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March 16, 2006
The Role Model
By Joel Drucker, Smash
Roger Federer is racking up Grand Slam titles, has a death grip on the No. 1 ranking, and is poised to become the best player ever. But he hasn’t let that go to his head.
Everything Roger Federer does on the tennis court looks so relaxed and liquid
smooth that the running joke is that he never sweats. But you might be surprised
to learn that even the Mighty Fed gets anxious. Case in point: January 29, 2006,
the day of the Australian Open final. Federer woke up a little after 11 in the
morning. With the championship match scheduled for the evening, he had time to
kill. In short order, the No. 1 player in the world became nail-bitingly
nervous.
“Some days it’s easy, some days it’s worse,” Federer, 25, says as he sits in the
ATP office adjacent to the players lounge of the Pacific Life Open in March. He
has just finished schooling Ivan Ljubicic in the quarterfinals. While many
players are twitchy when they’re being interviewed, shuffling in their seats and
checking their watches, Federer is chill. He takes a sip of water, leans back in
his chair, clasps his hands together, and continues. “That day, waiting,
wondering. I started thinking, ‘Why can’t I just go to the pool and relax?’”
Federer got off to a shaky start that night, losing the first set 7-5 to Marcos
Baghdatis. But Federer eked out the second set 7-5, and, as he does so often,
kicked his game into high gear to blitz Baghdatis for his seventh Grand Slam
title.
“I thought the more you get into these big situations, the easier it becomes,”
Federer says. “But not always. You just never know, do you? I guess that’s what
makes tennis so interesting.”
Of course, you know that Federer will eventually conquer his nerves and his
opponent. You know that he’ll make it look way too easy, and that he’ll hit a
handful of shots that will leave you wondering if Peter Jackson’s special
effects team had a hand in producing the broadcast.
This much is also certain: Federer is the best ball-striker the game has ever
seen. Although you can crunch the numbers——aces, winners, unforced errors, and
so on——there’s no way to distill into statistics what Federer does, the way he
cocks his wrist and whips through the ball to produce ridiculous amounts of
pace, spin, and control.
His is a complete game that has drawn comparisons to Pete Sampras’ style of
play. But that misses the mark. Sampras had a straightforward, albeit amazing,
game: huge serves and forehands, backed up by lethal volleys. Federer’s approach
is nuanced in the tradition of Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver, masters who killed
you with touch, spin, and placement.
But it’s too early to call Federer the greatest player of all time. Laver won
two calendar Grand Slams (the only player to accomplish the feat) and Sampras
bagged the most majors, 14, among the men. However, if Federer can keep up his
pace and figure out how to beat Rafael Nadal at the French, he will finish his
career with an even more impressive résumé.
Keenly aware of his connection to tennis history, Federer recalls how he
developed his strokes. “Sure, I imitated lots of players when I was a kid,” he
says. “Who doesn’t? I saw pictures of guys like Agassi, Becker, and Edberg and
saw things in each of them. Agassi, the way he wrapped the racquet around his
shoulder. Becker, such a shot-maker. And Edberg, so smooth.”
What about the man he is so often compared to? “I know people won’t believe
this,” Federer says, “but while of course I greatly admired Pete, I didn’t
imitate him. I know we’ve got a certain looseness in common, but he wasn’t
someone I tried to model my strokes after.”
Federer also sees a danger in becoming someone’s doppelgänger. “There came a
point——and I say this whenever I meet juniors——that I realized that imitating
people has its limits,” he says. “The greats have something you don’t have. It’s
a dead end to completely imitate them. You’ve got to become your own player, to
learn how to play and hit the ball the way that works for you.”
It wasn’t an easy process for Federer. In his first junior match, he didn’t
just lose, he was destroyed 6-0, 6-0 by Reto Schmidli in Basel, Switzerland.
(Trivia buffs, take note: It’s the only double-bagel loss of his career.) He
also was the kid you loved to hate. “I was a hothead, always acting bad on the
court, throwing my racquet,” Federer has said. “When I acted badly and lost, [my
parents] would say nothing during the car ride home, which was the worst. But I
just couldn’t keep my emotions under control.”
How times have changed. Federer now exudes a Bjorn Borg–like cool. Some
champions, such as Lleyton Hewitt and Jimmy Connors, believe that tennis stands
in for war—and a deeply personal war at that. Their opponents are their enemies.
Guys like Boris Becker and John McEnroe established their alpha-dog status with
chest-beating theatrics. Federer proves his superiority with shot-making.
With his skill and classy approach to the sport, Federer has become the role
model of his generation. He’s a direct descendant of the exemplary Aussie
Hall-of-Famers Laver, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe, and his current parttime
coach, Tony Roche.
“The Australians are such nice people,” Federer says. “Besides knowing how to
hit the tennis ball, they know how to be gentlemen, to play hard and carry that
balance of sportsmanship and competitive fire.”
It was another Australian coach, Peter Carter, who shaped Federer’s game. Carter
worked with him from ages 10 to 14, and on-and-off through his early pro days.
In 2002, Carter, who was also Switzerland’s Davis Cup captain, was killed in a
car accident. It was a turning point for Federer. From the tragedy, he gained
perspective on his life. He decided to grow up and stop throwing tantrums,
realizing that they were not only immature but also hindering his development as
a player.
Soon after, he started winning more matches. In 2003, he captured his first
major, Wimbledon, which he dedicated to Carter.
While Federer has a strong connection to Australian tennis, he also has a
cosmopolitan attitude. “Where I grew up [10 minutes outside of Basel,
Switzerland] you could go to three different countries within an hour,” he says.
“I learned about different languages, different people——German, French,
Italian——so it’s helped me talk with many of the people that make up the tennis
circuit.
“I like meeting people,” Federer continues. “I like talking to people in their
language and learning about them. It’s a fun part of what we do, to travel to so
many places and see so many things. Well, maybe not that many things, since I
spend a lot of my time getting ready to play matches.”
What’s funny about Federer is that as extraordinary as he is on the court, he’s
extremely ordinary off it. During his down time, you won’t find him partying on
Ibiza (an island off Spain). He’ll be too busy washing his four cars at his
apartment just outside of Basel with his girlfriend, Mirka Vavrinec.
“The tour is so hectic, it’s nice to come home and do something peaceful,” he
says. “I’ve won so many cars, and Mirka and I don’t want to let them get dirty.
So we get out there with the soap and water. I particularly like keeping my
white Mercedes nice and clean.”
Federer says his apartment is tidy and “well-organized” and has some African
touches (his mother, Lynette, is South African). His hobbies include wellness
treatments, shopping, text-messaging “all day and night,” and eating chocolate.
Ask what food he’d most want to have if he won the only major that has eluded
him, the French Open, and Federer thinks for a moment. “Fondue,” he says.
“That’s perfect. I love the cheese, along with potatoes and a good salad.”
Thankfully, there are no plans to start filming a reality show about Federer’s
life away from the tour. It wouldn’t quite qualify as must-see TV. But what he
does on the court most certainly does.
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