|
August 4, 2007
Federer on pace to make this one Roger's Cup
By Tom Tebbutt, The Globe and Mail
The
ball-hockey game at the 2002 Rogers Cup in Toronto is ancient history
now, but a memory lingers from that just-for-kicks contest between a
bunch of tennis players and a few active and retired NHL players.
It is an image of a light-footed, will-o'-the-wisp athlete - a sort
of road-hockey Baryshnikov - darting in and out of clashing sticks and
the sturdy legs of the NHL players.
He was strikingly quick and agile, scoring a goal and very obviously
enjoying the fun of a pastime familiar to so many Canadians.
A year later, that ball-hockey competitor, Roger Federer, was the
Wimbledon champion and too valuable a commodity to be mashing about
among professionals and ex-pros such as Steve Thomas and Nick Kypreos.
(The game has since been discontinued.) Federer, who will turn 26 on
Wednesday, the day he will likely play his opening match at this year's
Rogers Cup in Montreal, has had an amazing run in his sport since that
afternoon at the old National Tennis Centre in Toronto.
He didn't win his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon until 2003,
when he was almost 22 - both Pete Sampras and Rafael Nadal were 19 when
they made their Grand Slam breakthroughs - but has since proceeded to
tear through tennis history books.
Statistical geeks go wild with all the sick numbers associated with
Federer's success. Arguably the most amazing at the moment are his nine
Grand Slam finals in a row (seven titles) dating back to Wimbledon in
2005.
That is unprecedented, with maybe the only comparable streak being
Ivan Lendl's eight consecutive U.S. Open finals (three victories)
between 1982 and 1989.
It is noteworthy that Federer did not shoot right to the top after
finishing as the world's No. 1 junior in 1998. Even though he broke
into the top 100 in the rankings in 1999 and scored a sensational 7-5
in fifth set win over four-time reigning champion Sampras at Wimbledon
in 2001, he still needed seasoning before winning at the All England
Club two years later.
One of the most interesting aspects of Swiss journalist Rene Stauffer's recently released English version of The Roger Federer Story is just how long it took supremely gifted Federer to fulfill his potential.
During Wimbledon this year, the BBC showed parts of the 2001
Federer-Sampras match. There was a revealing moment after Federer
missed a shot late in the first set. He swung his right arm up and down
across his body in a grand, brutal gesture of frustration. It was
totally out of character for anyone used to the current incarnation of
super-cool, undemonstrative Federer, a man whose emotional outbursts
are limited to the occasional loud, guttural self-remonstration,
usually muffled by crowd noise at the end of a point.
Federer worked with a sports psychologist between 1998 and 2000, but
still struggled. In Stauffer's excellent book, Federer says of his
early days: "When my coach told me to calm down, that seemed impossible
to me. I simply had to get rid of this tension and these demons in my
head. No one could help me. It had to come from me."
Crucial to controlling his competitive temperament was fortifying
his fitness. He began working with fellow Swiss Pierre Paganini in
2000, and that productive collaboration continues to this day.
Now mens sana in corpore sano, he is the epitome of an athlete maximizing his talent.
With Flushing Meadows looming at the end of the month, Federer will
be trying to complete the almost unimaginable: winning Wimbledon and
the U.S. Open back to back four years in a row.
The greater goal - equalling or beating Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam titles - will surely follow if he remains healthy.
"Roger's major challenge will be ... ROGER," Paul Annacone,
Sampras's long-time coach, wrote in an e-mail message this week. "Roger
has so many talents that he really has to just manage his own
preparation.
"He seems to enjoy the life on the road a bit more than Pete did, and he has a bit more broad interests.
"Roger has a different group of competitors than Pete and the game
has changed, but all champions are incredibly resilient. The most
important thing is they are terrific at dealing with challenges and
adversity. They trust their talents and truly believe in them. Pete and
Roger are very similar in that way."
The two have become closer since Sampras text-messaged Federer after
his 2006 U.S. Open triumph, and they subsequently spoke on the phone.
There were also two hitting sessions together at Sampras's home in
Los Angeles in March, and, now, a planned exhibition match in Macao in
November.
But Federer is a fundamentally a more well-rounded, approachable guy
than Sampras. He speaks several languages, enjoys travelling to
off-the-beaten-path destinations, experimenting with different cuisines
and socializing with his fellow travellers on the tour.
He may sometimes flaunt a fancy jacket on court at Wimbledon or
spend time among the ultra-rich in Dubai, but he remains a grounded
person.
In July, he and his party of six, without reservations, were turned
away from a restaurant in Lake Zurich, Switzerland. Did he pull rank
and invoke his status as a five-time Wimbledon champion? No, apparently
he departed without a fuss.
In terms of charity work, he is an official United Nations goodwill
ambassador and has his Roger Federer Foundation, which does good works
in his mother's native South Africa.
In The Roger Federer Story, there is an amusing vignette about his mother and her now widely acclaimed son.
Stauffer wrote: "Lynette Federer was astonished to read one of her
son's first interviews in a Swiss newspaper when he was still a
youngster. The question to Federer was, 'What would you buy with your
first prize money paycheque?' and the answer actually printed in the
paper was, 'A Mercedes.' Roger was still in school at the time and
didn't even have a driver's licence. His mother knew him well enough to
know that the answer couldn't be correct. She called the editors of the
paper and asked to hear the taped conversation. The mother's intuition
was correct. He really had said, 'More CDs.' "
Federer in Canada
2000: first round
(lost to Lleyton Hewitt)
2002: first round
(lost to Guillermo Canas)
2003: semi-final
(lost to Andy Roddick)
2004: champion
(defeated Andy Roddick)
2006: champion
(defeated Richard Gasquet)
|
