he played tennis With a style that rarely betrays the effort behind excellent serve, rare attack and impeccable footwork. He was not one to shout loudly at the shots or celebrate wildly after them.
The way he wielded a racket that helped him win, yes, and to win a lot, to the tune of
20 Grand Slam Championships – more than half a dozen more than anyone before him – over a period of 15 years, and 103 tournament titles in total, plus a Davis Cup trophy and Olympic medal for Switzerland, and spends week after week at No. 1 in the rankings . It helped him avoid serious injuries for so long and excel continuously over the decades.
“Every time people text me, or try to write to me, I bounce back,” Federer once said in an interview with the Associated Press. On Thursday, a little more than a month after his 41st birthday and several knee operations, he
announced that there would be no further return,
It is a loss for tennis, of course, and for the sporting world. The news comes less than two weeks later
Serena WilliamsWho has 23 Grand Slam singles titles, what he played shortly before the age of 41 would be the last match of his illustrious career.
Rafael Nadal, one of Federer’s great rivals, recently said, “Some go, others come and the world goes on.” “It’s a natural cycle.”
Well, the world will go on. But tennis will not be the same.
Not without Williams, who was brought in at the recently concluded US Open. And not without Federer, whose last tournament came last year at Wimbledon, and whose final appearance on the court will be next week at the Laver Cup in London, a team event founded by his management group.
Tennis players will miss Federer. and Federer, politician and ambassador who spoke several languages. and Federer, the instantly recognizable global pitchman who brought his game to places around the world that didn’t even have tournaments, through exhibitions to raise money for his charitable foundation.
Once a kid throwing a tantrum – on and off the court, where he overturned a chess table when he lost to his father – who grew up admiring football players like Michael Jordan more than basketball stars and tennis players, Federer was his The game became emblematic and one is known to carry as much of itself as the hardware it has accumulated.
Hall of Famer Chris Evert wrote on Twitter, “He was the epitome of a champion; class, grace, humility, dear to all.”
He became friends with Vogue editor Anna Wintour and appeared at the Met Gala. After winning Wimbledon in 2009, he had a special jacket with a gold “15” on it to break Pete Sampras’ men’s mark of 14 career major trophies. He kept on playing, and winning, long before the age that is customary for that sort of thing in tennis, to the point that his two twins—now ages 13 and 8—eventually present at the courtside guest box. were able to be. He returned in 2016 following surgery on his left knee, the first significant absence of his career, and used a large racket head and a reconstructed backhand to collect his last three slams.
“There will be no one like him,” said Federer’s agent since 2005, Tony Godsick. “There will be people who win more tournaments or have more Grand Slams. There will always be a new No. 1. There will always be someone holding the trophy. But no one has had such a big impact and will continue to have such a big impact.”
When it comes to defining success, Federer cared about longevity as much as anything else. He was proud to face and defeat the stars of the previous generation (Sampras and Andre Agassi) from his generation (Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin) to the next generation (Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray). Stan Wawrinka) and from the current crop (Daniel Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas).
He chased down the first group, dominated the second, duel with the third – Nadal, with 22, and Djokovic with 21, eventually surpassing Federer’s Grand Slam total – and setting an example for the fourth.
In addition to those major trophies he won from 2003 to 2018, Federer put together unprecedented chunks of elite sport, with 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (and 18 of 19) as well as 23 semifinals and 36 quarterfinals.
His competitions against Nadal, now 36, and Djokovic, 35, were tantalizing matchups against a backdrop of different modes of play and contrasting personalities.
“I was so lucky to have played so many epic matches that I will never forget,” Federer wrote in the segment of his goodbye post addressing his competitors. “We fought fairly, with passion and intensity, and I’ve always tried my best to respect the history of the sport. I feel so grateful. We pushed each other forward, and together we took tennis to new levels.” But took it.”
Predicted to be a star from the time he won the Wimbledon junior title as a teenager – a sentiment that only persisted when he stunned Sampras in the fourth round in 2001 – it took a while for Federer to be pointed in the right direction: he Did not win a quarterfinal match in his first 16 Grand Slam appearances.
There were six first round exits in that period, including the 2003 French Open. Then came the worry: Couldn’t Federer be as good as he and others thought?
It all came together at Wimbledon that year, where Federer won his first Grand Slam title in the tournament that always meant the most to him. And he went.
Federer said that day, “There was pressure from all sides, from myself as well. I wanted to do better at the Slam.” “I’ve always believed, but in the end, when it happens, you don’t think it’s possible. It’s an absolute dream for me. When I was a boy I was always joking: ‘I’m leaving to win it.'”
He would end with those men’s records with eight at Wimbledon, six at the Australian Open, five at the US Open and one at the French Open. He is one of eight men with a career Grand Slam, holds the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the ATP computerized rankings and is the oldest to reach there, and set a mark for the total number of weeks Djokovic eclipsed. did.
In case anyone worries that Federer is gone for good, one of those athletes who wants to disappear after days of playing, he ended his farewell note with these words: “To the sport of tennis: I I love you and will never leave you.”
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