The spectacle that was the Battle of the Sexes between past-his-prime Bobby Riggs against top player, Billie Jean King, put tennis through the stratosphere in the US.  It was like the Harding-thugs attacking Nancy Kerrigan just before the Winter Olympics leading to huge ratings in figure skating.

Ironically, this coincided with the time that tennis was at its most boring.  In men’s tennis and to some extent women’s tennis, the sport was transitioning from a serve-and-volley style to a baseline style.  The key was superb passing.  Once players started to pass net-rushers, baseliners were making others play their game.  Both the men and women played long, long, long points.  20, 30, 40 shot rallies that were simply waiting for an error.  No winners, no hard shots, no approaches to the net.  It was the style of the day.

Then, came the 1980s.  Graphite racquets, more power, and soon Chris Evert, the stalwart of American and world tennis, was trailing the dominant Martina Navratilova and then the powerful Steffi Graf.  Evert had been number 1, had been a champ.  She knew how to win, but she couldn’t get past Martina or Steffi.  Connors experienced the same, trailing Borg and McEnroe and eventually Lendl, too.

It’s hard to say whether Djokovic’s amazing play at the start of the year is like Berdych’s flash of brilliance in 2010 that brought him to the semis of the French then the finals of Wimbledon, or whether, Djokovic has finally found the key to playing well and is ready to jettison Federer or Rafa from number 1.

But at the moment, it’s Roger Federer staring at number 3 looking up at Nadal and Djokovic.

But here’s the strange part.  Despite 3 losses to Djokovic this year, despite losing to Nadal, Federer is having about as solid a 6 months as he’s had in quite sometime.

Let’s pick up Federer’s career post Wimbledon.  For the first time in years, Federer did not reach the semis of a Slam.  Instead, he lost in the quarters in back-to-back tournaments, losing to Soderling at the French and losing to Berdych at Wimbledon.

Federer then took a longish break and didn’t return until Toronto.  He lost to Murray in the finals there.  He then won Cincy, a title he won the previous year.  He nearly made the finals of the US Open, but couldn’t convert match points as Djokovic hit huge shots at the biggest moments.

Federer took another break and return at Shanghai losing to Andy Murray once again.  Then, he won Stockholm, then won Basel (over Djokovic), then lost in the semis of Paris to Gael Monfils after holding match points, then won the ATP World Tour Finals without dropping a match.

In January, he won Doha, lost to Djokovic in the semis of the Aussie Open.  He lost to Djokovic in the finals of Dubai.  Then, he lost to Djokovic in the semis of Indian Wells and lost to Rafa in the semis of Miami.

Let’s tally his losses.  No loss before the semifinals since Toronto.  List of people who’ve beaten Roger: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Gael Monfils.  Pretty much no one outside the top ten, and mostly, no one outside the top 4.

Nadal in the same time period lost to Guillemro Garcia-Lopez in Bangkok and Djokovic lost to Llodra in Paris.

Federer has had far worse stretches than this in the last 3 years, and outside the Slams, nothing approaching this level of success in quite sometime.

Maybe Federer’s not ready to reclaim number 1, but make no mistake, the Swiss is playing great tennis.