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January 13, 2006
Federer in full swing for legendary status
By Mark Hodgkinson, Telegraph
A man apart on the tour, and quite possibly the finest racket-swinger in the sport's history, Roger Federer has different ambitions and considerations to the rest at this stage
of the season. While the others are simply readying themselves for the
Australian Open, his thoughts were somewhat grander yesterday, with the
Swiss disclosing that he wanted to "become a legend". He
is the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the Australian Open,
which starts here on Monday, with seemingly all the bookmakers across
the state of Victoria making the wise decision that the other 127
players on the drawsheet are more than a couple of perfectly-hit
forehands off Federer's talent. Judging by the odds, the bookies
plainly believe that Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and company might as
well sling their racket-bags over their shoulders now and trudge off
into the distance.
Federer,
the world No 1, is hoping to accumulate his seventh grand slam title at
Melbourne Park, after winning Wimbledon in 2003, taking the Australian
Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2004, and last season defending his
Wimbledon and US Open trophies. And he has done it all with class and
style, and lately it seems that he has been giving some serious thought
to how he will be perceived long-term. The "legend" comments were not
meant to sound immodest, as he is not one for pre-season pretence and
bombast; it was just that Federer knows exactly how good he is. "I
know that I mustn't get injured, that I have to stay healthy, that I
have to live for tennis. I'm not going to be the best player in the
world just fooling around. I have to be professional and serious, and
stay that way for a long time. That is the difference between the
legends and those who are just good players - legends are capable of
keeping it going for a long time. That is what I want to achieve, to
become a legend," the 24-year-old said. Perhaps
some in the tennis world already regard Federer as such. He has enjoyed
praise from most of the celebrated players in the sport, current and
former, and admitted that there have been occasions when it has been
difficult to stop his head from being turned. He does not want his ego
to get out of control. "I like what former players say about me, but I
have to watch out that I don't like it too much," he said. But,
of all the compliments Federer has received for his trophy-winning
skills, he says that the ones that have meant the most have come from
his girlfriend. Mirka Vavrinec, Federer's public relations manager as
well as his girlfriend of five years, is herself a former top-100
player and has watched almost all his matches at the highest level, so
he says that she can fully appreciate the magnitude of what he has done. "I
don't often get a chance to reflect on what I have achieved, and it
usually happens when I'm on vacation, and I'm talking to Mirka, and she
will say to me, 'Jesus, Roger, I can't believe what you've been doing,
that you've been winning all these matches'. That is the nicest moment
for me, when Mirka tells me that she is proud that I can handle it all.
Those are the times, when I'm talking to Mirka, when I feel really good
about myself." One achievement which registered
highly with Federer was winning the US Open last season, as that put
him level with Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, his two boyhood idols,
on six slams. "That was a nice feeling for me,
as I remember watching them when I was growing up, and how great they
were, and I've matched their careers. It's great to be on the same page
as them as they were the ones that I looked up to when I was a kid," he
said. Inevitably, the conversation then turned to
the possibility of Federer breaking the record set by American Pete
Sampras, the winner of 14 grand slam titles. "I can understand why
people are saying that I will equal the Sampras record, as I am halfway
through my career and everything is possible, and the last few years
have been outstanding. "I certainly do have a shot
at breaking the record, but I just need to keep it going for a long
time. It will be a hard thing to do, as the Sampras record is
phenomenal. And though it would be nice to break the record, for the
moment I'm just concentrating on my own career, and seeing where it
takes me," he said. "My main goals this season are
to keep the world No 1 ranking and to win Wimbledon again. I want to
have another great season, and I love winning matches and winning as
many as I can. A first French Open title would add something to my
career. The slams are important but, then again, every tournament I go
to becomes important. I'll try to win every event I enter this season
but I know that it's going to be hard." Chasing
history has come at a high price. Such have been the demands on his
time that Federer said that what started out as a sport often felt more
like a business. "There are definitely occasions when it's like a
business to me, when I don't have time for myself. "I
was in Switzerland for 10 days during the off-season, and I had to pick
up an award, and then I was practising hard with my conditioning
trainer, and then I had to meet my friends, my family, and spend time
with Mirka. And all of a sudden I realised that I didn't have very much
time for myself," he said. "I started to plan my
time very carefully, and it was terrible. I had to tell my friend,
'Look, in three days, we will meet at 10.45 in the morning in this
place, and we will have exactly an hour and a half'. That was awful. I
feel like I'm not being true to myself, which isn't right. I have to
watch that tennis doesn't dominate my life." Federer
said that tennis often left him mentally and physically drained. On a
number of holidays with Mirka his energy levels had run so low after
the long year that all he could do was slump on to a sun-lounger and
lie there for hours. "Sometimes I've been on holiday at the end of the
year and I've been too tired to even walk to the beach, or get up and
order a drink, and that's not good," he said. "But the good thing about tennis is that I don't have to play on until I'm 50 years old. At
35, it's all over. For me, at 35, you are still young and there's still
so much to achieve and do. You can change your life, you can become a
construction worker, whatever you want to do. That is why I give
everything to my tennis career now, and once I have had enough I can
then walk away and say, 'OK, what's next?'" Federer
said that when he is done with tennis he would like a trophy room in
his house so that he can look back on his career. "I have many awards
and trophies, but I don't have a trophy room at home as my apartment is
too small. I put my awards in the living room, and all my grand slam
trophies in the dining room, so I can see them every day when I'm
home," he said. "One day I hope that I will have a
trophy room and present it nicely, with all the pictures and trophies
and statistics all together in one place. But maybe it's good that I
don't have that room yet, as if I did I might get too caught up in
myself."
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