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Friday, August 17, 2007
Book Excerpt: The Roger Federer Story, Quest for Perfection
By US Open
The
following is an excerpt from "The Roger Federer Story, Quest for
Perfection," a book by esteemed Swiss tennis journalist Rene Stauffer
that was published by New Chapter Press. The book is now available in
bookstores and will be available for purchase at the USTA Bookstore at
the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the 2007 US
Open.
Chapter 34
Two New Friends: Woods and Sampras
When
Tiger Woods achieved the “Tiger Slam” in 2000 and 2001—winning all four
of golf’s major championships in a row—Roger Federer was not yet 20
years old. The way that Woods dominated golf and reignited interest in
the sport certainly caught the attention of the young Federer. However,
he never thought that he would ever be compared to someone as dominant
as Woods. “His story is completely different from mine,” he
said in the spring of 2006. “Even as a kid his goal was to break the
record for winning the most majors. I was just dreaming of just once
meeting Boris Becker or being able to play at Wimbledon some time.” Despite
their different developments and the differences between their sports,
the commonalities between Woods and Federer became unmistakable through
the years. Like the four-time Masters champion, Federer is in full
pursuit of sports history. While Woods is pursuing Jack Nicklaus and
his 18 major championships, Federer is chasing Pete Sampras and his 14
Grand Slam singles titles. Both Woods and Federer are amazing because
of their mental resilience, which is evident from the fact that they
manage to make the most terrific shots under the greatest of
difficulties. Unlike his parents, Roger Federer is not a
passionate golfer, but he follows Woods’ career with great interest.
“It would be interesting to meet him and to see what he’s like in
person,” Federer said in Key Biscayne in 2006. Both Federer and
Woods are clients of the International Management Group (IMG) and
Federer’s agent, Tony Godsick, is friends with Mark Steinberg, the
agent of Woods. In the summer of 2006, Federer asked Godsick if he
could arrange a meeting with Woods. “The next thing I heard was
that Woods would be delighted to come to the US Open final,” Federer
recollected. “At that time the tournament hadn’t even started. I would
have preferred meeting him in a more relaxed atmosphere than on the day
of the US Open final—and I still had to get there first.” The
public had no idea that a spectacular meeting was in the making behind
the scenes at the US Open. After Federer defeated the Russian Nikolay
Davydenko in the semifinals, he was informed that Woods was going to
make good on his promise. He flew to New York from Florida on his
private jet with his wife, Elin, to watch the US Open final in person. To
everyone’s surprise, Woods took a seat in Federer’s guest box—which was
quite noteworthy given the fact that Federer faced an American, Andy
Roddick, in the final. “The fact that Tiger was sitting there
put me under extra pressure,” Federer later admitted. “It was just like
when I was younger when my parents or Marc Rosset watched me play in
person. You want to play especially well.” Woods’ timing was
perfect. He watched and cheered as Federer won his third straight US
Open title, defeating the resurgent Roddick 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. For the
third year in a row, Federer won both Wimbledon and the US Open—a
record that he didn’t have to share with anyone. While Federer
briefly met Woods before the final, the two spent well over an hour
together in the locker room following the match, drinking Champagne and
gazing at the US Open trophy that Federer just won. Woods even talked
on the phone to Federer’s parents who were at home in bed as it was
nearly three in the morning in Switzerland. “I was impressed by
how much we had in common,” Federer explained when Woods was on his way
back to Florida. “He knew exactly what I was going through and I see
what he has to go through. I’ve never spoken with anybody who was so
familiar with the feeling of being invincible.” “It was
terrific for me to see him go into my player’s box, shake his fist, and
enjoy himself,” he recollected a few weeks later. “He was the loudest
one in my box. I was surprised how loose he was about it. He was happy
as a kid to be able to watch the final. I think we’ll do things
together more often.” The appearance of Woods at the 2006 US Open
final sparked more comparisons—and debates—between the two “athletes of
the century” as to who was greater and more dominant. With all due
respect to Woods, James Blake came out in favor of Federer. “In
tennis, it’s a tournament where you have one bad day and you’re out,”
said Blake. “That’s what we do every single week. Roger is winning
every Grand Slam except for the French, winning every Masters Series
tournament. That means he can’t have one bad day—that’s incredible. Not
to mention he has to be out here for four hours running as opposed to
walking while carrying one club—again not taking anything away from
golf. Tiger’s proven himself every Sunday every time he has a lead. But
look at Roger’s record in Grand Slam finals, too. In Grand Slam finals,
he’s 8-1. That’s unheard of.” The Woods camp and golf fans
pointed out that the American, in contrast to Federer, already won all
four major tournaments in his sport and instead of only having to
defeat seven opponents at the biggest tournaments, Woods had to fight
off around 150 contenders. Tennis aficionados emphasized that Grand
Slam tournaments lasted two weeks and not just four days and that in
tennis, having an off day is enough to get knocked out whereas in golf,
players could always save the day in such a situation. Still
others highlighted the commonalities between the two. “Despite their
total dominance, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer show a modest
self-discipline that would have impressed the most chivalrous medieval
knight,” the Daily Telegraph of Britain wrote. The Calgary Sun stated
unequivocally which of the two super athletes it favored—“(Federer) is
infinitely more human than Tiger Woods, more precise, more likable,
more honest, less robotic, seemingly enjoying his place as a tennis
player for the ages.” The Daily News of Los Angeles, by
contrast, questioned all of these comparisons. “You say the Swiss dude
is definitely the greatest tennis player of all time? Good, then we can
switch back to the Bengals-Chiefs. Equating Roger Federer to Tiger
Woods isn’t a backhanded compliment, it’s a forehanded insult. An
athlete of Federer’s all-around refinement deserves better than to be
defined in terms of another athlete.” After his US Open victory,
Federer returned home to Switzerland when he received a surprise phone
call. Pete Sampras, whose legacy and records were now one of Federer’s
biggest rivals, called to offer congratulations. “He had
already text messaged me three days ago and now he was calling me to
congratulate me personally,” said Federer shortly after the US Open.
“He asked if I had gotten the message. I said I was just about to
reply. It was almost embarrassing. Perhaps I should have replied
quicker.” Sampras told Federer how much he liked to watch him
play and emphasized that he now was more clearly dominant than he was
during his prime. “To hear something like this from him was
incredible,” Federer said. “It’s never happened to me before that my
earlier idol called me to compliment me.” Sampras and Federer
continued their text message relationship, with Sampras offering more
good wishes over the following few months. Before the tournament in
Indian Wells in March of 2007, Federer then took the initiative and
called Sampras, who meanwhile announced he was returning to competitive
tennis on the Champions circuit run by his contemporary Jim Courier. Federer
asked Sampras if he would like to hit some balls and train together. “I
wanted to see how well he could still play because, after all, he was
one of my favorite players growing up,” Federer explained. With a wink
in his eye and devilish grin, he then said, “beating him in his
backyard in Wimbledon was so special to me, so I wanted to try and beat
him in his house.” Federer and Sampras only played once during
their careers—the memorable round of 16 match at Wimbledon in 2001.
Late in Pete’s career, the two had one brief practice session together
in Hamburg. “It started to rain,” Federer recollected. “I was so
disappointed, but he was happy to get off.” After their
training session together in Los Angeles in the spring of 2007, Federer
expressed his surprise at how well Sampras could still keep up during
their practice session. “We played some great sets and tie-breaks. I’m
glad to see that he’s actually still enjoying tennis.” The scores of
these practice matches? “They’re secret,” Federer said. “Surprisingly,
he was very good, but not good enough to beat me!” Federer found
that he and Sampras shared many commonalities and could talk in great
detail of their respective lives and pressures on the tour, as well as
common experiences, experiences at particular tournaments and even
about players who they both played against. With Woods, this was not
the case. “Pete and I played the same tournaments and even
played against the same opponents,” Federer said. “I have much more in
common with Pete than I have with Tiger off court.” “When I was
new on the tour, I hardly ever spoke to Pete,” he continued. “First of
all, he was never around at the courts, and when he would come into the
locker room, everything was quiet because he was respected so much by
all the other players.” Several years later, Federer finally got a
chance to find out what made Sampras so unique and what brought him so
close to perfection. Before the end of 2006, Federer received
another opportunity for an in-person visit with Woods. Just two months
after the US Open, Federer, Tony Roche and Mirka Vavrinec followed
Woods for six holes in the first round of the HSBC Golf Championship at
the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai before the Tennis Masters Cup. Woods
shot a mediocre round of 72 on the day—“Unfortunately, I was hitting
wild shots everywhere,” he said. Woods finished second in
Shanghai that week but Federer one-upped him and put forth plenty of
fireworks en route to winning his third Tennis Masters Cup title.
Unlike the previous three years, Federer arrived at the Tennis Masters
Cup after an extremely successful fall season and without any major
injuries. After the US Open, he returned to Davis Cup play,
guiding Switzerland to victory over Serbia—and back into the Davis Cup
World Group—defeating both Janko Tipsarevic and Novak Djokovic in
singles. He then traveled to Japan for the first time in his
life and defeated Tim Henman to win the title in Tokyo. Two weeks
later, he won his first title on Spanish soil, defeating Fernando
Gonzalez of Chile to win the Masters Series event in Madrid. A week
later, Federer achieved one of his most important career goals when he
finally won his hometown event—the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Federer
again met Gonzalez in the final, and after his 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3)
victory, he celebrated by buying and eating pizza with the ball kids at
the St. Jakobshalle. He did not forget that years before, he too was a
ball kid at the event. In Shanghai, Federer’s lone challenger
ended up being Roddick, who held three match points against him in
their round-robin match before faltering. After an impressive semifinal
win over his chief rival Rafael Nadal, Federer trounced Blake, the
surprise finalist, 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 to win the championship. “I’ve
never seen any one play better tennis,” Roche said exuberantly. The
title was Federer’s first in China and his win over Blake extended his
winning streak to 29 matches. After Federer’s dream year, the
tennis history books were again revised. Although he only competed in
17 tournaments during the 2006 season, he earned $8,343,885 in prize
money, besting Pete Sampras’ record by nearly two million dollars. “The
Masters title in Shanghai is the perfect end to an incredible season,”
said Federer, who reached the final of 16 of the 17 events he played,
while winning a career-best 12 titles. With a 92-5 won-loss
record, he became the first player since 1982 to win over 90 matches in
a single season. Federer was also the first professional player to win
at least 10 tournaments three years in a row. In retrospect, he
was only two sets shy of becoming the third man to win the Grand Slam.
Had he not lost the four-set final to Nadal at the French Open, a Grand
Slam would have been achieved, although the pressure he would have
faced at Wimbledon and the US Open would have been, of course, much
more intense.
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