Only once in a lifetime you come across such stalwarts/legends/giants who make their lives appear to be so fictitious that you would love to say ‘Ah! I wish I was him’. Very rarely or perhaps not more than once would you find someone similar to a Sachin Tendulkar, a Michael Schumacher or a Roger Federer. And these are the people who redefine the word ‘RESPECT’.
A few years ago, if you were to ask someone, what came first to their mind when they heard the word ‘Switzerland’, the answer would have probably been ‘The Alps/Swiss watches/A honeymoon destination’. Ask them now, and you won’t be surprised if their first answer would be ‘Roger Federer’.
Be it his top spin backhand cross court, or his famous between the legs cross court winner that he tried at the US open; Be it his unstoppable aces or his eye catching rallies; Federer is undoubtedly the Pied Piper of the world of Tennis. Chasing records was his dream but he might have never realized that he would go so far ahead in the chase, that when he turns back, he would feel alone.
May be, he enjoyed staying ahead of everyone. Almost every page in the record books has his name. How does it feel to be THE BEST for 237 consecutive weeks? How does it feel to win 16 Grand Slams? What does it mean to win the Wimbledon Championships five times in a row? Only Roger Federer can explain it to us. For all one knows, his emotions at the end of every Grand Slam victory, his humbleness in every single interview, his childlike smile before the start of every single match, tells every single admirer ‘What it takes to be a Roger Federer’.
For him, it was not too easy to be a Roger Federer. Standards were set, and his fans wanted him to better his own self every single time he lobbed the ball up for a serve. 237 straight weeks at the top wasn’t enough for the unsatisfactory fan within each of us. Some say age catches up and your mind and body won’t be in sync; some say, you lose your magic touch after a while, and a few other people believe that no matter what the result is, the best always remains the best.
For a person at the top of the ladder of success, there are only two ways to go, the first of which being downwards where you meet the other people you once overpowered, and the other is to take a jump which in this case is retirement. Which way will Fedex choose to go? Will he go down fighting or will he stand up and tell the world for one last time, ‘Don’t dare touch me, I’m still the best’?
No matter which way his career heads from here on, I salute him for giving us nerve-wracking, hair-rising and heart-warming moments every single time he stepped into a tennis court.
He is Roger Federer, he is, ''Grace personified''.
