Roger Federer's 40th birthday - Nuremberg, New York, the world
Anyone who has spoken to Roger Federer for a few minutes will know that the Swiss have been the greatest ambassador for tennis for at least the last decade. A few personal lines for tomorrow's 40th birthday.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Aug 07, 2021, 04:24 pm
René Stauffer, the great Swiss journalist and biographer of Roger Federer, once said that Federer never forgets when and where he first saw someone. And what the circumstances are. With Sascha Bandermann, himself an ex-professional and meanwhile deeply connected to tennis as a TV commentator and presenter, Federer always asks about the family's well-being before every professional conversation.
Well then, Maestro: Nuremberg, December 11th, 2004. “Wetten, dass ..?” Was due, Roger Federer was invited as a sponsor, the author had to do with the show at the time. Federer came with the victory at the ATP Finals in Houston (at the mattress king!) In his luggage, which of course was by far not enough to ask him to sit on the couch early on in the show. Thomas Gottschalk and the athletes, that was only in the rarest of cases a fruitful exchange.
Roger Federer, at that time just 23 years old and not quite as fit in terms of hairstyle as in later career years, was unsuspecting and guarded in the backstage area. The tennis fan in the author hesitated. And then it got weak. Federer kindly had a conversation forced on him that he would not have needed. But just before Christmas 2004 it became clear what makes the now 40-year-old grandmaster off the field: courtesy, eloquence - and a great deal of curiosity. Which could be satisfied, at least in terms of the processes of Europe's largest TV show.
Federer, on the other hand, told how difficult it was for him as a junior to break away from his home. And that Lleyton Hewitt, whom he had mercilessly pulled off in the Houston final, was actually a very sociable guy in real life.
Roger Federer speaks all languages
Roger Federer's best years in sport were to follow, with four more titles en suite at the US Open, several triumphs at Wimbledon, the long-awaited victory in Roland Garros in 2009. But the reporter did not see Federer again until the middle the 2010s, but then under different conditions: Here the press representatives, there number one or two or three in the world, whatever the world rankings just spat out.
Press conferences with Roger Federer were and are not always a festival of good humor, there have been occasions when the boss himself would have preferred to do something different than answer the same questions over and over again. But that is exactly one of the great qualities of the jubilee: he takes every question seriously, treats it as if it were the most important, most interesting, most exciting that he has ever been asked. And that in English, French, German and Swiss German. Federer is also said to be very good in Italian.
Almost alone with the maestro
In exceptional cases, the distance is not quite as great as in the press rooms, even at the US Open you could get closer. In the players' area there is a small garden where the Swiss journalists usually have a few moments alone with their biggest star on Media Day. In pre-Corona times, mind you. In 2017 it happened that, for some inexplicable reason, no federal colleague was in New York City that early. But only the great Doris Henkel, who works for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for example, and the author, an Austrian who is slightly in love with tennis. The short conversation was primarily about the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor - and ended with our offer to contribute something, if the financial means in the Federer team were not enough, the whole thing via pay-per-view to watch.
Will Roger Federer go down in tennis history as the best player? Judging by the successes, it is very likely not. But as the greatest ambassador for at least the last decade? Of course!. Anyone who manages, for example, to have the majority of the extremely patriotic US audience on Labor Day in a night session against the only promising local hero John Isner as behind them as Federer at the US Open 2015, must have done a lot right. And that doesn't even include his humanitarian commitment off the court. An appreciation of the foundation's work would go beyond the scope here.
Should it come to the threatened one-time reprint of "Wetten, dass ..?" And Roger Federer will be on the guest list: He would have to be the first in the spotlight. Even if someone backstage fell over to a really big conversation.
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