Roger’s from another planet…he revolutionises tennis and wins even after he’s had a break

FOR ME, Roger Federer is the greatest of all time. The reasons stretch well beyond the way the man seeking an eighth Wimbledon title today wields a tennis racket. It’s because he never lets you know what he is thinking on the court. Even when he is losing, Federer still looks like he is winning. And it’s because the very fact we are still talking about him at all today defies every available piece of logic.

To drop out of tennis for three months, as he did after his Wimbledon semi-final last year, and then come back to win a Grand Slam in Australia is almost impossible. Since then he has won significant titles in Miami and Palm Springs, then taken another break, and now finds himself in a final against Marin Cilic.

As I’ve thought from day one, I can’t see beyond Federer winning it, but the effects may extend well beyond this afternoon. I think Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will have a long look at the impact his break has had and examine similar strategies to extend their own careers. Federer has shown that you don’t have to play every week to succeed in tennis.

The lesson may be particularly relevant to Murray, who hobbled out of the tournament. An extended break might be just what he needs. So his world ranking will suffer. Big deal! Our No 1 player may have no choice anyway, because the MRI scan on the hip which has troubled him will perhaps mean he has to step back for a time. He has looked in need of a break for months.

His problems are a spin-off from last year and the workload he put in when he could have taken off three, four or five months. Instead, he rested for two or three weeks before heading into a training period in Miami, to prepare for Australia. In retrospect, that was too soon after the year he’d had and contributed to health problems, including shingles.

How do you take an extended break when you’re Andy Murray? You’ve got sponsors and everything else that goes with life at the top of the game. To him, it would not have been logical. But Federer doing it — and starting to win consistently again — has changed the landscape.

I’m sure a lot of the top guys and their coaches — who deep down were very respectful to Roger — did not think he had a chance of winning the Australian Open. But the players at the top of the game will view the idea that less can be more in a very different ways, especially after these past two weeks. If they’re looking at longevity they might start changing their schedules.

If Murray pulls out of the US Open, which is quite conceivable, his Grand Slam year would be over. So then he could recharge. If the MRI shows up no problem and he is 100 per cent fit and gives himself enough time to prepare for Flushing Meadows, it would be tough to step away. A Slam is what these players feel they’re born to play. Federer skipped Paris for calculated reasons. It was very unlikely he would win. You won’t find Murray saying: ‘I’ve not much chance in the US Open’, unless the injury persists.

We’re all hoping the scans show no underlying problems of course, though the break would be no bad thing. The next Grand Slam is always around the corner.

For now, we look to a Wimbledon final without him. I go with Federer because of the numbers. They don’t always add up on days like today, of course. There are always imponderables and you never entirely know with a final.

Cilic has some massive weapons, can hurt anyone on his day, has won a Slam and I can’t see him not embracing the situation.

But we saw the way Federer dealt with Tomas Berdych in the semi-final. For me Cilic is a better player than Berdych, he’s more flexible. Yet Federer upped his game whenever there was trouble and that makes it difficult to believe that he won’t do the same today. You have to mark Federer down as someone from another planet. He never thinks he is beaten.