COVER STORY: May 2008

 

Read more … Thus Spoke Roger Federer: the IT interview

The greatest recluse in the history of the game, Helen Wills Moody, finally chatted with me. Time and again, I spoke with Arthur Ashe and I rode down a German autobahn with Boris Becker.

Getting face time with Roger Federer was different.

It took me four years, during which the Swiss wonder reeled off the greatest hot streak in tennis history. He camped at No. 1 for 219 weeks (and counting.) He averaged just five losses a year, something even Pete, Andre, McEnroe and Lendl couldn’t achieve. He reached 10 Grand Slam finals in a row and won three Slam titles in three of the past four years. Except for a guy named Rafa, he dominated waves of top-10 players.  Just ask Roddick, Blake, Hewitt or Agassi.

Maybe that’s the reason the guy was tough to get to. Over the years, I went through different generations of ATP handlers. His agent, Tony Godsick and I became pals as year after year the IMG exec advised me, “Be patient. It will be good once it happens.” E-mails from Federer’s companion Mirka, saying “Sorry, dearest Bill” became treasured rejection slips, which carried a certain cache. As the years passed, I offered to go to Cincy, Switzerland or South Africa. No deal. Finally, at this year’s Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, I just threw my hands up, gave up and literally took a hike through a dreamy desert Indian Canyon beyond Palm Springs.

When I emerged from my walkabout, my cell phone rang. IT managing editor Matt Cronin was on the line, offering just a one-word comment, “6:15.”

“What?” I replied.

“Your interview with Roger is at 6:15. Get yourself out here.” I quickly lost my boots and grabbed my tape recorder. Once there, the ATP’s Nicola Arzani explained that maybe Tommy Haas’ withdrawal that day had at last been my stroke of luck. “What did you do to Haas?” Nicola joked. “Look, I didn’t poison the guy like in Moscow,” I countered.

Of course the prevailing question these days has been “Wuz up with Roger Federer?” The Miami Herald recently put it this way: “When you dominate a sport the way Roger Federer has, when you go 252-16 in a three-year span, win 24 finals in a row and reach such an elite status that you receive text messages from Tiger Woods on a regular basis, it naturally flows that if you lose three matches and win no titles by the end of March, it could be viewed as a mini-crisis.”

No wonder all of tennis wondered, “What’s wrong with Roger?” when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the Aussie Open semis. But Djokovic is a proven contender.  Perhaps it was a standard opening-match hiccup when Andy Murray dismissed Roger in his first match in Dubai. Then came the shocking reality of No. 98 Mardy Fish flattening Federer in Indian Wells. After all, Federer had won 41 matches in a row against Americans and had not lost to anyone that low since ‘85. But Federer-always cool and controlled- is hardly one to panic. “I am happy with this week [in Indian Wells],” he said.  “It’s hard to judge my loss in the semis because Mardy...took everything on the rise... He was almost impossible to beat. But, all in all, I am happy.”

Tennis presumed Roger would at last right his wobbly ship in Miami, but big-serving Andy Roddick stepped up to beat his nemesis for the first time in 11 matches. Now the  “Wuz wrong with Roger?” chorus sang louder than ever.

Certainly, the mono he suffered late last year had taken its toll.  Although Fed said the disease “did not disturb me in a crazy way,” maybe he’s not quite over it yet. Against Fish, he did look a half-step slower, at least for one day. And then, against Roddick, this master returner suddenly forgot to return serve and that you should never, ever, play a sloppy game on your own serve midway through the third set.  Roddick himself noted, “As an athlete, you have to come every day and beat the guy across the net from you. If you lose a couple matches in a row, that’s going to affect you. I don’t care if you’re Albert Einstein at the Intelligence Olympics.”

Maybe it’s the lack of matches that is affecting this well-practiced surgeon — he’s only played 15 in the first quarter of the year.  Clearly, he doesn’t have as much confidence in shots at closing time, but that doesn’t mean his kind of heavenly bravado won’t return with a certain “Federerian” vengeance.

Roger is 26 and he certainly has set such an incredibly high Himalayan standard and has created lofty expectations no human could be expected to meet. Like every great champion before him, he was due for at least a mini-slump. It happened to Tilden, Laver, Sampras, Agassi. Plus the young lions of the game, especially the sharp-clawed Djokovic, are smelling blood and no longer stand in trepidation as the mighty Fed does his “I’m Roger and you’re not” thing.

The question remains — is this just a blip in the imposing career of Federer? One wonders, is this merely a mid-course correction or a temporary downturn that could well be reversed as he stands triumphant for the first time in Paris or renews his usual pilgrimages to victory celebrations at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Roger himself said, “I’m trying to bounce back.   It’s exciting with the new players coming up. They’ve been announced a long time ago, and finally are making their move... It’s good times in tennis right now...There’s obviously somebody who is going to have a chance to be No.1.”

For me, after my four-year quest, I finally had my chance to sit down with a charming forthright guy, a personable and soft-spoken champion who spoke of his remarkable life and legacy.

 

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