RogeR & Me
Roger & Me As a general principle, the best athletes shouldn't be our favorite athletes. We should appreciate greatness, of course. But actually rooting for Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Barry...
...He's the 26-year-old Swiss fellow who just won his fourth consecutive U.S...
...Like rooting for the Yankees...
...Roddick left the court completely dismantled, his lifetime record against Federer at 1-14...
...After Roger dispatched Nikolay Davydenko in the semis (he's the fourth-ranked player in the world and is 0-10 lifetime against Federer), a wit in the stadium control booth played the Star Wars Imperial March over the loudspeakers...
...Open this year specifically to see him play, and I cheered as he dispatched John Isner—the type of young, over-achieving American I used to pull for—in the second round...
...Instead, he lives on a man-made island in Dubai and lures top-ranked amateurs to his hideout, where he uses them to practice in the 130-degree heat...
...the twisting overhead he hit against Andy Roddick, from the baseline, while facing away from the net...
...And yet, despite all of this, I love Federer...
...It's as if he'd sold his soul to the devil...
...Next time you're tempted to procrastinate, go to You-Tube and search for "Federer...
...The transformation was entirely in his mind...
...Tennis has fallen on hard times in America, so you'll be forgiven if you don't know about Roger Federer...
...But not Roger...
...He turned pro at 17 and began a merely respectable career...
...He didn't get a new coach, or change his technique, or start hitting the ball any differently...
...I have this worry that I'm not going to play well," he told the Associated Press this summer...
...Both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods turned pro at 21 and began crushing the rest of the PGA at 22...
...I went to the U.S...
...Then something changed...
...he will almost certainly break Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam titles (he has 12 now...
...Wilt Chamberlain started playing professional basketball at 23 and was immediately the best player in the game...
...Overachievers such as Jim Courier were also favorites, as were oddballs like Randall Cunningham...
...Open title...
...Trying vainly to render these moments in language last year, David Foster Wallace penned a lengthy essay titled "Federer as Religious Experience...
...There are individual moments: the behind-the-back-between-the-legs midcourt volley against Tim Henman...
...It has been noted that with his menacing good-looks and eccentric lifestyle, he would make an excellent James Bond villain...
...In 2003 he won two minor tournaments...
...Whatever happened to Federer in 2003 took place inside him...
...That the day comes where I don't know how to hit a forehand anymore, you know...
...My own preferences in fandom run to the tragic...
...Roger has been number one in the world for 188 consecutive weeks (the second longest streak was Jimmy Connors's run of 160 weeks at the top...
...Federer seems to understand how strange that change was...
...And against my better angels, that is why I root for Roger: His greatness proves exactly how much of sports, and life, is in your head...
...But actually rooting for Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Barry Bonds reflects a character deficiency...
...That I'm blank...
...It's difficult to describe Federer's magnificence...
...and he has appeared in 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (no one else has played in more than 7 in a row...
...As a boy, I adored Charles Barkley, who was consigned forever to Jordan's shadow...
...He may be the greatest player to ever play the game...
...Until I found Roger...
...For five years he was a pleasant, talented, top-25 player...
...But I've always harbored a healthy ambivalence toward athletes who dominate their sports...
...That victory began the greatest four-year run in the history of tennis, which continues to this day...
...so was Michael Jordan when he entered the NBA at 21...
...Then he won Wimbledon, losing only one set during the fortnight...
...Andy Roddick is one of the gifted, tragic types who used to capture my affections, yet when Federer ripsawed through him in the quarterfinals, I couldn't stop smiling...
...Roger's greatness is singular in one sense: With the very best athletes, dominance is almost always apparent from an early age...
...Jonathan V Last...
...Federer no longer employs a coach...
...As Rene Stauffer writes in The Roger Federer Story, "Nobody expected greatness from Roger Federer...
...The only other two tennis players in the discussion with Federer, Rod Laver and Pete Sampras, became champions two years after becoming professionals...
...In boxing, the sport most analogous to tennis, Muhammad Ali won the Olympic gold medal at 18, turned pro, and immediately began working his way through the professional ranks, winning his first belt in only four years and remaining undefeated for 11 years...
...I like my athletes doomed by fate or circumstance...
Vol. 13 • September 2007 • No. 2
