How I Grew Up With Roger Federer
I was 3 months old when Roger won his first Wimbledon title, so I can’t say I remember that one very well. I was just starting to crawl during his invincible 95-5 record in 2006. The 2008 final I watched, but got “bored” midway through and went upstairs to play with legos as Fedal entered a fifth set.
The 2009 Wimbledon final was the first of Roger’s that really grabbed my attention; merely a 6 year old at that time, I had a variety of interests, but tennis was my favorite for the time-being. I began playing with a “Fedewer” (as I pronounced it back then) racquet, but found it more fun to blast balls out of the court’s fencing than to try to learn how to play properly.
I stuck with it though, and eventually, while Roger’s total dominance of the sport waned slightly, I became more and more interested in him and his game.
Play Like Roger? Yeah, Right.
The more I played tennis, the more I was awestruck by how effortlessly he glided around the court.
I wanted to be like him: the “liquid whip” forehand (as I like to call it), the serve technique more worthy of being kept in a museum exhibit than on a tennis court.
I remember when I told a coach that I wanted to try and emulate all of this in my game. He didnt like this ideas though, saying: “Federer does things that no other human being is capable of doing. Trying would be a waste of time.”
I would say that that was pretty sound advice given my many failed attempts at copying parts of his game.
Roger showed us that the speed and strength of tennis are merely its skeleton, not its flesh. He re-embodied men’s tennis - playing through the serve-and-volley era all the way into the modern game as we know it today. Comparing him to a ballerina would be more apt than to that of your “average” professional tennis player.
The Federer <> Fan Connection
Years went by, and I continued to watch his every match, idealizing every movement. Instead of attempting to copy the perfect kinetic chain of each and every one of his strokes, I just took it in - never disappointed.
My support for the Swiss maestro only grew when I found out about an interesting connection between us; I was born in Switzerland, so was Roger - I have a South African mother, so does he. This brought me even closer to him. No, I had never met him nor did he have a singular clue that I existed, but I felt an innate connection to him, just like his millions of fans globally.
It’s the connection with his fans - like the one I have had with him - that makes him unique. It's strange that such a stoic on court can have such an effect on people. After all, how many tennis players - or sports stars in general - could ever fathom to win the “fan-favorite” award for 19 years straight?
No flashy personality, never any controversy, no gimmicky marketing moves; “class” was a word made for Roger.
So now that that legacy comes to an end - officially, that is - I’ll never forget the “Federer-moments” that defined his career, and in large part, my life as well. Few events do I remember exactly where I was sitting, what I was doing, or what I was thinking at the moment when those events took place - but not for Roger’s matches or announcements. I have a feeling that today will fall into one of those categories of life moments.
The Roger Federer Era
Some grew up in the “Jordan era,” some got to experience the “Sampras era.”
We got to live in the era where greatness was re-imagined by Roger Federer.
As stated in a Rolex commercial, “There's certain things that numbers can't convey. Numbers won't show that this man plays tennis more beautifully than anyone before. They won't show that this man is the all-time most revered athlete in the world for his grace and elegance on and off the court.
"The truth is, from here on out, whatever the scoreboard says, his legend can only grow, because in time, Federer's legacy will grow more perpetual than any number."
by Julian Schirnding-Yach