Abhijith Ravinutala
17 min readMay 15

--

Federer and Nadal after sunset at the 2008 final. Peep the classy logo on the cardigan | AFP / Adrian Dennis
Bustin’ moves at an early age
The beautiful one-handed backhand that’s increasingly rare in modern tennis. Image from the Independent (not by Trent Crimm) via Getty Images.
Fortunately, my memory is not good enough to have an explanation for this
Emotions of an unexpected victory | Image from official Australian Open Youtube channel
I can at least wear Federer’s shoes to look like him!
Federer and his wife at his farewell event. Unlike another legendary sports figure who retired (and then didn’t) around the same time, Federer thanked his wife for “allowing him to play” all these years, “because she could’ve stopped me a long time ago.”

“I’m proud of how far I have come, because I know that this was something I really struggled with early on. I was criticized a lot, heavily maybe sometimes even, fairly or unfairly, whatever it is, why wouldn’t I fight more when losing? Because they thought when I lost I didn’t give it all I had, even though I care probably more than most players. So I didn’t quite understand what that meant. Do I have to grunt, do I have to sweat more, shout more, be more aggressive towards my opponents? What is it? It’s not me. I’m not like that. That’s not my personality. A lot of people then told me, Well, you have to be tougher and not so nice maybe, you know. I tried, but that was all an act. And I said, Well, I will try it the nice way. Let’s see where it takes me. Let me just try to be normal and be myself, and I’m very happy I was able to stay authentic and be myself for this long.” — Federer at the 2022 Laver Cup press conference

Iconic photo courtesy of Ella Ling/ Shutterstock

--

--

Abhijith Ravinutala

Writer in Austin. Fiction in Southern Review, Glimmer Train, & others. Working on a short story collection & debut novel. More at Abhijithr.com