Federer loses second grass court match in seven years

Roger Federer's loss to Lleyton Hewitt on Sunday in the finals of the Gerry Weber Open was unexpected, to say the least. After all, the Aussie star hadn't beaten Federer in their previous 15 meetings and he's long past his prime, having not advanced to the semifinal of a Grand Slam since 2005 and hovering around the 20s of the ATP rankings. Throw in the fact that Federer was 78-1 on grass since 2003 and the 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 result becomes even more striking.

But should it be? After all, even the most ardent Federer supporter wouldn't argue that the 16-time Grand Slam champion is still at his peak. He's been on a steady decline since a bout with mono robbed him of training time in 2008 and seemed to hasten the arrival of his tennis twilight.

Since then he's been beatable. From 2004 to 2007, Federer lost a total of 24 times. He's dropped the same amount of matches since June 2008. In that dominant four-year stretch, Federer failed to win five Grand Slams in 20 tries. In the past 10 majors, he's lost six times.

What's so remarkable isn't that Federer has lost his invincibility, but that he was ever so invincible in the first place. Lleyton Hewitt is a two-time Grand Slam champion and a former world No. 1, yet Federer treated him like he was a guy scraping by on the Futures tour. That 78-1 grass court record since '03 is mind-boggling. Federer lost one match -- one! -- on the surface over seven years, and that loss came in what is largely considered the greatest match of all time. And though his game has been declining, he's still the odds-on favorite to Wimbledon.

His prime is over, but Roger Federer still has a lot of tennis left in him.