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Thursday, July 1, 2004
Federer plays tennis in its purest form
By Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle
Wimbledon, England --
This is the story of a man and his cow. Inseparable, with a shared love
of grass and polka music, they roam the Swiss countryside together.
Occasionally, the man goes off to play tennis matches, in which he does quite
well. The cow awaits his return, and the earnest conversations to follow.
Sometimes it all seems that simple for Roger Federer, the quiet genius of
Wimbledon. He lives in the town where he grew up, just a mile from his
parents' place. He travels without a coach or an agent. Four years ago, he met
a female player, Mirka Vavrinec, and they've been together ever since then.
Conveniently, she serves as his press agent.
The cow pretty much takes care of the rest.
Who else even gets a cow for winning a tennis tournament, let alone
declares it the perfect gift? It happened just last year after Federer's
breakthrough championship at Wimbledon. Organizers in Gstaad, home of the
Swiss Open, decided there wouldn't be much point to a ceremony, a watch or a
cracking good cuckoo clock. Federer is a man of the farmland, so behold the
beast. Genuinely touched, he named her Juliette.
"I am Swiss," he declared. "We have the most beautiful cows in the world.
I have two cows now because she had a baby."
And there's so much more. "It's nice to have a cow," he went on. "It such
a quiet animal. And so big."
We deliver this news without a trace of cynicism. Some yearn for the
vintage Andre Agassi with his waxed chest, Barbra Streisand infatuation and
private jet. Others fancy the multifaceted interests of Serena Williams,
trying to fit in Wimbledon between eight other careers. Federer is a down-home,
genuinely nice fellow who happens to play a Rembrandt style of tennis while
his opponents muddle with crayons.
The Wimbledon semifinals were at stake on Centre Court on Wednesday, and
Federer did not disappoint in his 6-1, 6-7 (7-1), 6-0, 6-4 victory over
Lleyton Hewitt. There was a stretch in the second set when he seemed to be
losing it, embarrassingly missing an easy forehand while getting blown out of
the tiebreaker. It was the kind of performance that can unnerve some players,
at least for a while. Federer's response was to win the third set in a
heartbeat.
Hewitt fought hard to the end, because he's Hewitt, but he seemed weary
of the onslaught by the final point, sadly double-faulted into the net.
Not far away, Sebastien Grosjean was performing the remarkable, racing
through a straight-set conquest of Florian Mayer when their late start and
gathering darkness left the strong hint of postponement. Grosjean probably
doesn't care that his 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 victory means a date with Federer. The
mercurial, clever Frenchman has reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the
second straight year.
Oh, and Tim Henman lost. Surely you heard, and you went on buttering your
toast. It was 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-2 at the hands of 6-foot-5 Mario Ancic, the
Croatian beanpole whose massive serves were designed for grass-court tennis,
so it wasn't overly surprising to anyone except the London tabloids, poised to
denounce Henman as a national disgrace. The poor lad is the essence of
integrity, taking his limited ability to its absolute peak each year at
Wimbledon, but he's a terrible, dreadful, miserable failure around here. Nice
perspective.
Andy Roddick was in evidence, too, and in fine form. Refusing to buckle
under the excruciating pressure of tiebreaks, he moved into the semifinals
against Ancic by defeating Sjeng Schalken, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (11-9), 6-3. It was
good stuff from Roddick, exactly what coach Brad Gilbert wanted to see, but
the talk of the men's draw has been Federer. Even the women are talking about
him, praise flowing from the news conferences of Williams ("he's just so
perfect out there"), Martina Navratilova ("one of the few I'd pay to see") and
Lindsay Davenport ("technically, I could watch him all day long").
Last year at this time, Federer was his sport's Phil Mickelson -- 0-for-
16 in majors, unable to win the big one. That all changed when he dismissed
Mark Philippoussis in the Wimbledon final, and though the match wasn't too
compelling, viewers felt a twinge of emotion when Federer broke into tears.
Since then, he's been king, unquestionably the best his sport has to
offer. He finished 2003 with the No. 1 ranking, then kicked off '04 with the
Australian Open title, and at the Key Biscayne, Fla., tournament in March,
Roddick admitted, "He's definitely established himself as the best player in
the world right now. He's just lifted his game to another level."
Former players are even more impressed. John McEnroe calls him "maybe the
smoothest, most talented player I've ever laid eyes on," and ESPN's Cliff
Drysdale said, "I've never seen a player with Federer's arsenal, including
(Pete) Sampras, mostly because Federer's groundstrokes are so much better. If
they both played at their peak, I'd go with Federer in five."
Don't be fooled by his unassuming nature; Federer speaks three languages
and conducts news conferences in each. It's just that he has a way of boiling
things down to the essence. Asked if he had a tennis inspiration early in life,
he said, "No, never. I always thought it was wrong to play like somebody."
People can't believe he doesn't have the customary tennis entourage, but he
answers, "The more people you have around you, the less it becomes about the
tennis."
It is tennis at its most sublime. A fellow player once wandered close to
a Federer practice session and saw him break out laughing after an amazing
shot. Was he amused by his brilliance? Are there hilarious voices inside his
head? It's an inside joke, apparently. Even Juliette won't tell. They say her
book will tell all.
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