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January 30, 2010
Charming Roger Federer proves flattery can get you everywhere
By Ed Smith, The Times
Roger Federer has taken tennis, perhaps all sport, to new levels of elegance
and refinement. He has even elevated that unpromising encumbrance: the
post-match interview. Yesterday, still courtside after his semi-final but
scarcely out of breath, Federer offered a classic of the genre. He was
lightly amused, improbably civilized and utterly intimidating.
He had three things to say about Andy Murray. First, I really like Andy — he’s
a nice guy. Second, I feel sorry for him being under all that pressure, what
with Britain not having a grand slam for like 150,000 years! Third, the
final will be great fun and I’m looking forward to it. Mateship,
irreverence, sympathy, lightness. I can’t imagine a harder mix of qualities
to face in an opponent.
We tend to overestimate what Steve Waugh called “mental disintegration”.
Sportsmen are innate pugilists, so being confronted by a war of words is
just more of the same.
How much harder it is to play against someone who conveys innate superiority
while retaining his dignity. When a 41-year-old Colin Cowdrey first faced
Jeff Thomson, he stuck out his hand saying: “I don’t think we’ve met, I’m
Colin Cowdrey.” Cowdrey never flinched from the ball, either.
Federer’s dignity and sophistication are part of his mystique. I doubt it is a
ploy on Federer’s part; he is just made that way. Federer is unerringly at
ease with himself and his greatness. And the ability to amount to more than
his opponent — even in defeat — is all part of the Federer effect.
Great sportsmen, like great writers, must find their true voice. British
sportsmen have long tried to copy the gutsy Aussie battler and the bravely
defiant Yank. Perhaps they have been following the wrong example. By
conveying the sense that he is not only better at tennis but also better at
life, Federer belongs to a different tradition: Europe’s natural aristocracy.
• Ed Smith is a leader writer for The Times, edsmith.org.uk
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