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

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The prominent stakeholders in world tennis always rent houses near The All England Club during Wimbledon to hold meetings and welcome their athletes. ch bin ehrlich positiv erstaunt – ich hätte nicht gedacht, wie sehr mir dieses Buch gefallen würde und bin froh, dass ich es, ein Geschenk einer Freundin, angefangen zu lesen habe. Und nicht mehr aufhören konnte. Where does Nakajima see the Swiss after his career? “I can’t imagine he will be a commentator; nothing against that. But I’m sure he is thinking about other things. He’s such a savvy guy; if you’re a company, who wouldn’t want somebody like Roger working with you? I think he’ll branch out into other things. And his name will live on forever as one of the best athletes of all time.” 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. The Roger Federer Effect tells the story of the world's most famous tennis player in a fresh, innovative way - through the eyes of his friends, rivals, coaches, fans and many others who have been drawn to him as he blazed a trail and transcended the sport.

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. As he enters retirement, more than 40 personalities from inside and outside tennis reveal the special place Federer holds in their lives. Through exclusive interviews, they explain the Roger Federer phenomenon.Though Federer maintained his edge on hard courts and on grass for a while, Nadal was coming, fast. After taking a set off him in the 2006 Wimbledon final, Nadal pushed him to five sets in the final the following year and then, in 2008, he ended Federer’s five-year winning streak at Wimbledon by claiming the title for the first time after an epic final, including two rain breaks and which finished in near darkness. For Federer, it was a heartbreaking loss; for Nadal, and Toni, it was a massive breakthrough. “The best memory is Wimbledon 2008,” Toni says. Many times when I spoke with Rafael, I said Federer plays not too smart with you. In my opinion, he normally played the return very easy to us. He was not aggressive enough.” Early on in the battles, Novak was struggling to figure out how Roger could play the way he played without seemingly looking like he was trying," Cambers recounted. "And Marijan just(Vajda) calmed his mind I think. He made him realize that he couldn't do what Federer does. So don't even try to think about that, just focus on your game."

The Roger Federer Effect was published on October 31, the culmination of a year and a half of work shared equally between myself and Simon Graf, the renowned Swiss journalist and authority on all things Roger Federer, having covered his entire career. Perhaps we will have the chance to update it, in which case we can try some of those people again. But the sheer variety of the people we did speak to and the enormous pleasure they showed in talking about Federer, was really something. The photos they shared with us, which we use in the book, are all fantastic insights into his life. By interviewing people in Roger’s life (friends, peers / rivals, coaches, fans, journalists, celebrities/personalities etc.), this book provides stories from every interviewee’s perspective, how they view Roger as a person and as a professional tennis player, how Roger impacts their life one way or the other. Federer sports Nike tennis shoes on Wimbledon's Centre Court in July 2019. Tim Clayton/Corbis Sport/Getty Images He was up-and-coming, one of the top juniors. We brought him on and I realized right off the bat that he’s naturally charismatic and speaks well. And I noticed that he knew he was going to be great.”In the process of more than 40 exclusive interviews, we spoke to his rivals, fans, friends, peers, coaches and even politicians, skiers, musicians, film directors, commentators and photographers, trying to explore how and why Federer became such a revered figure inside and outside of the sporting world. Clearly inspired by the long-impending end of the Swiss tennis star’s career, “Inspiration Federer”—or, in its English translation, “The Roger Federer Effect”— doesn’t simply add yet another memoir to the already compelling body of literature on the “Maestro”. This book’s selling point is its deeply personal perspective, deriving mainly from a myriad of interviews with coaches, fellow players, analysts, as well as early friends. I’m not sure Rafa wants to be the highest-paid endorser in the world. I don’t think he cares,” Nakajima added. "Rafa is Rafa, he has done extremely well and I don’t think he needs anything else. Roger wanted to be marketed, so he appealed to different brands, audiences and consumer groups. And his management company’s done an amazing job.” If you feel this sounds like a somewhat unsystematic and anecdotal way of portraying Federer’s life, you may be forgiven. The book indeed strays far from anything resembling a linear, coherent narrative – despite being loosely structured into chapters like “Friend”, “Student”, “Rival”, and “Inspiration” (to name but a few) so as to account for different angles on his personal life and career. Many contributions overlap or add little new insight to anyone following the sport in the last twenty years. To be sure, this may have as much to do with the book’s approach as with the obvious obligations felt by many interviewees: Understandably, few rivals and partners may have had an incentive to give a sharp and relentless appraisal of his shortcomings as well as his well-documented strengths, let alone disclose any intimate details. Roger Federer fires off a return to Rafael Nadal during the 2017 Australian Open men’s singles final. Photograph: Kyodo/Newscom/Alamy

Writing the book, we realized how enormous the impact Federer had, not just inside tennis, but outside it, too,” Simon Cambers, the book’s co-author, told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies last month. Nakajima worked with many stars at Nike, from John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova to Federer and Rafael Nadal. He even accompanied Williams as a shopping assistant (not his field of expertise). He first met Federer when Nike signed him as a 13-year-old. Roger would have been famous on his own for sure. Even if he was playing for any other brand. But he became a lot bigger because of Nike’s marketing machine. The exposure that Nike can provide to an athlete is amazing. Obviously, you have to have success on the court, which Roger had. He won a few US Opens; that opened many people’s eyes.” When Federer won his third round match against Mardy Fish in four sets – he dropped the third – Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and coach, was immediately impressed. And not just with the Swiss’s game. “I saw a guy who played really well, who played with unbelievable technique,” he says. “I love tennis and I love how he played. I love not only where the ball goes but how you put the ball there. His hair was very beautiful. But his work also.” The RF line was groundbreaking. “We used to create a shirt for everybody in the world, US style, baggy, and then we realized that Europeans are so far ahead in fashion. Roger wanted it a lot more tailor-fitted. So we started creating the Roger Federer collection.

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Dieses Buch ist für mich kein Schmöker, den ich in einem Rutsch gelesen habe. Ich habe immer wieder Mal rein gespitzt und ein, zwei Interviews gelesen. Ich finde es auch schwierig, so ein Buch zu rezensieren, da es ja hauptsächlich auf den Inhalt und viel weniger auf den Erzählstil ankommt. Letzterer empfand ich jedenfalls als unkompliziert (auch gerade den Beschreibungen von Ballwechseln konnte ich auch als Laie gut folgen), schnörkellos und dadurch absolut passend.