The tennis world says goodbye to one of its coolest champions. After 24 years, many trophies and a career that will never be forgotten…
To realize how long Roger Federer has been a part of our lives, we can start by trying to remember what the world was like in 1998 when we met him. Titanic was recently released and became a worldwide gross movie in history, Britney Spears had just sung her debut song Baby One More Time, Apple released the first iMac model, Michael Jordan was actively playing basketball. The speed that any internet user could find was a maximum of one sixtieth of the current average, and the number of resources it could find was a few billion fewer than today. Facebook would be founded six years later, YouTube seven, Twitter eight, and Instagram 12 years later. It took two years for Galatasaray to win the UEFA Cup, and the National Team to be third in the world four years. Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were storming the courts, and the Williams sisters were portrayed as future stars in women’s tennis. There were still years before the birth of Carlos Alcaraz, the current world number 1 in men’s tennis, and Iga Swiatek, the owner of the top in women…
Of course, although Federer turned pro in 1998, he did not start winning as early as his big rival Rafael Nadal. 2003 for the first Grand Slam trophy would wait until 2004 to become world No. 1 for the first time. In 2001, he made his name known to everyone by defeating his idol Sampras in the fourth round of Wimbledon, and he would struggle with the expectations created by this match for a while. While the new star candidates of the depressed men’s tennis, where Sampras and Agassi came to an end, were names like Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and Marat Safin, the Swiss would proceed more quietly and deeply. Once he took the top, he would never look back and create his own reality by crushing almost every opponent in his generation. The results of the chain reaction it creates; Nadal and Novak Djokovic surpassed him in slam titles today. Moreover, Federer maintain to struggle with those other legends, playing finals and sometimes winning even when he left his best years behind.
Federer owed his longevity to his superhuman skills, having played 1526 singles matches and won 1251 of them in his career. We are talking about someone who acts like a ballet dancer on the court, applies every stroke in the book exactly as it is written in the book, and pretends it is the easiest thing when playing tennis at an unbelievable level… Besides, Federer’s aura created with the elegance of his playing style in the first place makes him one of the best marketed faces in the history of sports, one would do. As today’s most famous luxury watch manufacturer Rolex does not have a more well-known and identified face with the brand. It is even more possible to put the Federer-Rolex partnership before the James Bond-Omega partnership. For 20 years, it has been knocked on the door by many brands that want to sell perfection. Top sponsors such as Nike, Uniqlo, Wilson, Mercedes, Barilla, Gillette, Moet & Chandon, Lindt and Credite Suisse made him tennis’ first billionaire. “His Highness” became the highest paid athlete of the year, earning $106 million in revenue in 2020, when he appeared on the court only six times.
We watched an icon who changed his world in 24 years, in which the world has evolved into a completely different place. Roger Federer, who earned more than his predecessors both on and off the court, grew his sport with what he could do and left an unforgettable legacy behind. For this reason, even its big rivals, which are more successful in terms of sports, can still be overshadowed at some points. The absence of the legend, who will be on the court professionally for the last time in the 2022 Laver Cup, will leave a huge void. And even if better ones come from him, there will not be another Roger Federer who can fill this void.
