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August 10, 2007
Looking for a hero? Try Mr. Federer
By Damien Cox, Toronto Star
There's a clever headline to a column in a recent edition of Sports Illustrated on the angry welts and bruises that have covered the international sports landscape this summer. It
applies mostly to the U.S., naturally, but the headline borrows a riff
from Simon and Garfunkel by wondering, "The Nation Turns Its Lonely
Eyes to ... Who?" It's not just a plea for a hero. It's a
desperate plea for even a reasonable candidate. A possibility. Someone
currently not under a cloud, or under suspension, or being asked to
return a medal or a title. That, of course, is somewhat of an
exaggeration. There are plenty of fine characters out there, many true
sportsmen and quality citizens. Here in Toronto, you could cite Pinball
Clemons, Mats Sundin and Doc Halladay as sports personalities that make
you proud to say they reside in this community. But that's very
different from a search for a new DiMaggio to complete the
aforementioned lyrics, someone recognizable on the larger world stage,
someone revered and admired in Europe and Asia and the United States. Someone
to offer the sports fans a little encouragement amidst the doping
scandals, dog-fighting horror stories and betting allegations. Roger
Federer, in an ideal world, could be that guy. He is, after all,
possibly the greatest to ever lift a tennis racquet, arguably the
world's top individual athlete at the moment. He's a player of whom
rival Andy Roddick once said, "I'd like to hate him, but he's just too
nice." He speaks multiple languages, shares his life between
Switzerland, Dubai and various international stops, funds a foundation
to help African children and treats people with remarkable
consideration and patience. Right now, he's charming Montreal,
and in return he was serenaded with renditions of "Happy Birthday" on
Wednesday night on the grounds of old Jarry Park as he celebrated
turning 26 with a victory over gargantuan Ivo Karlovic. So far,
Federer has been untainted by scandal or even controversy. He defended
Wimbledon this summer when every other player was attacking it for
allowing Mother Nature to rain too much. The most controversial things
he's ever done is break a bunch of racquets when he was a teenager and
relieve part-time coach Tony Roche of his duties earlier this season. Hardly ground-shaking stuff. Not a dog carcass to be found. So Federer could be that guy, that athlete to whom the greater sports nation turns its lonely eyes. But
quite probably, Federer can't be that guy. For starters, tennis may be
knee-deep in its own new scandal, with an ongoing investigation probing
possible match-fixing. Moreover, multiple drug suspensions in recent
years suggest the sport may not be as clean as once believed. Not a
whiff of this has touched the smooth, incredibly consistent Federer,
but he is still of that game, of that industry. Tennis, quite
simply, just doesn't have that kind of punching power any more, and
hasn't since the days of Bjorn Borg. Indeed, when Federer won his
record-tying fifth consecutive title at Wimbledon last month, the very
same SI put David Beckham on its cover. Now Beckham, back
with the English national side, may not be quite as washed up as some
thought. But Federer is in his absolute prime, and his cosmopolitan
polish stands in stark contrast to the trashier glam-rock effect of
Becks and Posh. The fear here is that Federer will never get the
acclaim he truly deserves, particularly in North America, both because
of the relative unpopularity of tennis and because it appears unlikely
he will ever be inclined to strike a bad-boy pose. But if we beg
for sporting heroes and we ignore those that appear, you have to really
wonder if the request was sincere in the first place.
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