis can change, and how much one defeat can mean. Federer had looked unbeatable this year, until he faced Juan Martin del Potro in the Indian Wells final. Even in that match, he held championship point three times before losing in a third-set tiebreaker. Yet that razor-close defeat may have been enough to give Kokkinakis the confidence he could beat Federer, and to rob Federer of any sense of invulnerability he may have built up this season.
Match point from Federer's loss to del Potro in Indian Wells: