“Never been so good and it's my black year”. In this antithesis, in this oxymoron if you will, the character of is summed up Roger Federer, 30 years old, Swiss from Basel and considered by many to be the strongest and most talented tennis player of all time.
This sentence, uttered in these days at the London Masters, a prestigious tournament among the best 8 in the world where Federer returned to sparkle by eliminating Nadal and earning the final, is worth more than all the magical shots he has accustomed us to in the last decade. AND' the essence of the pure tennis player, who feels good when he plays well, not necessarily when he wins.
And in fact King Roger comes from the worst season of his career: won no Grand Slam and for the first time he even showed up at the Masters at the end of the season as number 4, recently surpassed in the ATP ranking by the Scottish Andy Murray.
It would have come as a shock to many. Or at least a sad resignation to decline. Especially for someone who has been in first place for 285 weeks (more than anyone), of which 237 streak, four and a half years from February 2004 to August 2008 (again, better than anyone). Or for one who holds the all-time record of Grand Slam tournament wins: 16, even better than the legendary Pete Sampras. It would be enough to create an entry in the tennis encyclopedia: “Better than anyone else” and Roger Federer's name would always appear.
But it's not just these infinite records – which for anyone else would be right to remember and list one by one, while for him an entire newspaper would not be enough and the reader would be bored – to make King Roger “better than anyone else”.
The fans themselves say it, through theAtp fans favorite awards, official vote that Federer has won for 9 consecutive years. Even in this year so stingy with successes, evidently as well as feeling good he also made his fans feel good, who always consider him their favorite despite an apparently shy and uncommunicative character, unlike the passionate arch-rival Rafael Nadal and almost cabaret new number 1 Novak Djokovic.
But as a boy the Swiss champion, Swiss father and South African mother, married since 2009 to the former tennis player of Slovakian origin Mirka Vavrinec and in turn father of two splendid two-year-old twin girls, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva, he wasn't quite as peaceful as we see him now.
His first coach remembers him very well, Paul Dorochenko, who brought him from number 680 to 36 in the world rankings: “When I decided to train him he was a difficult boy to handle, hyperactive from morning to night, who wouldn't shut up for a moment, smashed rackets, sang and screamed like crazy when he was in the shower. In fact they often punished him: one day they sent him to clear the fields at 6 in the morning, in sub-zero temperatures. But I realized that he was predestined: his technique was and has remained scholastic, but his footwork and his talent made the difference. And then he has always been very demanding and a perfectionist and this counts in the end: his opponents have built their careers above all on mental strength and physical strength, so lapses in concentration and injuries become decisive ”.
So the former terrible boy became champion. In the game, and also in behavior. Again, "better than anyone else", and to avoid misunderstandings this time, it's the same colleagues who recognize in him the style and aplomb worthy of the very elegant Swedish champion Stefan Edberg, after whom the ATP fair play award which Federer has won 7 times in the last 8 years.
Edberg himself would probably agree, he who belongs to that tennis of the past that was all technique and little muscle, all attack and little defense. Always play to take stock, to have fun and to amuse others. And maybe, but just by coincidence, win more than 800 matches, 16 Grand Slam tournaments and break all possible records. This was and is Roger Federer, 'better than anyone else'.
