Roger Federer therefore lost the very last match of his career. This is probably not what he wanted and Rafael Nadal even less than him. The great rival of a lifetime, a partner for an evening and now a lifelong companion, had entered the court with a closed face, as if he were going to play a Grand Slam final. The Mallorcan wanted to win. Above all, he didn’t want to lose and, this time, his hatred of defeat had nothing to do with it. It was all about altruism: he wanted to offer his alter ego one last victory.
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The point of regret passed, everyone quickly understood that the result was an accessory. The main thing was what followed. From there, everything was strong, moving, even poignant. And with remarkable accuracy, above all. As soon as he returned to the “Team Europe” clan, Federer burst into tears, as he has so often done in the strongest moments of his career. One by one, he fell into everyone’s arms. Nadal. Djokovic. Murray. Berrettini. Tsitsipas. Ruud. Norrie. Borg. Investigate.
Then we had to talk. We wondered if it would happen. Jim Courier, lead interviewer, didn’t have the easiest role of the evening, but he, as often, found the right words, tone and pace in his questions. “We’re gonna get there, one way or another“, joked RF to lighten the atmosphere. He spoke of a “wonderful day.” “I’m not sad, I’m happy to be here, I told the guys“, added the champion to 20 Grand Slam titles and so much more.
brothers of tears
Before entering the court, he had put on his socks, chosen his shoes, piled his racquets in his bag. That and all the rest. The innocuous gestures repeated hundreds and hundreds of times, perhaps measuring that, in all their simplicity, they embodied his daily life which, tomorrow, will be different. “Everything was the last time today“, he breathed into the microphone. His only fear during these last hours was not to lose this double, but that his body let go: “I was afraid that the back would lock up, or the calf, or something. But everything went well, the game was great, I can’t be happier.”
The throat then knotted for the first time when he had these words for the tennis family that surrounded him for his last trip. “Playing with Rafa of course, and all the guys there“, turning to his team, then, looking across to the stands: “All legends. Rocket (Rod Laver, Ed), Edberg. Stefan, thank you. ” Finally, he could not choose a better place than the Laver Cup to leave. Here, he was not alone and having lived these last days like this final evening so well surrounded gave another flavor to the event that he had lived it in “solitary”, even in a relative way, in a classic tournament.
Meanwhile, a seated Rafael Nadal could no longer control his tears. The Spanish dike gave way and, as much as everyone has been able to get used to seeing Roger Federer taken by sobs for more than 20 years, we wonder if we had ever seen Father Rafa in such a state. Moments before, just before “Rodger” got up to speak to the London audience and the rest of the world, they were both side by side, crying like two kids, two brothers in tears. It was not the weakest image of this evening, just like that of Novak Djokovic standing behind the Swiss, holding his shoulders to comfort him. And so many others.
Mirka, so ubiquitous, so discreet
Then Jim Courier asked Roger Federer to talk about his relatives, all present at the edge of the court. Their children. His father. His mother. And Mirka, of course. “Do we have to go through this?he joked before recovering: “No, it’s okay, I’m not doing too badly so far I feel like, at least I can talk. In my visions, I couldn’t even speak.”
But the following words, intended for his wife, close to him for more than two decades, when he was still nobody, were not the easiest to deliver. They weren’t the weakest either:She supported me so much. She could have told me to stop a long time ago. But she didn’t. She allowed me to keep playing. Thanks.”
The modesty of Mirka, towards whom the eyes converged to invite her to join her man, had something magnificent. She repeatedly declined with a simple nod of her head. Sometimes misunderstood, but above all misunderstood by everyone except a handful of relatives, the indispensable Mirka, has remained as always in her place: unavoidable but withdrawn, so omnipresent but so discreet, refusing to interfere in her moment at him.
All these tears, all these words and all these images (we forgot, among others, that of the two teams carrying him in triumph in the middle of the court) had consigned the outcome of this double to oblivion. It was not a question of the result on Friday evening, but of something else. “I wanted it to be a party“, he said. It is successful.
Finally, it is perhaps in this early London night, between two tears, that Roger Federer best summed up the extravagance of his accomplishments and this “amazing trip” : “It should never have been like this, I just loved playing tennis and hanging out with my friends. I never thought it would end here, it’s been a perfect course“. And a wonderful ending, defeat or not. So, thank you for this moment. And for all the others.
Roger Federer and the entire “Europe” team.
Credit: Getty Images
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