Roger Federer, even for the tennis layman, was all about elegance. On the court, first. The Swiss was floating. Was dancing. Twirled. He gave off such an impression of ease and fluidity that looking at him was almost like admiring a ballet – even at the dawn of his forties. “Even when he hits a forehand at the end of the run, it looks like he has time to put his bit back in for the photographers at the edge of the court”, half-joking Frenchman Gilles Simon, former world number 6. Before him, according to observers like the former glories of tennis, no player had embodied the game so well.
Where this grace was best expressed was on the lawn of Wimbledon, the “temple of tennis”, which over time has become his garden: there he holds the record for finals played (twelve) and victories (eight , including five in a row, from 2003 to 2007). No other of his contemporaries did so well in this event rooted in tradition, he who was one of the most attached to the history of his sport. He never failed to pay tribute to his illustrious elders, foremost among whom was Rod Laver. It was in honor of the Australian player that he created, in 2017, the Laver Cup, a competition-exhibition between a European team and another made up of players from the “rest of the world”. It was also at the end of the Laver Cup (from September 23 to 25) that the Swiss announced, Thursday, September 15, to retire from the courts at 41, at the end of a career that will have lasted nearly a year. quarter of century. “I was gifted with a gift for playing tennis and raised it to a level I never could have imagined and for far longer than I thought possible”pours out the future retiree in a video message and a long text on his social networks.
Members of the venerable All England Club have not forgotten this image of the defending champion in 2008 arriving on center court wearing an ecru cardigan and the signature “RF” as a crest, a few hours before handing over the keys of his kingdom to his Spanish rival Rafael Nadal. A final sublimated by its dramaturgy (6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7) and finished by candlelight, considered by many to be “the greatest match in the history of tennis”. We were far from the neglected style that the retarded 21-year-old teenager, three-day beard and ponytail, sported during his first Grand Slam coronation in 2003, in this same setting.
However, it was far from over. His coaches, his comrades at the time and his parents kept repeating it: the young “Rodger” was an angry kid, who wasted his energy putting his nerves on his rackets. Failure was unbearable to him. “It took me a long time to get really serious, and maybe it’s my little regret, that I didn’t understand or react soonerconfided in 2019 the person concerned, who turned professional in 1998. It took me longer than other players to break through, but, once I broke through, everything was in place. »
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