I started writing my Peter Bodo’s TennisWorld blog in 2005, almost two years after Roger Federer won his first Grand Slam event, at Wimbledon. Over the ensuing years, as TennisWorld evolved into the most popular tennis-related weblog, I wrote —literally—reams of posts about Federer, both while covering events in which he was entered and between times, when I was moved to write what is commonly known as a “think piece.”
As I write this, Federer is 30 years old and the all-time male Grand Slam singles champion. He’s still going strong, as his brilliant record between the US Open of 2011 and late May of 2012 amply demonstrates. Yet it’s become harder and harder for him to mount the required resistance against two much younger rivals, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. He hasn’t won a Grand Slam tournament in two-and-a-half years.
This tells me it’s a good time to collect some of what I consider my best work about Federer. I’ve selected what I feel are my most interesting posts, culled mainly from that golden middle period of his career (2006-2009). While I believe many of Federer’s interesting and memorable adventures occurred at sub-Grand Slam tournaments, most of the posts collected here are from the Big Four events, the Grand Slams around which the tennis world revolves—the Australian, French and US Opens and Wimbledon.
I hope that these posts not only do justice to Roger, and shed light on his beautiful game and deceptively compelling personality (has there ever been a great, great athlete less seemingly affected by an unprecedented degree of success?).
However, I have to caution those who are expecting pure hagiography—I’ve tried to keep a level head and appreciate not only the accomplishments and personality of the man, but to identify and analyze what shortcomings he’s had, or mistakes he’s made. That’s a critic’s job, and the combination of my 40 years of experience covering tennis and my evolution into an opinion journalist has turned me into just that.
Long time readers of TennisWorld know that I have consistently referred to Federer as “The Mighty Fed (TMF).” I liked the sound of that, because of the overtones the I can best describe as cartoonish (I often called his great rival Rafael Nadal “Jet Boy” for the self-same reason). I felt at the time that those nicknames would add a bit of whimsy and levity to our discussions of these somewhat larger-than-life characters, and somewhat alleviate the temptation to treat these sports heroes as demi-gods.
At first, I was unsure of just how to organize the material I had, given how much of it is rooted in daily coverage of Roger’s matches. I finally settled on creating three loose categories: The Man, The Matches, and The Rivals.
In the first of those sections, The Man, I am including mostly interpretive posts about Federer’s character and personality, both as a competitor and a human being.
In The Matches, I focus on some of his greatest wins as well as some toughest losses; every portrait of an individual, especially an athlete who competes as frequently as TMF, is incomplete if you leave out the difficult bits.
In The Rivals, I include posts about the men who have given him the most trouble or had a long and rich history with him.
There is admittedly some overlap between these categories; the posts don’t fit quite so neatly into predetermined niches—not least because they were all written on the trot, influenced by the events, mood, and ambience of the day and event. Taken together, I hope they convey a sense of where Federer—and his rivals—were at specific times in recent years. And I hope the end result is a kind of living, day-by-day history of Federer at the peak of his career.
In the interest of clarity and continuity, I’ve made some minor revisions to some of these posts, and I added a brief introductory note as a preface to each one.
Pete Bodo, New York, June 2012