Roger Federer (41) announced his retirement from tennis on Thursday. An era has come to an end. But the admiration will remain, because of the beauty of his playing.
Once more, ‘King Roger’ had wanted to make the illustrious walk from his dressing room to Wimbledon’s Center Court, where in 2001 he defeated his idol Pete Sampras and two years later captured his first of a total of 20 Grand Slam titles. But the body of 41-year-old Federer refuses to serve after several knee operations. Moreover, he knows that with 19-year-old US Open winner Carlos Alcaraz, the youngest No. 1 of all time, a new king has risen.
Ironically, Federer will say goodbye next week in London during the Laver Cup, the meeting he devised between Team Europe and Team World as a tribute to the Australian great of more than half a century ago: Rod Laver. Federer spoke of a “bittersweet” farewell symphony on Thursday for a reason, now that even he couldn’t stop time with a grandiose comeback. That is still possible in 2017 after six months of injury.
His dream, of course, was to read for the last time the famous lines from the poem, further down the corridor to the most beautiful tennis stadium on Church Road, in London. if by Rudyard Kipling.
If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same.
Triumphs and disastrous defeats, Federer knows from experience how deceptive they are. The lesson at Wimbledon is that every tennis player should treat them identically. Wimbledon is the ultimate tennis arena, the theater of dreams. Wimbledon is also the stage on which Federer won a record eight Grand Slam titles and suffered his bitterest defeats against his biggest rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
On the Wimbledon grass, the beauty in Federer’s game was most palpable. For example, in 2001 he manifested himself as the attacking tennis player who perfected the service / volley game of the seven-time champion Pete Sampras. The American did not know what hit him, the light-footed Federer eventually outclassed him in all areas of the game.
The ball stroked the grass after a velvet volley from Federer. But his lashing forehand and an artful, formidably placed serve proved equally powerful weapons for developing tennis 2.0. His graceful one-handed backhand completed the package. Federer soared over Wimbledon’s Center Court, relentlessly like an eagle to devour its prey and graceful like a ballet dancer on golden slippers. It is this beauty that Federer will still be remembered and admired twenty years from now.
Federer has inspired several generations with this magic: he was the aristocrat who attracted a new audience with his champagne tennis. Federer’s popularity almost became an obsession for Novak Djokovic, with every stadium trembling with excitement as the crowd favorite battled his big rivals. Everyone wanted to see Federer win.
greatness
103 tournament victories, including twenty grand slam titles and six times the unofficial World Cup at the ATP Finals, 310 weeks number 1 in the world; they are just numbers. Djokovic and Nadal have statistically surpassed Federer. If you take the number of grand slam titles as a benchmark, Nadal (22) should now be called the greatest tennis player of all time. And perhaps Djokovic will catch up with him.
But numbers alone cannot possibly illustrate the greatness of an athlete, they are like flowers that ever wither. Federer had the gift of making a sport as technically difficult as tennis seem easy. So smooth and loose, with phenomenal footwork that demoted almost any opponent to a wooden claus. Federer also showed that anyone can reinvent himself, even if he thinks he has reached his limit.
In that sense, the 2017 Australian Open final between Federer and Nadal was the most beautiful ever played. Even bigger than the unforgettable 2008 Wimbledon final, when clay king Nadal, 9-7 in the fifth set, knocked Federer to his knees just before darkness fell.
Six months later, after another beating from Nadal in the final of the Australian Open, Federer burst into tears. He feared he would never be able to beat his friend and rival again, their mutual statistic is well against his disadvantage with 24-16. But it was once 23-11, at the age of 35 Federer experienced his rebirth in Melbourne.
Take a look at that hallucinatory 26-strike rally, one of the most beautiful points ever played, as Federer neutralizes Nadal’s killer topspin balls with a new tactic by taking a 4-3 lead in the fifth set. He ‘took’ the ball even faster than before, in the jump after the bounce. Technically extremely difficult, but again with apparent ease. And then out of nowhere there was that flashing forehand that struck Nadal in the heart.
Federer wept again as Hawkeye, the electronic eye, confirmed that he had completed an unprecedented coup. Now they were the tears of the man who, a few months earlier, had stumbled open the tennis center of Nadal in Mallorca after knee surgery. And hadn’t really given himself a chance at another Grand Slam title.
Rivalry
The attitude of a street fighter like Djokovic did not fit into their chivalrous rivalry. Federer had wanted to share the victory with Nadal, whom he once again held up a mirror in the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2019. He had peaked too early. In the final, Federer did not show his vulnerable side for the first time.
Djokovic had pained him before at Wimbledon, the historic final with a – again abolished – tiebreak at 12-12 in the fifth set should have become Federer’s magnum opus. On 8-7, 40-15 Federer had two match points on his own serve, the Center Court was a heaving ship on the high seas. You could almost hear the spectators murmuring their quick prayers. “Do it Roger, do it, compose your ultimate masterpiece.”
But Federer tensed up, blocking his way to the net for the decisive volley. Djokovic smelled the uncertainty in the player, who he could so skilfully disassemble. Federer finally succumbed in the tiebreak, 13-12, and it was Djokovic who silenced the frenzied crowd.
Federer would never come this close to a 21st Grand Slam title. Last year he was willingly removed in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon by Hubert Hurkacz, because his fragile knees already refused to work. A gentleman never gives up, Federer never did. Almost serenely, Federer accepted a horrific ‘bagel’ (6-0) by the Pole, in the final set he would play at his beloved Wimbledon.
Raising the sport to art
Again, forget those numbers. Federer will go down in history as tennis’s greatest ambassador, the gracious champion who, with his wife Mirka Vavrinec and double twins, also depicted the harmony of the family. Perhaps he was too civilized, after Dutch coach Sven Groeneveld, among others, managed to curb the tantrums in the Swiss teenager. He never let himself be caught in a controversial statement, Federer always opted for the synergy.
The eldest of tennis ‘The Big Three’ has retired, while the sport can’t really do without him yet. Like a grand duke, Federer was received this summer at the centenary celebrations of the Center Court at Wimbledon, the only tennis court in the world to be written with capital letters. The longing of the crowd during the standing ovation was palpable.
This was already a melancholy farewell to a genius tennis player who managed to elevate his sport to an art form. Federer turned every tennis court into a museum and had long since transcended the sport. Precisely for this reason – forgetting the numbers that suggest otherwise – he can rightly be called the greatest tennis player of all time.