The Swiss Master

I spent two weeks with my stomach in knots, as I have for the last four years.  And then finally, when it was all over, I cried in triumph and relief.  I can only imagine how Roger Federer felt.  After all, I spent two weeks worried--for him.  When he made history and won the French Open, I cried for him.  As I said, I can only imagine how Roger felt as he cried for himself on the trophy stand.

I don’t relate to athletes beyond their athletic personae.  At least, I don’t want to relate.  I don’t want to know who my athletic stars are beyond their abilities on the field of battle.  I don’t want to know about their lives, psyches or petty indulgences.  If they operate within the rules of their sport, that’s all I ask.  That, and greatness.

That’s pretty much all I know about Roger Federer.  He is the greatest player I have ever watched and I have spent years annoying people with this statement.  I make it as a statement, by the way.  I spent my life in tennis and he’s the best yet.

This is where my bias comes to play.  I was a good player, but I was a great coach.  I took many young bodies and made them into champion athletes.  I taught them along the fundamental lines that have guided tennis players since the beginning of the sport.  So frankly, while I believe that Rafael Nadal is the best clay court player ever, what he does you can’t teach.  You can’t teach regular humans to race around the court, hiding their backhands and blasting forehand winners until their bodies collapse.  Anyone can play the way Roger plays; he just does it better than anyone else who ever laced ‘em up.  And he makes it look easy.

Tennis is special and spiritual to me, but in the end it is just a sport and therefore Roger’s greatness can be analyzed in an athletic context. Roger possesses the complete package.  Every champion needs at least one great shot to go with a sound serve and return.  Roger has the best forehand in tennis and superior serves and returns.  In sports, speed kills, and Roger is the fastest player in tennis.  He is the most alert, quickest to jump on any short or weak shot by his opponent.  He is lightest on his feet.  Roger has never defaulted from a tournament because of an injury in his career.  Nearly every current top player has either missed tournaments or been diminished by nagging aches and pains, but not Roger.  Even more impressive, in an age when players have managers, coaches, trainers and nutritionists, all as part of a larger entourage, Roger is a relative ascetic.  He has traveled with only his girlfriend—now his wife--for years.

In fact, everything else pales compared to his record which is, frankly, incomparable.  When Roger won the French, it was his 14^th Grand Slam title and tied him with Pete Sampras for the all-time record.  More important, it made Roger just the sixth man in the history of the sport to win all four majors in a career. 

But more stunning was his achievement a few days earlier.  When Federer reached the French Open semis, it was the 20^th straight time he had reached the final four in a major championship.  It extended Roger’s own all-time record, which is double what any previous player has ever done.  It means that for the last five years, in every major championship, Roger was always there, always healthy, always ready and always a contender.  A streak of tennis this great has never happened before in my lifetime and when Roger is done I’m sure it will never happen again.

Still, as great as he is, it was no guarantee of immortality.  Federer’s game sets up perfectly for Raffa Nadal, who beat Roger four years in a row in Paris.  Nadal is a lefty whose forehand rolls up nicely to handcuff Federer’s one hand backhand.  Roger needed help to win this year.  He could beat everyone else in the field and needed someone to beat Nadal.  When Robin Soderling lent a helping hand, the road to history was open for Roger.  Now all he needed was a champion’s heart to close the deal.

It is perhaps that heart, most hidden and hardest to quantify that is Roger’s greatest asset.  Many champions deal with victory, but how about defeat?  Federer enjoyed huge success against everyone else, but Nadal has owned him.  After destroying Roger in Paris last year and upsetting him at Wimbledon, I was one of many who said Roger would never win another major.  He promptly won the next one.  When he lost this year in Australia (to Nadal!), I was one of many who said he was finished.  He promptly finished the career Grand Slam.

I like to think I understand tennis well enough to understand how good Roger Federer is, but of course I’ve just proved I don’t.  I like to think I understand what beats in the heart of a champion, but Roger Federer has a depth to him which far outstrips anything in my sporting experience.  So I find myself doing what the other fans do.  I cheer for him and I worry for him.  And when Roger Federer makes history, I cry.  Just like my hero.