When Roger Federer returned a few weeks ago for a special party at Wimbledon during the former champions parade, he dreamed he was still in time for the “last dance”. On the verge of turning 41, there would still be one attempt on the pitch. It has not happened, nor will it happen.

The one who with his records, his achievements and, basically, with his style has earned a place among the greatest athletes in history, has already condemned his retirement. It is not just the relentless passage of time, but the ─demonstrating─ physical demand for elite athletes; three operations on the right knee are enough.

Federer was a great player and also the one who inherited the qualities of “man”That marked the traditions of their sport. And the two images will remain forever. Its technical greatness and its sportiness.

The curious thing is that nothing expected it in a rebellious boy, who in the hours of disgust broke the racket and seemed close to provocation. Once there was the click, perhaps in the final in Hamburg that he lost two decades ago against an Argentine, Franco Squillari. A shot that will lead him to reign for more than two decades in his sport (another unparalleled figure), embracing several generations of his rivals: style and attitude.

Equally incredible was its validity, only a handful of great figures managed to fight at the highest level by the time they hit 40. Ken Rosewall was one of them, took part in the Wimbledon and US Open finals in 1974, but was blown away by a young and aggressive Jimmy Connors. And that same produced his magical weeks at Flushing Meadow at 39, making it all the way to the semifinals. The swan song. Federer leaves at 41, although in recent times – between the break of the pandemic and his injuries – he has been almost inactive.

His account includes more than 1,500 presentations in official matches and more than one hundred titles, twenty of them in Grand Slam tournaments. Many of the duels with Nadal and Djokovic, at different times and on different surfaces, can be inscribed among the greatest games recorded in the memory of their sport.

In that Olympus where Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras or Rafa Nadal have recently joined, Federer has his place reserved and millions of tennis fans will be able to choose as they please.

After the glorious 1970s, or even more so, after the Sampras / Agassi era, few (if any) would have imagined that any tennis player would score twenty major tournament titles. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic crossed that border and took their sport to a new dimension. “The boss” defined New York Times to the Swiss, already in the category of legends for some time. His delightful play also earned him many of the brightest pages in tennis literature, including David Foster Wallace’s patented “Federer Moment”: “The dance, the elegance, the technique, that waste of talent that sometimes defies the laws of physics, but not in a brutal way, but intelligently. He knows that in no way Roger Federer would have dominated tennis like he did if he wasn’t a virtuous athlete, but he does emphasize how his game seems to stop time at times, on his strength and power.“.

Federer’s splendor has come from 2005 and for a period of five years he was infallible in the Grand Slam finals (18 out of 19 tournaments, he narrowly missed Australia 2008). Then, with the pressure of Nadal and the subsequent rise of Djokovic, it became more difficult for him, but always on the edge of the throne.

If that headline report is already overwhelming, so is the territory that condemns the supreme class among tennis players, Wimbledon. Until the advent of professionalism, the seven titles of a certain William Renshaw in the 19th century were mentioned, when the champion went straight to the final of the following season. And when Björn Borg reigned for five consecutive seasons, between 1976 and 1980, it was considered the greatest feat ever recorded on a tennis court. So much so that when he was overthrown by McEnroe the following summer, it took him very little time to re-attack the racket.

Sampras has extended his reign for seven seasons, but Roger Federer has placed him in 8 titles, in his cycle that goes from 2003 to 2017 (and five consecutive at the beginning) which today also seems insurmountable and to which we must add another four final. Hence the recent applause of a devoted crowd at Center Court, throbbing that there would be no more quota.

“If you are not competitive it makes no sense to continue”had hinted in a recent interview, clarifying that the fall in the quarter-finals against the Polish Hurkacz at Wimbledon 2021 would mark his farewell to that tournament.

“Federer, like Nadal, are tennis players who have elevated their sport to a higher category, hard to beat”, Defined Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and former coach. In the specific case of the Swiss, he stressed that “He has been able to combine power and elegance, in his shots and in his movements with an efficiency and brilliance that are hard to match.“.

With Federer ends a time, a style, a certain physique and a tennis context. Probably what has happened in recent weeks with the US Open marks the appearance of another.