Roger Federer - A Man in the Arena

I wanted to write this blog for almost a year and was intentionally procrastinating until Roger Federer equals Pete Sampras record or defeat Rafael Nadal or covete Roland Garros. People who know me realize well that I am a big fan of Roger Federer. I do not miss any of his tennis matches. Every day I check on Google news whether are there any news articles about him. Daily I visit his website RogerFederer.com to see any of his latest announcements. All said, why am I writting this blog on Roger Federer? His frequent losses to Nadal and Murray, and his slippage on ATP rankings by one position have earned him headlines on the tennis world as a fading champion. I just want to remind all, the speech of Teddy Roosevelt at Sorbonne, Paris that

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.