The Roger Federer Effect: Rivals, Friends, Fans and How the Maestro Changed Their Lives

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Roger Federer felt very comfortable in the Nike house when he was young, happy to pop over, make himself a sandwich with ham and cheese and watch Wimbledon on TV. In 2016, as chance would have it, the Nike people on Arthur Road, on the other side of Wimbledon Park from The All England Club, were practically neighbors of the Federers.

Nike set out to popularize Federer in the US. “I’m a little biased,” said Nakajima. “But no one does marketing better than Nike. When you get the big Nike marketing machine behind you, that can blow that athlete through the stratosphere. While Nadal was making his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon in 2003, Federer won his first grand slam title, beating Mark Philippoussis in the final to win the first of his eight Wimbledon crowns and 20 slam titles. As he made his way through the draw, unbeknown to him, a man who would become an integral part of the rivalry with Nadal was watching in the stands. In the 2017 Australian Open final, Federer, who had been off Tour for six months as he recovered from knee surgery, came from a break down in the final set to win his first Grand Slam title since 2012. “Everything changed in 2017 when Federer started to hit the ball faster on the first ball [the return],’ Toni says. ‘Federer said he didn’t want to be the one to play more rallies. On hard courts, it was very difficult for Rafael to beat him because he played so fast. The worst memory was Australia 2017 because Rafael was winning 3-1 in the fifth set.”There have been a lot of books focusing on Roger’s career, how he became the legend he is now, and pretty much all of them illustrated Roger from a biographical perspective. This book is different. It takes another angle. That should never have happened. For us to let somebody like that go, it’s an atrocity. Roger Federer belonged with Nike for the rest of his career. Just like Michael Jordan. Like LeBron James, like Tiger Woods. He’s right up there with the all-time greatest Nike athletes ever. I’m still disappointed. But it happened. I have to get over it. It wasn’t my decision and I wasn’t there for it.” In speaking to so many different people, it was striking how much they all enjoyed talking about Federer. From his friends, and his super-fans, that’s not surprising, but from the coaches of his rivals, like Toni Nadal, Marian Vajda and Mark Petchey, to players who beat him and in many cases, like James Blake, lost to him frequently, there was nothing but respect, warmth and admiration. Many equate his popularity with how genuine a person he is. He didn’t have to try to be loved, it just came naturally, through his tennis and the person he is. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the 2022 Laver Cup in London Nakajima fondly remembers the Roger Federer day on the Nike campus near Beaverton, Oregon, which must have been in 2007. “We have Nike world-class athletes visiting the Nike campus all the time. But hardly anybody at Nike gets to work with and see athletes. So we like to create an event when they visit. While their style of play is different, in many ways Federer and Nadal are quite similar. “They showed to the people that you can have a very intense rivalry, but at the same time to have a good respect,” Toni Nadal says. “And you can be a friend of your opponent. Normally this doesn’t happen, and with these two guys it happened and that was [special].”

Auch wenn alle Drei exzellente Spieler sind, war es doch immer Federer, der mir aufgefallen ist. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten seiner Gegner blieb er stets ruhig und wirkte immer ein wenig so, als ob er über den Dingen stehen würde. Und auch wenn er nicht immer der Sieger war, wirkte er nie wie ein Verlierer.A connoisseur of the humdrum details of failure, Dyer also has a joyous appreciation of the transcendent and the triumphant Federer’s impact on the court is well-documented. The 41-year-old, who retired last month after the Laver Cup, has won 20 Grand Slam titles, 103 titles worldwide, the Davis Cup and Olympic gold medal in doubles. In a glorious career spanning more than two decades, Federer won 20 Grand Slam titles - including eight at Wimbledon - and more than 100 tournaments worldwide, taking the game to a new level and becoming the most popular player the sport has ever seen. As he enters retirement, more than 40 personalities from inside and outside tennis reveal the special place Federer holds in their lives.