There are those inevitable events for which we refuse to prepare. Too painful. The announcement of Roger Federer’s retirement is undoubtedly one of them. No one wanted to imagine what tennis would be like without the Swiss. But now we have to face the facts. The Swiss ended up saying stop, after 20 Grand Slam titles in almost 25 years of career. Before the last strokes of the master’s racket, from Friday during the Laver Cup, 20 Minutes devotes a series of articles to the one who will remain a legend of the game. First episode this Monday, our readers’ tribute to the huge career of Rodgeur.
There are many ways to grieve. Some people need to speak, over and over again, to evacuate the overflow of emotion, others can only line up a few words, their throats knotted. Saying goodbye to someone is above all an inner journey. So of course, we are only talking about the sporting death of a man, but when it comes to Roger Federer, everything always takes on disproportionate proportions. The Swiss, such a talented, elegant player, made an impression beyond the world of tennis. Many of our readers wanted to contribute to this tribute paper. Each in their own way.
” Respect. The best”, soberly comments Marylin, who is one of the modest people. They are a few in this case, like Anne (“simply The Best”) or François: “Federer will remain the best player of all time. Absolute class. Perhaps it is also that there is nothing more to say. Rodgeur’s career, 20 Grand Slam titles, 103 ATP trophies in total, more than 1,300 victories on the circuit and 310 cumulative weeks at the rank of world number 1, speaks for itself. The Swiss has no equivalent in the history of the game.
Some were lucky enough to see him play. Sometimes very young, like Jean-Pierre, who unearths a memory of the early 90s. , hit that ball. It was already impressive and this image of him has always stayed with me, ”he wrote to us. Former regional technical adviser to the FFT, Serge “had the pleasure of seeing him live a few times”. We understand from his testimony that he has never enjoyed watching tennis so much. “It was beyond anything you could see in a champion,” he observes.
Among the fans, there are several categories. The weighted ones, with the height of view befitting Her Majesty. Take Pierre, for example, who sent us a short paragraph that fits perfectly with the image of the ideal son-in-law of Basel. “A champion with a great sense of the game, elegant, fair play, sober, warm, coupled with a good man, with a perfect image, who has given us so many good times, he writes. Bravo and respect. “We will also remember the word of Laurence, who evokes” an exceptional player at all levels “. “His technique, his sportsmanship, his kindness and his track record make him a fabulous champion who will have marked his era and who has entered sporting history, she compliments. Simply thank you Roger Federer for allowing us to spend extraordinary moments. »
Archivists…
And then there are die-hard fans, the kind who can skip their own mother’s birthday to see the master at work. In this category, our champion will remain Damien, whom we imagine in tears when he heard the news on Thursday. “I was screaming, crying, singing, hoping, screaming, stressing, when Federer was playing. Never has an athlete made me feel this way, describes our reader. Once the TV was off, I moved on, but with Federer I felt like someone in my family was playing. I followed him everywhere in Europe when I could. These were magical moments that I will treasure all my life. Courage for the future, Damien.
In another genre, we flushed out some fine specimens of those who could be called the archivists. We’re talking about people who occasionally watch a short video of a big victory for Rodgeur, during lunch break or between two slides of Jean-Michel’s latest PowerPoint presentation at the office. Their leader: Julien, who must know Fed’s career better than Fed himself.
Judge instead: “He is my idol. His final against Hewitt in 2004 in the US amazed me and awakened a passion for tennis that has never died out. I cried when he won Roland in 2009. Thank you for the 2011 half against djoko, for the first months of 2017 when he was huge and offensive, and the years 2005-2006-2007, unplayable ❤️! Wim 2019 remains a heartbreaker but at 37 he beat Nadal in the half and dominated a huge Djoko in the final, which he should have won. Matches that marked me: against Del Potro at the Australian Open in 2009, against Blake at the Masters in 2006, against Murray) Wim in 2015, against Nadal in Miami in 2017. And then the finals of Wimbledon 2008 and 2019, defeats but sensational. LEGEND ! »
The catalog is complete. Jean-Marc, also a fine connoisseur, does not quote as many but catches up on the details. “I remember his victory at the Australian Open 2017 against Nadal. He returns after 6 months off, has not won a Grand Slam since 2012 and beats the Spaniard for the first time since 2007 in the final of a Major. His defeat in the final at Wimbledon 2019 against Djokovic, too. 40-15 on his serve, two match points. If he could have replayed these two points, 99/100, he wins. “It is this kind of defeat which has also magnified the course of the Swiss, as we wrote in this paper last week.
…and the fan’s GOAT
Finally, there are the fans who no longer know how to stop. Who need to dump everything to fill the void that will inevitably settle. Tristan laid a pavement of 3,000 characters to tell us about the unique bond that was woven with Roger Federer, without even knowing him. The kind of testimony on the border between the magnificent and the scary, so much the Swiss was present in his everyday life. To the point of considering him as “a friend never met”. “He is the one on all my passwords, the one I spent twice a day on Google, the one who kept in touch with distant friends by sharing articles or videos, relates Tristan. I even see myself sometimes having the same approach as you, these moments when I happen to think of you are quite irrational, I realize it and I don’t care. »
But wait, the best is yet to come. His devotion even goes so far as to interfere in the choice of the first name of his children. He continues, speaking directly to his idol: “My eldest daughter, older than yours, is called Rose (this name obviously speaks to you), my son is called Côme and I wanted Rodgeur as a third name. My wife grumbled because she knew I wanted to put “on” in the middle name, which would have made Come On Rodgeur. “While specifying that this is a” true story “. It will be understood, Federer accompanied every moment of the life of Tristan, who watched his matches “on [son] sofa, on the train, in his room, at the office”, who spoke about him “to everyone”, who has in his library three biographies and a novel devoted to the Swiss, and who “only eats [ses] pasta “. True story, once again. The worst part (or the best?) is that we are sure that there are plenty of Tristans all over the world. Don’t ask them what they are going to do next weekend.