Growing up with your favorite athlete as he goes through the different stages of his luminous career does strange things to you. Every generation has its child sports idol, the one who makes you scan newspapers, t. v Channels, the Internet, and even radio in places where technology has not really caught up and where you have unfortunately been held back through no fault of your own to find out what’s going on in that person’s world and then put them in a higher place. pedestal than his seemingly most important test results and other things that at least in the eyes of his parents and friends would consider him a sane soul. (This explanation is for all sports icons except one Sachin Tendulkar who, spanning three generations, gives a whole new dimension to the word “omnipresent.” Perhaps that is why he is called GOD).
The thing about having that athlete occupying demigod status in your scheme of things is that you start to have a prejudice that doesn’t make you feel guilty at all. For example: My father gives importance to the Bjorn Borg / John McEnroe era by saying that anything else that happened after that in tennis is a tragic parody of the most geometric and aesthetically pleasing game the world has ever known. My brother, Pete Sampras’s man through and through, had a hard time adjusting to the fact that a virtual nobody like Roger would show him out of his Wimbledon kingdom in that famous summer of 2001, which in hindsight was similar to death. of the tennis torch. That damn gamer has a ponytail and a bandana. What “champion” dresses like this? Tennis is going to be poorer after Pete. My brother conveys these statements giving me that feeling of losing something unique and something that I could never be lucky enough to be a part of. About 2 years later – A “Mozart” sneaker with a style that is a throwback to classical times but mixing it with a touch of modernity alluding to sheer power and precision and then blessing it with the grace and finesse of a virtuoso artist. become my idol, the one whose victories, defeats, and battles within a battle have captivated my senses and filled me with gratitude for seeing something special unravel in front of me and coupled with off-court behavior that has done it in a poll recent, the second most respected person in the world after Nelson Mandela. . . the Swiss master – Roger Federer.
I became his man, my side of the debate when arguing with anyone about who the GOAT is: the best of all time (although the most heated are reserved for my brother) and I have a bit of experience with the vagaries of “fan- dom “has helped me to be sure of one thing. I will discuss Grigor Dimitrov, Bernard Tomic or Jerzy Janowicz regardless of what they achieve in the future. No offense, actually, I’m just going to be the same person as my dad and my brother. Only time can tell, because records are destined to be broken, and if in a blasphemous way, the records of the Swiss will also be broken, something I hope against, I will accept, but as they say, one will always be partial for those. instances and people who have touched you in a special way in your childhood
Being blessed with talent is one thing, making it worthwhile is another. Roger Federer has done exactly that and that is why after a horrible 2013 by his exemplary standards, where lesser people feel it is his right to point out to him that he must leave the game before plummeting to depths none of us would even bear. Thinking about during your glory years, it feels like a grave injustice to tell you what to do. He has come so far from that thorny young man with the fiery head to the serene master illusionist, like a monk who used to evoke moments of the greatest beauty with that tennis racket of his, to Michelangelo with a scalpel. His career, from the evidence of it, appears to be that of a person who has made the most of life’s lessons and used it as the basis for betting on his claim to be arguably one of the best athletes to strut in. the world stage. . A loss to a Tommy Robredo or a Sergiy Stakhovsky shakes things up a bit, but it is recognized that Roger does not intend for his career to end that way and, in the words of another tennis legend, Pete Sampras, there is an amateur actor in anyone who wants to put together a final act that brings down the house. Roger might be feeling that (just a hunch), but as he said during a particular season in 2008 when he lost in the Australian Open semi-finals to a promising Novak Djokovic, he was greeted with a shock of seismic proportions, which he could have created a monster with the load of expectations that take every hit of his racket.
Next season he returns with that elusive first French Open title that catapulted him into the elite league of extraordinary gentlemen who have won all four slams, and then breaks Pete’s Grand Slam record in a marathon duel with Andy Roddick in a Wimbledon final. through the ages. He has returned and he certainly will if he feels like it and that is what his recent interviews suggest. . . hungry for more. We always count the champions when they are down and out without taking note of that single separating factor that has set them apart from the suitors. Your mental strength. Professional sports have more to do with the battles that take place between the ears than with the actual battle. It’s a beautiful sign when you come across articles from many journalists and critics saying that your time at the zenith is over and that you should stop trying so that it won’t hurt your followers to see you reduced to a mere mortal. But then you see the words of Rod Laver and Pete Sampras, legends in their own right and players claiming to be the GOAT, who emphatically state that Roger Federer is not yet a finished article and that something monumental is going to happen. of Roger’s wand. They’ve been there and they can feel something simmering under Roger, the outrage at being told what to do with the sport he loves the most, and for him that’s the fundamental factor that keeps him going: the love of the sport. He recognizes the fact that he will never be bigger than the game and it is this enthusiastic and enthusiastic attribute of Roger, of the student who unswervingly explores new and greater depths of his game, to prove himself against the challenges presented by the sport and are various other practitioners, and being at the top is what the best students do. They will find a way. And Roger is very interested in reaching the top. No one makes 17 Grand Slam titles and 302 weeks at No. 1 without possessing a ton of mental toughness.
The hardest thing is making it look easy and I’m sure anyone who has touched a tennis racket will vouch for it. Therein lies the genius of the Swiss. Which makes me hope that for at least a fortnight, the Swiss will rebuild a glorious fairy tale career replete with his brilliant backhand down the line (a beautiful thing) and evoking those moments of sheer innovation and belligerence along with his impressive dominance in the pitch and tactical acumen and mastery of the angles, which you thought weren’t there until he executed the impossible and induced grimaces and glances from his opponents, which just happened, when they felt the point has already been won and then you wonder why no one has thought about it before. Then it surprises you: the tennis court is his canvas and we are that privileged and fortunate group that gets to see a teacher at work. A glorious epiphany on that too, and when he holds up that Grand Slam trophy, making a fool of himself and, more importantly, those skeptics who felt his epitaph was pending, it would be the right time for him to retire in style. and stamp. his last enduring legacy on a tennis court. It’s for two simple reasons: We owe Roger so much for giving us so much joy during his time, that only he should decide on his future, and from a more important and selfish perspective, my childhood needs that epic One Last Act.
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