Lives of great men remind us
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time
-        (From Henry Wordsworth Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life")
 
That Tommy Haas and Roger Federer will leave behind indelible footprints on the sands of time can be stated with certitude but it certainly looks doesn't like the two of them failed in their attempts to stop the passage of time.
While Roger Federer can at least seek solace from the fact that he is likely to go down as probably the greatest Tennis player of all time, Tommy Haas, on the other hand is likely to join an already long list of forgotten players who in spite of their immeasurable talent failed to taste glory which had been theirs for the taking. The intangible qualities that underline a game and define the very core of its existence are not factored in when the conceited list of all-time greats is tabulated. The ephemeral nature of virtues like grace and elegance are not taken into account when the accomplishments of men and women alike are chronicled for posterity.
Tennis has seldom seen a backhand as easy and free flowing as that of Haas but a century from now, to expect the patrons of Tennis to sit and discuss the more salient features of Haas' effortless backhand seems farfetched. At 35, he did manage to become the oldest player since Agassi in the 2005 US Open to qualify for a quarter-final of a Grand Slam, but History books are likely to have whole books dedicated to Agassi who won eight Grand Slams while relegating Haas to the appendix of the same books that will extol the magnitude of the American's achievements.
It is not without foresight that our ancestors coined the quote, "Time and Tide wait for none". Although History can bear Testimony to the fact that there have been some remarkable individuals who, although failed to tame that obdurate enemy called time, managed to defy them, they have been far and few between. It is not like fortune did not bestow upon Haas the opportunities to steal glory, it is just that it was a tad too cavalier when it did. He made it to the semi-finals of the Australian Open on three occasions only to come second best to players who as it so happened were equipped with precisely the weapons that could be the undoing of Haas.
Although he doesn't serve at a lightning pace as might an Andy Roddick, Haas' service is definitely one of his most effective weapons. He doesn't trouble himself much while he serves and his action is testament to the eternal truth that what is simple is more often than not beautiful. Although commentators and fans alike are wont to discuss his backhand more, his forehand is equally spectacular. While he employs the top-spin forehand on clay, he tends to revert to the classical drive forehand on other surfaces and boasts the whole gamut of forehand variations in his repertoire. Last but not the least, he is also a formidable player at the net.
While the call to hang up his boots is his prerogative, it certainly looks like he has got a couple of years left in him at least. Although he has it in him to go toe to toe against the best on the ATP tour, more than half of whom are at least half a decade younger to him, it would take an immeasurable amount of will power and a Herculean effort, the likes of which the world has seldom seen, for him to cause an upset of gigantic proportions. But, for as long as he plays, he is sure to enthrall the spectators with his mesmerising display of Tennis.
But for Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, almost all of Roger Federer's contemporaries have had to spend the better part of their professional careers in the unbelievably large shadow that the enigma called Federer has cast. Right from Andy Roddick, who simply seemed incapable of solving the Federer puzzle to Marat Safin, who probably came closest (Relatively) to usurping the Swiss' positon on the top of the ladder, everybody who played most of their Tennis in the first decade of the 21st century had to contend themselves being second best to the colossus that was Roger Federer.
Although he turned a professional in 1998, when he was 17 (give or take a few months), it was only on 2001 that Federer managed to carve a niche for himself. When it looked like only a natural calamity could stop 'Pistol' Pete Sampras from winning a fifth straight Wimbledon crown, Federer came from nowhere to leave the Mecca of Tennis which was the Centre Court of Wimbledon staring in disbelief as he sent Sampras packing from a place where he had reigned like a King, nay an emperor. Between 1993 and 2001, only two players had managed to defeat Sampras on the lawns of Wimbledon. The other player who achieved the feat was Richard Krajicek of Holland, who was also the 1996 Wimbledon Champion.
15 years and 17 Grand Slams later, it might seem like Federer has hardly anyothing to prove. It is merely the boundless love that he has for the game of Tennis that keeps him pushing new frontiers. Although he is pushing 32, to write him off would be a fool's errand for he is not done with the game by a long shot and he does look fit enough to add at least two more Grand Slams to his tally. But, age is certainly catching up with Federer and this fact came to the fore in the quarter-final game of French Open 2013. Try with all his strength though he might, he too has failed to keep the undesirable effects of the passage of time from affecting him.
When all is said and done, the game of tennis would have lost two of its invaluable pearls to an unseen enemy that inexplicably calls itself "Time".