Dear youngest Federers by the time your old enough to understand this,you’re father won’t be the player he once was. So this is for you, from those of us who were there, just to tell you who he was. He was a champion like tennis had never seen. He looked like a page out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue. He was so graceful, he made ballet dancers want to burn their shoes. He was fast, but not so you’d notice. He was powerful, but like a Ferrari, not a forklift. They came at him, and they all fell to him. Major after major, year after year. Your father dominated his sport the way avalanches dominate trees. And yet, he was so humble and decent, that it became no shame to lose to him.In fact, it became a kind of honour. To lose to Roger Federer, meant you were woven into the fabric of sport’s history,and what a history he wrote. You’ll read about it someday, and it will shock you, but his finest moment might have been a sun splashed sunday at Wimbledonwhen he passed Pete Sampras’ record for majors with fifteen. Some thought we might not ever see that day,even thought passed by younger, bulkier models. But they were wrong, gods don’t get passed. This May , you will come along and tennis will be less important. Majors will become minor, trophies will become teething ringsand your father’s perfect life will, somehow, get even better.
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 22:04:02 +0000
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