Twelve months ago it looked as if the days of Roger Federer at the top of the men's game were coming to an end.
The most successful man in open era tennis failed to make the second week of a grand slam tournament for the first time since 2004 as he was knocked out in the second round at Wimbledon by unseeded Sergiy Stakhovsky.
It was the manner of the loss that was most alarming to Federer fans.
Stakhovsky played the game of his life to win in four sets, serving superbly and hitting some amazing winners from the back of the court to prevail in four sets.
The feeling was that Federer in his prime would have simply swatted that challenge aside and marched on without a backwards glance, especially at the tournament he had won seven times.
Yet on that day the Swiss player had no response to Stakhovsky and he looked lost in thought as he trudged off court, his hopes of retaining the title he had won in 2012 shattered.
The rest of 2013 did not go much better as, struggling with a back injury, he finished 2013 without reaching the final of a major – the first time he had failed to do so since 2002.
With Halle as his lone title of the previous year, Federer started 2014 with questions not unreasonably being asked as to whether he was still a part of the so-called "Big Four" in tennis, alongside Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
Towards the end of January, his ranking slipped to No 8 – his lowest since October 2002 – and Federer had vacated even the Swiss No 1 spot for Stan Wawrinka, who won the Australian Open.
But the signs were already there that 2014 was going to be a better year for Federer. He played well in Melbourne and was at his best in a comprehensive defeat of Murray in the last eight before he lost to Nadal in a semi-final.
He has continued on to the point where he will have the Swiss No 1 spot from Wawrinka back next week as he moves up to No 3 in the world rankings.
Before that, he could be posing with the silver gilt All England Championship cup for the eighth time, two years after winning his 17th grand slam title at the venue.
His calm and methodical dismantling of Milos Raonic in Friday's semi-final showed that Federer has moved on significantly from that Stakhovsky loss and his passion for the sport remains as strong as ever.
That love of the game has kept Federer going through the tough times, kept him focused on the game despite the addition of another set of twins to the Federer family.
Since 1990, only eight grand slams titles have been won by fathers and twice it was Federer.
"The fun for me is being able to do it, at this age, with a family, with the team I have," the Swiss said on Friday.
"You've got to love the game, because if you don't love it, then it's just going to be too hard. I think that's kept me going quite easily, actually, because I know why I'm playing tennis. Deep down, that's really important."
Novak Djokovic, Federer's opponent in today's final, also knows why he is playing the game and, for the moment, it is to win grand slam titles. The Serbian has not been very fortunate of late in major finals, losing five out of his past six, including the last three on the trot.
Djokovic and Federer have already met three times this year – the Swiss won in Dubai and Monaco, but the Serb beat him in the Indian Wells final.
This will be their 35th clash, but this is only the second time they meet in a grand slam final, the previous being the US Open in 2007.
This final, however, could be one of the most important. A win for Federer continues his legacy into its own realm as the greatest ever and would plunge Djokovic further into self-doubt about his temperament in major finals.
arizvi@thenational.ae
