And off he went.The opening two days of this year’s Wimbledon tournament has seen notable first-round wins for Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu. It all came together at Wimbledon that year, where Federer claimed his first Grand Slam title at the tournament that always meant the most to him. So then came this concern: Might Federer not quite be as good as he, and others, thought? There were six first-round exits in that span, including at the 2003 French Open. Predicted to be a star from the time he won the Wimbledon junior title as a teenager - a sentiment that only built when he stunned Sampras in the fourth round there in 2001 - it took Federer a little time to get pointed in the right direction: He did not win a quarterfinal match in his first 16 Grand Slam appearances. We pushed each other, and together we took tennis to new levels.” “We battled fairly, with passion and intensity, and I always tried my best to respect the history of the game. “I was lucky enough to play so many epic matches that I will never forget,” Federer wrote in the section of his goodbye post addressed to his competitors. His contests against Nadal, now 36, and Djokovic, 35, were happenings, tantalizing matchups against a backdrop of differing ways of play and contrasting personalities. He chased the first group, dominated the second, dueled with the third - Nadal, with 22, and Djokovic with 21, eventually surpassed Federer’s Grand Slam total - and set an example for the fourth.Īside from those major trophies won from 2003 to 2018, Federer put together unprecedented stretches of elite play, appearing in 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (and 18 of 19), along with 23 semifinals and 36 quarterfinals in a row. He was proud of facing - and defeating - stars from an earlier generation (Sampras and Andre Agassi), from his own generation (Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin), from the next generation (Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka) and from the current crop (Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas). When it came to defining success, Federer cared about longevity as much as anything. But no one has had such a big impact and will continue to have such a big impact.” There will always be someone holding a trophy up. “There will be people who will win more tournaments or will have more Grand Slams. “There won’t be anybody like him,” said Tony Godsick, Federer’s agent since 2005. He returned after left knee surgery in 2016, the first significant absence of his career, and used a larger racket head and a rebuilt backhand to collect his last three Slams. He kept playing, and winning, well past an age that is customary for that sort of thing in tennis, to the point that his two sets of twins - now ages 13 and 8 - eventually were able to be present in courtside guest boxes. He had a special jacket with a gold “15” on it to don right there on Centre Court after winning Wimbledon in 2009 to break Pete Sampras’ men’s mark of 14 career major trophies. He became friends with Vogue editor Anna Wintour and showed up at the Met Gala. “He was the epitome of a champion class, grace, humility, beloved by everyone,” Hall of Famer Chris Evert wrote on Twitter. Once a tantrum-throwing kid - on the court and off, where he would overturn a chess table when losing to his father - who grew up admiring basketball stars such as Michael Jordan and soccer players more than tennis players, Federer became a symbol of his sport and someone known as much for the way he carried himself as the hardware he accumulated.
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