Roger Federer brings down curtain on his career with a defeat, but still dazzles alongside longtime friend and rival Rafael Nadal
By Robert Adcock
24 April 2016
When Roger Federer was a young man, he would sit down for breakfast at his mum’s house on his dad’s tennis racket and practise his serve. He once told me how he learnt to “do his own thing”. His mum taught him tennis. His dad bought him tennis balls. He won the junior Wimbledon boys’ singles title at the age of 12. His first tennis victory was at the age of 14. He won his first grand slam at the age of 18. He was now an international star and an undisputed tennis great.
So he had a job to do, and he did it. And then what? He never went back to doing it. He was on to something else. The problem was, he could never quite believe it, not entirely. He would have preferred to be doing something else. He had not yet achieved what he believed was his destiny to do. He would need some kind of a sign, so it was best that he not believe it, at least not for too long. So he would sit back, take all his chances, and at some point he would get another chance, so he would try once more.
At some point he would get another chance, so he would try once more.
That was how it worked for him: he never stopped doing what he was doing. He never stopped getting chances, so even when he lost his first match in the final of the Australian Open, he was still getting chances. He was being given opportunities. He was still winning. He was still giving himself chances. He was still doing his thing. And then, one day, in New York in the US Open final, the chance to go on to the finals came up, and he did. Federer is a story of triumph.
That triumph, though, does not stop there. It only starts. He was not