Should we be Worried About Roger Federer?

As you might have figured out over the past weeks, Roger Federer is not where he once was.  The Roger Federer of old would have never lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky, let alone at his favorite major championship.  As a fan, that was a real shock to see.  But, another Federer opponent, this time in Hamburg, had another surprise in store.

At the Semifinals of the German Tennis Championships at Hamburg, unknown Federico Delbonis upset Federer, beating him in straight sets.  Federer seemed like a shoe-in to win this tournament, so to see him not even get a set off Delbonis was quite disturbing.  So, should we be worried about one of the all-time greats?

No, at least not yet.  At Wimbledon, like Rafael Nadal against Lukas Rosol last year, Roger just caught Stakhovsky playing the best tennis match of his life, while he was only at his "B" game.  Watching Stakhovsky in the next round playing Jurgen Melzer, it was very clear that his spectacular match against Federer was a fluke.  Now, you might be thinking that, in his olden days, Federer would overcome this.  However, we must remember that on grass, a hot player whipping his serve in and crushing the ball around the court is nearly impossible to beat.  It was clear last year with Rosol and this year with Stakhovsky.

I am also willing to brush off his loss to Delbonis at the German Tennis Championships, as well.  This is due to the fact that he, finally, decided to switch to a racket with a bigger head.  As anyone who plays tennis knows, we do have to give Roger some time to adjust to the new racket before harshly judging him.  We must also remember that Roger is not a world-beater on clay, which is his weakest surface.

So no, we should not be worried about Roger Federer.  If he plays poorly at the US Open, however, it will be time to sound the alarm.