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August 29, 2004
Federer Arrives With Anonymity Intact
By Harvey Araton, New York Times
WHEREVER
he went at the Olympics, people recognized Roger Federer. When he
carried the Swiss flag during the opening ceremony, competitors from
many countries, a variety of sports, rushed up to shake his hand, to
request a pose. "At the opening ceremonies, I must have taken
200 pictures with athletes," he said, with a modest giggle. "I was a
little bit, you know, a superstar."
Then Federer, the world's No. 1 tennis player and the two-time
Wimbledon champion, hailed at 23 as one of tennis's most gifted shot
makers ever, flew to New York for tomorrow's start of the United States
Open and assumed his North American anonymity. Without a racket in his
hand or his signature headband, with shaggy brown hair partly shielding
penetrating, deep-set eyes, Federer walked into the restaurant of an
East Side hotel last week and attracted no photo seekers, no autograph
hounds. He turned no heads. "Occasionally I get surprised,
someone will say hello," he said, devouring a salad. "I feel like in
America, especially in New York, people are so busy, running after
their thing, so I don't get recognized very often." We know -
and he knows - that tennis in the United States is not exactly in an
era that is golden, silver or even bronze. Federer has also not yet
been past the fourth round at the Open, an unofficial litmus test for
the sportscaster who doesn't know the difference between a rally and a
volley. All across Sports Talk Radio America, Federer is still the guy
from a country with mountains who has been beating our guy, Andy
Roddick, like a drum. What tennis could obviously use here in
America is less nationalism, and more internationalism. Less hometown
heroism, and more ambassadors without borders. Less obsessing about how
the Yanks are doing, and more appreciation for the artists from
anywhere. Good luck on this mission of international mercy
that must begin with a major attitudinal adjustment by tournament
promoters and network panderers. "I think a lot of people have
got the American tennis public all wrong," Rod Laver said in a
telephone interview from his home in Southern California earlier this
summer. American fans, Laver said, are smarter than what the tennis and
television industries generally take them for. Across the decades, they
loved Laver and Borg, Becker and Rafter, and will accept more than the
steady diet of Americana they are too often fed. Arlen
Kantarian, the chief executive for professional tennis of the United
States Tennis Association, agrees, especially in the case of Federer,
whom he calls "the most entertaining racket in tennis." Yet it was at
the 2003 United States Open that American self-absorption produced
anger and protest in a variety of languages, thanks to the manipulation
of a waterlogged schedule to ensure prime-time matches featuring
American stars. "Scheduling is crucial," Federer said. "You have
to pick the right matches for the fans and for TV, but you can't
always, always, always pass the other players over because the
Americans get the priority. You have to build up others because
suddenly you get to the semifinals and people say, 'Who is Carlos
Moya?' Oh, he's No. 5 in the world." Of course, Roddick, No. 2,
is the American It Boy, and his United States Open title last summer
makes this year's event something of a homestand, despite a 1-7 career
record against Federer. Roddick lost to Federer in a close
Wimbledon final and again on a hardcourt at the summer Tour stop in
Toronto. All serve and swagger, fire and forehand, he cannot
orchestrate a tennis concerto the way Federer can. Yet Federer wants us
to understand that his hybrid all-courts game is not the only one that
is worthy of appreciation and awe. "There I have to protect
Andy," Federer said. "I know that I have a little bit of an advantage
over him as far as commentating because I am playing a little bit in a
way like the former players. But if you look at the top 10, who else is
playing with that power, with that serve? Most of the others are
counterpunchers. Andy is also unique." What's apparent is that
as much as Federer wants to beat Roddick, he realizes that joining him
in a new-age rivalry is his ticket to enhanced visibility in this land
of marketing opportunity. Federer would like his American friends to
know that he has, since childhood, been a fan of the National Hockey
League. Even more than Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, his greatest
adolescent reverence was reserved for Michael Jordan. He loves New York
and always stays in Manhattan, even this week, with a political
convention certain to complicate his commute. "Traffic will be terrible," he complained, a sure indication that Federer knows New York better than it knows him.
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