Closing the gap

WIMBLEDON, England -- Poor, poor Roger Federer -- hapless, beleaguered, maybe even bedraggled -- apparently intends to continue playing tennis and to begin with this Wimbledon.

Even as tennis intellectuals whisper his empire’s crumbling, the world’s No. 1 player had the gall to turn up Saturday on the outside Court No. 10 for practice, looking sublime as ever, attracting a small crowd on the barren grounds of the All England Club two days before the action.

After his hitting session under the usual grim sky, he stopped repeatedly to pose for photographs, even waiting alongside one child as her mother spent epochs adjusting the camera.

He hugged commentator and retired player Mary Joe Fernandez, stopped for more photographs and proceeded to the locker room, a footnote being that he has won this thing the last five times in a row.

His 2008 season has differed from his standard to a degree that includes eight lost matches, a mere two titles, an uncommon ransacking from Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, and the travesty of having played two Grand Slam events while reaching only one semifinal and one final.

It’s a somber tale, and it has lent him a supportive chorus from fellow players against the rising tide of doubt.

Asked if Federer seemed vulnerable, No. 2 Nadal went for sarcasm and said, “Yes, a lot. He didn’t lose a set in Halle [Germany, in a warmup tournament]. Fifty-nine matches [on grass] without lose. Come on.”

Asked if Federer seemed vulnerable, the Scot who rates Britain’s best hope, Andy Murray, said, “I still think he’s playing great. I think the other players have got better and have got close to him, which is obviously natural. . . . I still believe he’s the favorite to win Wimbledon.”

Asked if Federer seemed vulnerable, the American Andy Roddick said, with trademark eloquence, “No.”

Roddick even offered a fresh explanation of Federer’s hopeless 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 loss to four-time French champion Nadal in Paris two Sundays ago, an explanation that could seem less psychologically damaging.

“There’s one way that Roger is going to beat Nadal on a clay court, and that’s going after his shots. You’re going to play high-risk. . . . Could he have gotten more games staying back and being patient, doing that? Probably. But he wasn’t going to win a tennis match doing that. . . . He had to commit a certain way, he had to play that way. No one was beating Rafa on clay this year. The way he was playing was probably the best tennis that’s ever been played on a clay court.”

One elite player willing to join the doubters, if slightly, would be the ever-bold No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who swept Federer in an Australian semifinal only to have Federer later implicate the residue of mononucleosis. “It’s normal to have ups and downs, and he’s feeling, you know, the pressure a little bit,” Djokovic said, openly hoping for a semifinal against Federer to measure his own game on grass.

In such melancholy at No. 1, at least Federer can muster encouragement from his win in Germany, where he said, “It would have been tough for me losing on grass again for the first time and having just lost in Paris in the final.”

As the 122nd Wimbledon approaches, it seems the aging 26-year-old who won three of the four Grand Slam events in 2004, 2006 and 2007 retains the chance in 2008 of winning only two.