![]() ![]() His game was art, but it wasn’t just for art’s sake anymore. By beating the game’s two biggest servers on grass, Federer showed that tennis’ future wasn’t going to be one long rock fight after all. Two days later, Federer dismantled Mark Philippoussis with the same varied arsenal for the title. A shoe-top backhand for a winner brought gasps from the audience and a wry smile from Roddick. With 17 aces, he held his own with Roddick’s serve, and he was better when the rallies began. In a straight-set win, Federer made permanent converts of the Wimbledon crowd with his stylish command of Centre Court. The collision between them came in the semifinals, and the verdict was swift. Federer had also won a Wimbledon tune-up tournament, in Halle, but Roddick’s sonic serve, rather than Federer’s old-fashioned finesse, looked like the future. At Wimbledon in 2003, the 20-year-old American, who had won at Queen’s Club the week before, appeared ready to grab the baton from Sampras. One missile thrower, Pete Sampras, was leaving the stage, while the next, Andy Roddick, was making his entrance. Those words sum up why a lot of Fed fans became Fed fans: He saved them from a future of serve wars and power play, which is where men’s tennis seemed to be heading at the turn of the century. “I thought tennis was boring then, all about the serve, and here’s this guy who’s making it artful again,” says longtime Federer fan Caroline Potter, thinking back to her first sightings of the Swiss in the early 2000s. In that time, he helped kick off a 21st-century golden age, and lift the ceiling on what we thought was possible in tennis. And he showed that a champion’s reign doesn’t have to end at 30, or even 35.įederer has been with us for so long, some might not appreciate how much the pro game evolved during his two-decade tenure. He brought a new emotional openness, in victory and defeat. He made the men’s tour a friendlier place to play. He made the game more appealing to watch. ![]() While he may not be crowned the game’s GOAT, Federer should be remembered for something just as important: Few players have changed tennis for the better in so many ways. Over the past quarter century, from his ATP debut in 1998 to his final bow at his own event, the Laver Cup, in 2022, most of us watched Federer every chance we could. Watch Federer blend grace and purpose, aesthetics and achievement. Watch him stick a volley with the stillest of racquet heads. Watch him begin his serve so easily and finish it so explosively. Watch him pounce on a forehand and follow it forward in one seamless motion. Watch him, Wallace might have said, rise up on his right toe like a ballet dancer and sweep through the long arc of his one-handed backhand. Look at that.” Those were the final nine words of the many thousands that made up David Foster Wallace’s celebrated 2006 essay “Federer as Religious Experience.” After expounding on the athletic genius and philosophical significance of the young man already known as the Maestro, the late novelist chose to conclude with the simplest of sports-fan appeals: ![]()
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