NEW KIT, SAME
No sign of decline as Roger sparkles after £230m clothes deal
THE Emperor of Wimbledon tried on some new clothes and the poor guy across the net ended up looking a little exposed. Embarrassing place at times, Roger Federer’s Centre Court.
Not that anyone sensible would have given Dusan Lajovic a prayer here, but he is a respectable player — won a couple of million dollars over the past 11 seasons, world No 58 at the start of this week, just turned 28. Decent.
But this kind of 79-minute mauling is simply what Federer does. Always has.
It has been his way for 15 years now, from Slam No 1 in 2003 through to No 20 in January, spanning the better part of two decades in Nike gear to what played out yesterday, when he stepped out on court and unveiled the Uniqlo logo.
With anyone else, commercial guff would make for a mildly dull footnote. With Federer, different rules tend to apply, up to and including the conventional wisdoms on ageing and, similarly, the awarding of lengthy, expensive endorsements to 36- year- old athletes.
In this instance, it had all been drummed up into a big reveal and by the close of play yesterday industry folk were saying that little group of letters will be worth a guaranteed £23m each year to Federer for the next decade. It is a telling marker of how Federer’s genius is valued and perhaps more engrossing was the accompanying whisper that the Swiss, in hooking with a Japanese company, could prolong his career until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
And that, really, would be something because with Federer there is always a clock and a sense of wonder over how long it will be before the music stops.
It was that way when he was 31 and at the beginning of what many felt would be the end, and it was the same when he was 32, 33, 34 and 35. Now he is a month shy of 37, the winner of two Slams in the past year and the top seed here, one of the oldest swingers in town and still beating up younger men for kicks.
Look at yesterday. His Serbian opponent was able to serve out the first game for 1-0, and then Federer won the next nine. When Lajovic finally got on the board again, for 3-1 down in the second, he was greeted with a patronising roar from the crowd, the sort you imagine proud professional players have grown to despise over the past two decades.
He was done with not long afterwards, crushed 6-1, 6-3, 6-4, having failed to get so much as a single break point. New clothes, old habits, and all that.
What followed the beating was a classic Federer press conference, ranging from sentimental musings to surreal narcissism.
First the sentimental: he was asked about his four children being present — boy twins aged four and girl twins aged eight — and he told a convincing tale of wanting to play on until his sons are old enough to remember it.
‘They know I play a lot of tennis, but I’m not sure if they know what my ranking would be. They know there is a trophy involved at some point if I play well, because they get most excited about the trophies.
‘Probably, it would be helpful to go a few more years for the boys to really remember it. The girls, they will always remember at this point. I’m not sure about the boys.’
There was also a raised eyebrow about Andy Murray’s decision to play Queen’s and Eastbourne only to then pull out of Wimbledon — ‘You wonder, “Why did he play?” Only he and his team know’ — and he offered various thoughts on the World Team Cup and needing six games to suss out a match.
The narcissism came from the sponsorship discussion and the peculiar fact that Nike still hold the rights to his RF logo. ‘It will come back to me at some point,’ he explained. ‘I hope Nike can be nice and helpful in the process to bring it over to me. It’s something that was very important for me, for the fans really.’
The idea of a fan finding importance in the liberation of his logo is simultaneously amusing and a little troubling.
But, again, nothing is typical about a player who is chasing his ninth Wimbledon crown, and that difference is easily observed when you see the crowd that assembles for any of his press conferences. No one in tennis fills a room like Federer. Even on the subject of what trainers he would soon be wearing, there was someone purporting to be a reporter practically bouncing at his every word.
And that is why he is different. And it is also why companies are still willing to pay him truckloads of cash to wear their clothes.