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Published: May 21, 2005
Federer Is in Control, On and Off The Court
By Christopher Clarey, New York Times
PARIS, May 20 - It was the Wednesday before the French Open and Roger Federer, the world's finest tennis player, was genially doing interviews and a photo shoot in a gilded hotel, with his girlfriend and his personal assistant by his side.
They happen to be the
same woman: Mirka Vavrinec, a former Swiss player he has been
romantically involved with since the 2000 Summer Olympics. When
he is home in Switzerland, Federer regularly sees his mother, Lynette,
and meets with the coordinator of his charitable foundation, who happen
to be the same person. And he spends time with his father, Robert, and
with the man who negotiates his tournament deals and appearance fees,
also one and the same. Tennis has long been a family game, but
Federer has extended the family connection beyond the kitchen table or
the players' box to the boardroom. In the process, he is trying to take
command of his career in a much more complete way than most of the
world's leading athletes. "I approve everything," Federer said,
knowing that detachment from the commercial aspect of his sport has led
some of his peers and predecessors to financial ruin. "You see and hear
that and always wish that it's not going to happen to you, but you
hardly ever have a guarantee, except, of course, if you really take it
into your own hands like I did." He has no agent, although he
does have a lawyer and tax adviser based in Switzerland. Unlike some of
his rivals, he requires no more than one courtesy car for his entourage
to go from lodging to loge. The decision to go it relatively
alone, made in early 2003 - after his agent, Bill Ryan, left the
International Management Group - dovetails neatly with Federer's
independent streak. The same character trait allowed him to put
together one of the finest seasons in tennis history in 2004, without
the services of a formal coach. He has hired Tony Roche on a part-time
basis this season. Top agents, who would like nothing better than
to change Federer's do-it-himself approach to personal finance, contend
that his decision is costing him millions. They also say that it is
costing them millions, because some of his sponsorship deals, including
one with Nike, were signed for far less than his market value. As a
result, he is making it harder for their clients to receive what they
deserve. "If you add it all up, Maria Sharapova is probably
making over 20 million bucks a year in off-court sponsorship deals, and
Roger is not even close to that," said one agent, who did not want to
be named because he did not want to spoil any chance of working with
Federer in the future. "As far as I can determine, he's not even
close to making 10 million off court, and you're talking about
potentially the greatest tennis player ever." But on the top
floor of a hotel Wednesday - with the Eiffel Tower and the tree-lined
Champs-Élysées for a backdrop - Federer, who made more than $6 million
in prize money last year, sounded like a star at peace with his career
moves. "I think the thing that makes me feel good is that I am
taking decisions by myself, and I used to hate taking decisions," he
said. "And I think that is also what has helped me to maybe even become
a better player and to become a better person, more of a grown-up
person." After Ryan split with I.M.G. in 2002 and Federer was
unable to keep working with him because of contractual restraints,
Federer considered hiring another agent or management company. "I
finally said, 'I think we should try to handle things on our own for a
while,' " he said. "We is my parents and my lawyer and Mirka, and we
started to help each other out, and suddenly we thought, 'It seems like
we can handle this.' "Of course we had to be more into it, to
speak more, to make sure things happen quicker, make sure you are well
organized. You can imagine. For this, I wasn't prepared in the
beginning, and there were times, of course, where you think, 'If I
would have known that,' or, 'Oh, man, I wasn't planning on coming back
to Basel to sort things out and decide on a few business things.' " But, Federer said, he feels more comfortable having control of all his dealings.
"I feel you use a different part of your brain; you have to
think more in the future and in a different way," he said. "I think
it's kind of a good balance sometimes to get away from the tennis and
talk business for a while."
The arrangement is not
without complications, particularly when the woman he wants to spend
more time with is occupied with his business. "In the beginning,
sometimes we had issues where I think that, and she thinks this, and
we're like 'O.K., let's not fight,' " Federer said, referring to
Vavrinec. "At least if we fight about it, and we forget about it after,
then we can cuddle each other, so it doesn't really make a difference.
By now, it's no problem, but in the beginning, like in Wimbledon for
that first time, you go through those times when she's so exhausted and
is maybe irritated a little bit, like I was." The Wimbledon he
was referring to was 2003, when Federer won his first Grand Slam title.
It was indeed a big spike in the learning curve for him and Vavrinec,
whose career had already been cut short by a leg injury. She was
already coordinating Federer's travel and his media and sponsorship
obligations. "There was this big boom, and everybody wanted so much from us," Federer said. "To be caught off guard, it was interesting." Federer
has since hired a firm based in Germany to handle some of his
communication needs. His mother continues to answer all his fan mail
and e-mail messages, but her main responsibility is the Roger Federer
Foundation, which was established in December 2003. "When Roger
was starting to earn good money, his father and I said, 'We think it's
a good thing you give back a bit of your own fortune to those who are
less advantaged,' " Lynette Federer said in a telephone interview. Federer's
father is Swiss, but his mother was born and reared in South Africa.
They met when Robert Federer was working in Johannesburg for a Swiss
pharmaceutical company. Although they eventually settled in Basel, a
small city near the French and German borders, they have maintained
strong ties with South Africa. Roger was first taken there when he was
3 months old, and returned frequently as a boy, so Federer's foundation
begin its charitable work there. In connection with an
organization called Imbewu, a word that means seed in the Xhosa
language, Federer's foundation is now paying for the schooling and
meals for hundreds of children in New Brighton Township, near the city
of Port Elizabeth. He traveled there in March, skipping the first round
of Davis Cup play for Switzerland. And like many top tennis players, he
has also been active in fund-raising for Asian tsunami relief. "Sometimes with a little time, you can create an unbelievable amount of money or a lot of happy faces," he said. But some people are still frowning over Federer: the many men who cannot beat him and the many agents who cannot join him.
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