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February 27, 2000
Federer's express route to the heights
By Ronald Atkin, Independent
WHEN HE was on holiday in South Africa last December Roger Federer
bought a shell necklace because, he was told, it would keep the sharks
at bay when he went swimming. Since then the Swiss teenager's lucky
charm has helped to see off a few man-eaters of the tennis court as he
has surged to 24th in the Champions Race 2000 only 20 months after
being anointed junior champion of Wimbledon at 16.
In the year or so since turning professional Federer has beaten the
likes of Carlos Moya, then ranked third in the world, and Mark
Philippoussis in the Davis Cup and surged more than 200 places up the
rankings. The 6ft 1in powerfully-built Federer, with a square-jawed
face that has more in common with Marciano than McEnroe, has the
strength, skills and confidence that would make Britain's Davis Cup
captain, David Lloyd, weep with envy as he casts around for British
talent.
At his first Australian Open in January, Federer beat Michael Chang
and got to the third round. In Marseille earlier this month he took his
compatriot, Marc Rosset, to a third-set tie-break in the first
all-Swiss final on the professional tour and then, on his debut at the
Axa Cup at the London Arena, knocked out the second seed, world No 4
Nicolas Kiefer, in straight sets.
But it was Federer's second London opponent, last Thursday night,
who left a lasting impression. As the 18-year-old from Basle looked on
in disbelief, Goran Ivanisevic performed one of his classic self-
destruction jobs, mangling rackets underfoot and rending the air with
Serbo-Croat curses. What Federer was looking at was a mirror image of
himself as a younger brat. "I used to bitch a lot at line calls, scream
and throw my racket and also cry a lot on court," he said quietly in
the player lounge at the London Arena.
"I used to carry on like an idiot, with my parents going nuts in
the stands. It was ridiculous. People would ask me when I was going to
stop behaving like that, but I told them it wasn't their job to tell me
to shut up, it would have to come from me. Now, when I play in front of
big crowds, I don't do it any more. So I am very pleased it disappeared
by itself.
"If you show your emotions on the professional circuit you are
going to lose, because your opponent sees his chance. Now I think it's
funny when somebody freaks out."
Ivanisevic's antics gifted Federer a place in the last eight, where
he was again beaten in three sets by Rosset. But it was another
indication that the lad who has the build of an Alp and who is
nicknamed the Federer Express is one of the fastest-improving in the
business, further credit to the tiny nation that has already produced
women players of quality in Martina Hingis and Patty Schnyder.
A keen football follower who took time out to visit Wembley for
England v Argentina, Federer opted for the tennis route to fame when he
left home in the village of Munchenstein, near Basle, at 14, to base
himself at the Swiss national tennis centre in Biel.
"Before 14 I was not special," he said. "But then I really started
to improve because I played an aggressive game, taking a lot of risks.
When I won Wimbledon it gave me a lot of confidence." Six months later
he won the Orange Bowl, too, and turned professional at 17 as the
world's No 1 junior.
"I thought I could go back to the juniors if things didn't go well
but I went from 300 to 120 in the rankings in six weeks. `Jeez, this is
easy,' I thought to myself." Having been a quarter-finalist in his
second-ever ATP event, at Toulouse in the autumn of 1998, Federer
followed with another last-eight showing six months later in Marseille.
That was where he beat Moya. "I was just coming on court and winning.
Then I started to lose but that taught me a lot, too, like having to
work harder for success. Maybe if I worked even harder I would be even
higher in the rankings, but I am happy with the way things are going,
so I don't see any need to change."
Federer stands 66th in the year-on-year entry list, by which
tournament rankings are judged, and his aim is to crack the top 50 for
the first time, though he doesn't consider the leading 25 beyond him
"because I know I have a chance against anybody at the moment".
In this flurry of success he has been careful not to lose the
respect of his friends. "I would be really angry if they were saying
`Ah, Roger has a big, balloon head'. So I go and play cards with them
and try to live a normal boy's life." But, all the time, remembering to
wear round his neck the charm that keeps sharks at bay.
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