After two decades at the top of tennis, Roger Federer is unanimously recognized as a style icon. The Swiss champion has become a model to follow also outside of tennis, also thanks to the help of his wife Mirka. “When we got together, she realised I had a few pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts, my practice shirts, maybe a jumper and a belt,” he told GQ.
“She said to me, ‘Don’t you think we should upgrade your wardrobe?’ Then the award ceremonies, and how many times can you wear the same suit with a different tie? But then I started really getting into it.
I was travelling more and going to different cities and meeting interesting people. The next thing you know, you look around yourself – maybe it’s in Milan, in New York, wherever – and you notice everyone is giving it a good effort.
Then you say, ‘Maybe I’ll try that look.’” The former World number 1 also added: “We were more connected to the street in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s,” he says. “The ’80s it was still like that, especially with the shoes and the shirt.
When the game became more aggressive, the shoes started changing – they needed to withstand the wear and tear. They were no longer shoes we could wear on the street. “I feel we drifted off in a very extreme way. Which is understandable because we are playing in a h*t climate, we’re sweating like crazy!
I don’t want to say, we lost our way, but I always try to say to any brand I’ve worked with, ‘Let’s not forget to be connected to the street.’ Maybe the polo we wear for the match, we could also wear with jeans?”
Roger Federer: The one who defeated Nadal, Djokovic, Sampras and Agassi
Roger Federer has many traits in common with past tennis players. His class and elegance on the court make even the most complicated rallies more simple. The Swiss is the link between past tennis, where touch and sensitivity were still fundamental skills, and modern tennis, where physical strength and technological evolution play a predominant role.
Like many long-lived athletes, Federer encountered the best players from different eras. In fact, he is the one able to win at least one match against Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, and against the other two Big Three Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Federer played only one memorable challenge against Sampras, in the fourth round of Wimbledon 2001, winning in five exciting sets with the final score of 7-6(7) 5-7 6-4 6-7(2) 7-5. Federer and Agassi met 11 times: Federer leads 8-3.
Among their most important challenges, there are the quarterfinals of the US Open 2004 and the final again at Flushing Meadows in 2005, both of which won by Federer. The challenges between Federer and Nadal wrote the history of recent tennis.
Like a clash between two giants, with two styles of play at the antipodes, the Swiss and the Spaniard clashed 40 times: Nadal leads 24-16. Their matches were memorable: among others, the 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon finals and the Australian Open 2017 final won by Federer and the Rome 2006 and Wimbledon 2008 finals won by Nadal.
The 2008 Wimbledon final is considered one of the best tennis challenges ever. Against Djokovic, Federer is on the score of 23-27. Their challenges highlighted the last few years of tennis, especially at Wimbledon. In fact, Roger’s victory in the semifinals of the 2012 Championships and the finals won by Djokovic in 2014 and 2019 are some of the best tennis moments of the last years.
Roger Federer is the last bastion of tennis which is disappearing, and who has the latest champion in the Swiss Maestro, able to beat the best opponents in two different eras.
