Tennis legend Roger Federer exemplifies grace and elegance on the court. At least that’s the sentiment that has always reverberated in the tennis world. However, in a recent GQ interview, Federer revealed that there’s so much more to it; and that is why it would be a misconception to think he is just the epitome of playing beautiful and effortless tennis.
Zach Baron of the GQ asked Federer, “At this point, you are very familiar with how people describe the way you played tennis: “beautiful,” “effortless,” and so on. On the one hand, that’s an obvious compliment. On the other hand, I’m curious about how you feel about that being the way your game will be remembered.”
Roger Federer answered, “Today, I take it as a big compliment. When I was playing, I was struggling a little bit more with it because I feel like then they would not see the fighter and the winner I hopefully was. Because if you’re not a fighter, if you cannot put in effort – you cannot achieve what I achieved with just being effortless. I think when you’ve worked unbelievably hard, only then can you make it look effortless. So I always struggled – especially early on – with the thought of: Well, do they not see the passion and fight and everything I put into it?”
To make it look easy, one has to do the hard work behind it, and that often goes unnoticed. Federer reveals that he often grappled with the dilemma there, that whether his fans were just complimenting him, or did they actually knew about the sacrifices, mental stress, and other efforts Federer put in to make it look so easy and elegant.
Federer continued, “Because when I would win it’s like, “Oh, it’s so easy.” And when I would lose, it’s like, “Wish he tried a bit more,” almost. And that in the beginning was really, really hard to accept and really complex for me. It was a bit of a mind-bender then.”
As is the case with most sportspersons, fans mostly compliment the victories and complain about the losses. They fail to understand the marginal difference in both cases in terms of effort put in. It could also be that Federer was always the ‘nice boy’ of tennis; a well-behaved, good-mannered, soft-spoken player.
Therefore, the image that he portrayed was that of elegance, calm, and composure. That may have been the reason fans thought he lacked aggression. He, however, used to get a lot angrier in his younger days, as he once did against Novak Djokovic.
A rare fact of Roger Federer proves that he is right about fans’ misconception
One could be easily forgiven for thinking Roger Federer is the least aggressive player among the Big Three. However, a record suggests otherwise. When it comes to comebacks in tennis, Roger Federer has much better stats as compared to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Nadal and Djokovic are widely regarded for their strong gameplay, fierceness on the court, aggression, grit, and bringing in the full range of emotions. A comeback from a down-and-out position would be the complimentary factor of such a gameplay. And yet, Federer, who doesn’t outwardly display emotion as both of them, beats them in this regard.
In Grand Slam matches, Roger Federer won 10 matches after being two sets down. This is more than Novak Djokovic, who has done the same in 8 matches, while Rafael Nadal has only done so 4 times.
In 2017, when Roger Federer made a comeback with a bang, it shocked the tennis world. Federer won the Australian Open and the Wimbledon that year, which left tennis legends like John McEnroe speechless. There was already a gap of a minimum of 5 years since he had won his last Grand Slam (Wimbledon 2012), and fans started to believe that Federer’s career was over in terms of adding more Slams to his tally.
However, his emphatic wins at AO and Wimbledon in 2017 proved otherwise. It showed exactly the grit and resilience that is required from an aggressive player to make such a comeback.
Federer won the Australian Open one last time in 2018, and that marked the end of his Grand Slam wins.
