You have to be a fan of Roger Federer. You just do. And you have to marvel at how amazing of a tennis player he actually is. And do you know when you get a true appreciation of how dominant Federer actually has been? When he loses.

Last night, Federer fell ro the 3-seed, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets in the semifinals of the Australian Open. The front page of espn.com referred to this as a “shocking loss.” And reading that, we thought, yeah, that is a shocking loss. When you lose in the semifinals of a grand slam to a guy seeded 3rd in the tourney and the loss is considered shocking, that means you are damn good.

And while his skills on the court are unbelievable, we also like what the guys does off the court. In fact, we listed him at no. 8 in our Top 10 Non-Bums of 2007 (one of our highest honors). This past week, we documented the post-match comments of Serena and Venus Williams after losing. Serena was a poor sport who whined and made excuses. Venus was a gracious loser, who stated that she could play better but her opponent was the better tennis player in that match.

And what were Federer’s comments after the loss? The guy who is certainly not used to losing. Here’s what he had to say:

“I like to give credit to my opponent. . . He came up with the shots at the right time, and that’s all I can say, really.”

Was there any doubt that Federer would handle the loss with class? No, not really. We have no problem with a player stating that he or she was less than 100% in a match, but we like when that player also tips the hat to the opponent. On this night, Djokovic was the better player. And Djokovic better take it all in and enjoy - because it doesn’t happen often.