The Baseline Player of the Week: Roger Federer

After Roger Federer crushed 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych in a 90-minute-long third round clinic at this year’s Australian Open, a reporter started to ask the No.17 seed a question as if they were surprised by his performance.

“You were so much on fire tonight. An outstanding display of shot making. The dropshots, the backhand...”

“Thank you,” Federer interrupted with a smile. “Keep going. Keep going. It's good, it's good.”

The truth is, it had been a while since Federer had performed at such a high level, especially at a Grand Slam. He didn’t believe he had much of a shot to challenge for the title in Melbourne after missing most of 2016 due to a knee injury. Quite frankly, nobody did, even after cruising past Berdych — who had beaten Federer in two Grand Slams and at the 2004 Olympics — in a vintage performance.

Fast forward to Sunday.

If anyone claims that they thought after that Berdych beatdown that three months later, Federer would be beating archrival Rafael Nadal for the third time this year to win the Miami Open, 6-3, 6-4, after already capturing his 18th Grand Slam in Australia and winning the title in Indian Wells, they’d be lying.

“If I would’ve just played the Miami finals — no Indian Wells, no Australian Open, we would still be very happy right now,” Federer said he told one of his coaches, Severin Luthi, before playing Nadal on Sunday.

But Federer has far exceeded any and all of his and the world’s expectations.

At the Australian Open, he was the 17th-seeded player in the draw, forced to play four Top 10 opponents to win the title. During his 19-1 start to the season, the ‘Swiss Maestro’ has beaten 12 Top 20 players and Olympic silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro on his way to winning the year’s three biggest titles thus far, including the first major of 2017 and the ‘Sunshine Double’ (Indian Wells and Miami).

It must feel pretty good to be world No. 81-ranked Evgeny Donskoy right about now, as he is still Federer’s only conqueror in 2017.

“I’m surprising myself,” Federer said. “I didn’t think I had it in me, that I had so much energy left in the tank, but that’s why I definitely need a break right now.”

While speaking to ESPN’s Brad Gilbert after beating Nadal, Federer said that he will likely only play the French Open and skip the rest of the European clay court swing.

But with the way he is playing — Federer is leading the ATP Race to London with nearly double the number of points (4,045) that second-placed Nadal has (2,235) and triple Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic’s combined total (1,315) — it is hard to question any decision he makes. It is safe to say that the greatest player of all time is not thinking about Paris yet anyway, but enjoying his first title in Miami since 2006.

"The dream continues," Federer said immediately after his victory. "What a start to the year. Can't believe it."