Roger Federer
Over the Net
Kate Dorsey
The end of an era
I found out from my brother that
Roger had retired. He messaged me the morning of the announcement. Not long
later, my mom called. Everyone in my family knows Roger is my favorite tennis
player and always has been. They wanted me to know what was going on.
The funny thing is, I would have
found out about Roger’s retirement all on my own had I checked the sports news.
I was about to, then I thought there was nothing that could have happened in
the past hour or two that I needed to know about. I was definitely wrong about that.
As sad as I was to hear the news
about Roger’s retirement, I wasn’t overly surprised. He has had multiple surgeries
in a short amount of time. That is hard to come back from no matter what your age, and he is forty-one.
What I was most disappointed
about was the timing of Roger’s retirement. He would not be able to do a grand
finale tour.
With his final match at the Laver
Cup, Roger is not going to be able to compete in his favorite tournaments and
say goodbye to each one. That’s implying that is something he would want to do.
Still, I wanted him to at least have the choice.
Although, now that I have seen
his retirement celebration at the Laver Cup, I believe it was fitting. There
was no question when his last match would be, as would happen with a regular
tournament. Everyone knew from the start and did not have to wait in anxious
anticipation for when the end may come. I do wish Team Europe had won the Laver
Cup, though. That would have made an even better end to his career.
My long history as a Roger Federer fan
I became a fan of Roger’s long
before he became the legend he is. I’m sure a lot of people say this, but for
me it is true. Roger is the person who got me interested in tennis. He got me
interested years before he won his first grand slam title.
It wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen
tennis before Roger Federer. My mom watched it, but it was not something I was
very interested in. Then I saw Roger.
So, you’re probably wondering how
did I see Roger if I wasn’t interested in tennis? To be honest, I’m not sure
why I had tennis on that day. Maybe it was the only thing on. Or maybe I had
gained some sort of interest watching with my mom. I’m really not sure. I just
know Roger is who made me an actual fan of tennis.
For whatever reason I had tennis
on, I saw Roger and knew I had to tell my mom about him. There was just
something about this player I had to draw her attention to. The problem was, I
did not know his name or where he was from.
I thought he was from Russia.
That was Marat Safin. I thought he was from Australia. That was Lleyton Hewitt.
Nowhere could I find this player I had seen. So, I kept watching and I kept looking
for the young player with the ponytail. Finally, I found him again. His name
was Roger Federer and he was from Switzerland.
It probably sounds odd that I had
to search for Roger being on TV, but at one time that was the case. That is how
long I have been watching and cheering for Roger Federer.
Through the years I paid attention
to tennis on and off, but Roger was always the player on my mind when I thought
of tennis. After college I began to watch tennis more regularly. Probably too
regularly and I became far too emotionally invested in whether Roger won or
lost. No one was supposed to beat Roger!
My interest in tennis grew to the
point I used it as a reward for a really boring job I had. Every time I
finished a task, I allowed myself to update the tennis scores on whatever
tournament happened to be occurring at the time (thank you Wikipedia). Since I
could do these tasks in three minutes, you can figure how many times a day I
updated these scores.
I even got to the point that I
would try and read a Swiss-German website to get scores once most of the
American sports sites were blocked. Since I have only nine weeks of
German-speaking experience from the sixth grade, reading this site was a challenge.
I am, however, proud of what I was able to understand from this site with such
little German ability on my part.
These two activities are on top
of the brackets I would fill out for each tournament. Of course, I would choose
Roger as the winner every time.
By this time, I wasn’t just
cheering for Roger. I had found many other players that I liked. Juan Martin del
Potro. Marcos Baghdatis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Stan Wawrinka. Marin Cilic. I
cheered for them all. Those who are continuing to play, I still do. But no matter
what, Roger was always the person I cheered for most.
So Far Away
Kate Dorsey
Watching tennis from afar
This is funny because for a lot
of Roger’s career I have been unable to watch his matches. I would get too
anxious! Even though I had full faith he would win, every point Roger lost was
too much for me. And if he ever got broken . . . not good. It was best for me
to watch something else while Roger was playing and check in every fifteen
minutes. It worked much better that way. Most of the time he did win, as I
suspected he would. The times he didn’t, I was able to be calmer about it
because I was not watching and living every point as it happened.
Forever my favorite
No matter what, win or lose,
Roger was always my favorite player. He always will be. Someone recently said I
will find a new favorite player now that Roger is retired, but I know that will
not be the case. Yes, I will like other players, and I will like some more than
others. That does not mean Roger will ever stop being my favorite.
This is because I don’t choose
the players I cheer for simply by how much they win or lose. What grabs me is
the person’s character. Some of my favorites did not win many titles, but they were
my favorites because of how they were as people. The character of a person is
far more important to me than their success. With Roger, I was able to find
both good character and success.
What the future holds
The question as to who is the Greatest
of All Time will go round and round for I don’t know how long. Roger is
definitely my vote for many reasons, including how many records he holds, but
in the end, I agree with the Rolex commercial. It is not the numbers that make
a person great. The number of titles, weeks at number one, or amount of matches
won are not the only part of creating a legacy. Everyone will always chase the
records Roger has created. Some have already surpassed them, but there are far
more still standing. Even if people pass all his records, the one thing it will
be hardest for anyone to do is surpass the legacy he has created with his
character. That legacy is definitely going to be hard to beat.
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