Chris Evert, former world #1 and winner of 20 grand slam titles, spoke to The Tennis Space about her love for Roger Federer. The current ESPN analyst and one of the greatest players of all time addressed that she has no real reason but that there is simply something there in the Swiss maestro which “tugs at the heartstrings.”
Chris Evert: “Why do I love him? I don’t know, I just love him. There is something about Roger which just tugs at the heartstrings. I don’t know what it is, I can’t say exactly, but he gets to me. Maybe it’s because one of my sons idolises Roger, and I can see similarities between the two.
It’s almost as though Roger could be my son. I’ve been in this game for more than 40 years, and there has never been a player who has made me as emotional as Roger has, not even close.
And I’m not the only one. I have sometimes looked around when Roger is on court, and seen that others were affected in the same way.
There would be a whole bunch of us getting choked up. I’ve never been as emotional watching a tennis match as I have done after Roger has lost.
This may sound strange, but his losses affect me much more than my own defeats. I was watching him play recently and as the match got touch and the odds already against him, I had to walk away.
I could see that Roger was going to lose, and I just couldn’t watch any more. I didn’t want to feel what I was going to feel. And his defeat at this year’s Wimbledon Championships, wasn’t that awful?
It’s the grand slams defeats that would come from his greatest rivals in the nearest future that’s affecting me the most.
Roger is a special breed – some of those defeats just rolled off his back, but I never found them easy to take. And I haven’t really spent that time with the guy. I hardly know him. I’m not a stalker, I promise you.”
