Roger Federer would have never become a Tennis player. It wasn’t as if he was a prodigy, like Tiger Woods, who picked up the golf stick when he was three. Federer’s mom, a tennis coach herself and who introduced her son to the game, remembers Federer as this unfocused, irresistible kid, who wouldn’t sit still in a place, and who didn’t mind any sport as long as it involved a ball. Tennis was not a priority at all. Her earliest memory of Federer as a sportsman was as a child, just learning to walk but kicking a ball around as he followed her. Yes, the ball was a must. During his growing years, he would play Racquetball, Table tennis, Badminton, soccer, and volleyball with equal ease. What stood out for his parents was his hand-eye coordination. Great ball players, in any sport, have this uncanny instinct to sense the direction of the ball and position their bodies to meet its trajectory at its optimal point in space and time. You either had this instinct or didn’t. It was clear Federer had the instinct.
Federer drifted to tennis early in his teens. Quite late for someone who would go on to dominate the sport the way he did for two decades; but the important thing is, by the time he chose tennis as his primary sport, he was an all-round, lanky, well-honed athlete, with a fined tuned athletic sense, gained by freely sampling different sports at a young age, and not driven to specialization too early. The sportswriter David Epstein in his wonderful book “The range” states this as one of the important factors for excellence in later life – exposure to a range of activities before choosing one. Once Federer started playing tennis competitively, he was immediately noticed. There was an aggressive edge to his game and a capacity for total dominance. Critics in Basel, Switzerland, began interviewing him. In one of those early interviews, when an interviewer asked Federer what he wished to do with the first pay cheque, his mother thought she heard him say that he would buy a “Mercedes”. She was alarmed at the profligacy of her boy’s wishes, But later, when she was made to listen to Federer’s response again, to calm her agitation, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her son, a music buff, had actually said “Merz CDs”, a Swiss-german for more CDs.
Federer’s tennis career is the stuff of legends. Never before, and perhaps, never after, will a player ever wield the tennis racket on the court with so much grace, power, touch, agility, and ruthlessness. The best years were between 2003 and 2008 when Federer’s dominance was complete that no one even came close to defeating him, or even posed a challenge. During that period of six years, Federer was a standard fixture in the semi-finals of every grand slam. The others competed for the remaining three spots. Twenty-three straight grand slam semi-finals may remain an unbroken record forever. When Federer entered the professional circuit, the game was in transition. The Sampras- Agassi rivalry was diminishing in intensity, and the racquet and string technologies ( about a decade old at that time) were allowing players to prolong the rallies and play from the baseline, rather than finish out the point. It is not that Federer didn’t have stiff opposition when he stepped into the professional world of tennis. In the first five years on the circuit, the big-serving Argentinian Nalbandian beat Federer five times. But, as critics and fans observed, with each match, Federer’s game was transforming into something the world hadn’t seen before – a surreal blend of power, grace, and precision. The 2003 Wimbledon final was a moment of transformation and transcendence. Federer beat the Australian Mark Philippoussis in three sets to lift his first of the eight Wimbledon titles. The champion had arrived. In that final ( I remember watching it live), Federer’s game took an aura of invincibility. Not a drop of sweat on his white uniform, and even under tremendous pressure, he was cool and calm as a cucumber – a trait that would become one of the hallmarks of his legend. It was the beginning.
Federer’s tennis achievements defy explanation: 103 singles titles, 31 Grand slam finals, 237 consecutive weeks as the world no 1 in the rankings, 8 Wimbledon titles, six Australian opens, five US Open titles, and one win at the Roland Garros, he reached the finals of all the grand slam events in one calendar year three times in his career, over 40 ATP awards and one of the most decorated sportsmen of all time, regained the world no.1 ranking in 2018, at the age of 37 with Novak and Nadal around in their prime. While these numbers are impressive by themselves, what they don’t highlight or include is the quality of tennis Federer played in that golden period between 2003 – 2015. If there ever was an ideal of perfection in tennis, then it is reasonable to assume that Federer touched that zone during those years.
Watching Federer play the game was watching poetry in motion: Absolute control, yet all of it so effortless and unwilled. His lissome movement on the court, his delicate racquet preparation, the impeccable body position to hit the ball, his steady gaze at the tip of the racquet until the ball left its strings with that sweet twang, the swift motion of the shoulders and the arms that generated and often camouflaged the incredible power and speed from the racquet, and what to say of the perfect position of the racquet head itself, which Federer adjusted at the very last moment, to find those stunning angles – both of the forehand and the backhand. Of Federer’s serve, a full volume can be written. When he tossed up the ball to serve, a greek sculptor would have admired and sculpted the geometrical line his inclined body formed with the outstretched arm and the ball. His serves were not only powerful but exquisitely placed, teasing the opponent with their languid ease and effortlessness of motion. The game of tennis has seen many great serving techniques in the past and the present, but Federer’s style cannot be defined or compared to anybody else. On his best days, It would take him 54 seconds to close out a game, without even breaking into a sweat or pummeling the ball to the other side. Just poetry.
As a young player, Federer was prone to tantrums. But as he evolved, it dawned on him that it is better to channel the anger and frustration into playing the next point better than before. When he started taking tennis seriously, Federer’s father had only one piece of advice to give him “ Do not cheat at any cost”, advice that the young boy followed throughout his career. The crowds adored Federer for his attitude on and off the court. With tennis transforming itself into a game to power and more power, here was a champion, who hardly looked as if he was working hard on the court – no grunting, no burst of temper, no distraction, but just focused on the game, on each point, not dwelling on the previous shot or anxious of the upcoming one. Almost, a mystical state on the court. Federer was fallible as well. There were days when things wouldn’t go his way, especially in the last decade, when Novak and Nadal had gained ascendancy, but Federer remained stoic, calm, and composed. Against any opponent, Federer was always the favorite – whether he won or lost the match, and those who played against him knew that as well. They had to be prepared to play alone without the crowd’s support.
In the last few days since Federer announced his retirement, I see people have been voting him the greatest player the game has seen. I believe that greatness is a relative word, as Federer himself would be the first to acknowledge. Federer admired Rod Laver and considered him the greatest player. Greatness is often a by-product of the era in which one has lived, and cannot be universalized. There is no doubt that in this modern era, Federer was the supreme artist of the game and a few records he set are extremely difficult to surpass, not because there won’t be others with enough talent, but because the nature of the game itself has changed and is changing fast. It is true that there was no one who could play tennis the way he did. His inimitable style and overall mastery of the technique are impossible to emulate because it was quintessentially Federer’s with his attitude, upbringing, and the value systems he imbibed and injected into his game. But what makes Roger Federer special for me is the sheer joy he brought to the world of tennis. It was therapeutic, at least for me. Each time I watch him play, I become calm and blissful. I have heard this from others as well.
As tennis lovers, we were fortunate to have witnessed Federer’s glorious career from start to finish. From a young many with a ponytail fuming on the hard courts of the US open to the dignified ambassador of the sport he is today, he has epitomized the richness, beauty, and purpose of the sport itself – as a conduit to a fuller and wholesome life. His frank conversations, unpretentious smile, genius on the court, and committed family life have shown the world that, after all, it is not difficult to balance talent, money, fame, and success, all it needs is the right prioritization of what is important and what is not. At forty-one, with injuries to the knee, Federer’s decision to retire is understandable. He cannot compete anymore against the likes of young Alcaraz Garcia, the nineteen-year-old Spaniard who won the US Open a week ago. A new generation has arrived.
Nirmal Sekhar, the late sports editor of the Hindu (and one of the finest sports columnists who could write about and report on sport in an evocative and masterful language ) covered Federer’s growth as a tennis player since his first Wimbledon title in 2003. Nirmal Sekhar passed away in 2018. I wonder how he would have summed up Federer’s career? I was looking through my notes and found something he had written in 2016. I paraphrase: “Nobody in the history of tennis ever played like Federer: the effortless mastery of his craft saw him match a ballet dancer-genius’ graceful, innovative, and passionate performance – it was all pure melody. Tennis is much less demanding physically – especially if you can play with the graceful, unmatched effortlessness of a Federer”. I think this sums it up.
I don’t think we will miss Federer, at least not me. We have enough television footage of his game to relive the magic of his craft anytime we want to. In the last few years, we are used to his absences and losses, so it won’t matter much if we don’t see him on the center court again. However, I do believe that Roger will continue to serve the sport that has defined him, inspiring millions of youngsters, who we hope can look up to him, his game, his career, and his attitude, and model themselves accordingly. That will be his legacy and our inheritance.