The Roger Federer impact - What it would mean when this man walks away

Roger Federer – An inspiration to millions across the globe

Federer’s game does all the talking

Wimbledon began yesterday and the best of tennis converges on the hallowed lawns to compete for the fabled trophy over the next fortnight. But there’s a certain 33-year-old in a bandana who begins his journey today, whose shadow falls the longest across the gilded grass, and for some of us our eyes will only be for this individual. For we live with the mortal fear of seeing the last of him, everytime he steps onto court these days.

And those of you who don’t understand why, because he’s had enough after all, I want to explain why. And yes, though I write this article as a Fed fanatic some of you who cringe already don’t need to, for I promise I won’t gloat about topics that have been exhausted to death about him.

I don’t want to write about the ethereal beauty of his game, or his silken movements along the court. Nor do I want to talk about his superhuman statistics. They’re all a Google search away, be my guest. Nor do I want to talk about his defeats, or how he reinvented himself in the latter half of his storied career.

A couple of months ago, when the Fed-retirement-fear was getting too loud in my head, I was convinced I needed to do an article on this. But I was also wondering on what to write since every possible topic about him has already been covered! In my frantic search, I started skimming through old YouTube videos of him and browsed other articles. One thing was obvious - there was no shortage of material.

Federer – A calm warrior

As a legendary sports athlete and global icon, Roger Federer exists in multiple spheres. YouTube channels are littered with videos covering every aspect of his game and every facet of his glittering life off the courts. His Twitter following reads 3 million and Facebook has crossed over 14. The paraphernalia around Roger Federer fandom is something hard to describe. So naturally, I did not have a shortage of materials.

But I wanted to bring up a slightly different angle. The effects that this man has had on some of us who’ve grown up watching him play over the last decade. And the effects that he has had over tennis, in general. And in all my searches the most valuable thing I came upon were... a friend or two. Yes, I discovered I was far from being alone in my craziness. Sample this memoir by William Skidelsky, for instance. He talks about how Federer actually revived his interest in tennis, and was a force of constancy through years of a troubled life, how he managed to overcome his boyhood identity crises and insecurities.

Indeed, the serene Swiss has been a symbol of stability, an ideal rooted in firmness that won’t just fade away and crumble like everything else in this crazy world. Federer was a means of escape to a finer place, from the mundane grime and sludge. He played an artistic, beautiful game that still carried an element of fragility. He was not a power packed, chest-banging warrior with a battle yawp. He was a bit of a combination of a Zorro with his flashing blade, and a graceful ballet dancer.

He seems to hover above the tennis court, and if you shut out everything else, turn down the volume for once and just only watch his movements, I swear to you he seems to carry a jetpack with neon streaks coming out of him, gliding 2 inches above the surface. He was ruthlessly dominant in his prime (upto about ’09), but never seemed like it.

The Swiss maestro defined consistency

It was as if you could always identify him with the underdogs, something about him was too virtuoso, not bulletproof for this brutal world, parts of his mentality seemed almost fickle, yet he hardly ever caved. Therefore it was that much easy to identify with him, root for him, yet always look upto him as something shinier, existing on a higher realm than our corporal reality. As Forster Wallace had once put it “a creature both flesh and light”.

At a time when tennis was on the threshold of becoming too boring, with the power-dominated baseline game of the Hewitts and the Safins, Federer released us. He brought his touch and finesse, and his subtlety. He showed us how angles can be generated through a twitch of the wrist. He showed also how it’s possible to both attack and defend, both volley and hit passing shots. How to read the opponents game and manipulate spaces in the court through movement.

It was because he made things so interesting and was so phenomenally consistent, apart from his off-court persona that he brought many followers from the outside into tennis. Over the last decade or so, he has been a big part of what’s made the game so global. Sure the rivalries between him and Nadal, him and Djokovic, Djokovic and Nadal all helped, and they’re all great players in their own right. But the Federer’s of the world are once-in-a-lifetime, and I don’t see him being replaced anytime soon.

Federer, the fighter

But even outside of tennis, the elegant maestro represents a complete package. For a while, his perfect life dangled before us, like a blemishless shrine, but on closer look it showed cracks. The last few years has held plenty of challenges for him, some of his losses were shattering, injuries crept up on him, form left him high and dry and critics pronounced the end of his world many times.

He responded with a refreshing attitude to each tribulation, vowed to work hard and come back. He did so without complaining and without ever forgetting to look at the brighter side of things.

It is these characteristics that mark Federer the man, and as an ambassador of the game. He gave us more than tennis alone. He gave us a narrative of triumph, of love for victory over fear of defeat, of effort over complaining, of showing up over surrendering; an ideal of constancy, something to always strive for. And as long as he’s there, it seems somewhere in this world great things still live!

There is only one Federer

Wimbledon week has begun and the Djokovic’s and Murray’s and Nadal’s seem to be in their last leagues. The new generation of the Raonic’s and Nishikori’s and the Kyrgios’s will also be there and I will be searching frantically among them for a champion. But one like Federer will not be there, and cannot be sighted anywhere among the up and coming.

But no matter, all those wonderful things he’s taught us over a decade will remain with us long after the master has bowed out, and long after those “Come on, Roger!” chants will cease to reverberate in stands around the world. Until that moment, let’s make the most of what we’re still lucky to get out of this man.