36-LOVE! Federer & Serena in flying start
Age is no longer on Serena & Roger’s side.. SW19 certainly is
ROGER FEDERER may be too sexy for his shirt, but £44 a minute over the next 10 years in his new kit will soften the blow.
And Serena Williams had to wear flesh-coloured tights to conform with the dress code on the catwalks of Wimbledon’s strawberry fields, but the mother superior of women’s tennis still flays that first serve like an atomic kitten.
Two great champions with 15 singles titles here between them, both 36, both raging against the fading light of youth – and neither is going out of fashion any time soon.
Jolly Roger had responded with good humour to a swooning pre-match compliment he looked “handsome” in a dapper jacket by saying he felt “incredibly sexy.”
And His Fedness looked in fine fettle as he launched his defence of the crown with a routine 6-1 6-3 6-4 disposal of Dusan Lajovic.
His 79-minute annihilation of the Serb on Centre Court was a fine exhibition to set before his wife Mirka
(right) and their twin girls and twin sons in the players’ box.
The boys, Leo and Lennart, are only four and Federer, who has always said he wanted to carry on until his kids could remember seeing him play, admitted: “They know there is a trophy involved if I do play well – they get most excited about them.
“It would probably help to keep going a few more years for the boys to really remember.
“It was nice to see them all there when I was walking out. It means the world to me and my wife.” It couldn’t have gone much smoother for Federer: straight sets, both sets of twins in the audience, and modelling the first ‘look’ from the £225million kit deal he has signed with Uniqlo after scaling down his association with Nike.
An added bonus was the fall of No.16 seed Borna Coric, his conqueror on grass in Halle last month, who crashed out to Daniil Medvedev. Coric could have been Federer’s opponent in the last 16.
Just don’t mention the World Cup – by the time Federer next appears on court, England could be on a collision course with Switzerland in the quarter-finals.
On Court No.1, Williams – whose tights were not a fashion statement but an aid for blood circulation – needed six match points before seeing off Holland’s world No.107 Arantxa Rus 7-5 6-3. Serena warmed up for her 15th consecutive win on the hallowed lawns watching Prince Harry play polo with her chum Meghan Markle at the weekend.
But her first appearance at Wimbledon since missing the 2017 tournament on maternity leave, was nearer pukka than chukka, and she wasn’t even distracted by umpire Kader Nouni appearing to refer to her as “Mrs Williams.”
She said: “It still doesn’t even register I’m married actually – so much has happened in the past 12 months.”