Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The greatest of all time - part 2

Just a quick one.

Neal Manthorp is one of my favourite cricket writers. This is an excerpt from his latest article on Supersport and is not about cricket but about, you guessed it, Roger Federer.

"Then, after Devon, we stayed with friends and watched the Wimbledon final - the real one, on Sunday. What a game. What a champion. Not just the greatest player of all time, but one of the greatest sportsmen and one of the finest human beings.

At 7:20 am on Monday, the day after winning his record-breaking 15th 'major' by defeating Andy Roddick 16-14 in the fifth set, when Roger Federer should have been tucked up in bed or, at the very least making his heavily pregnant wife a cup of herbal tea, he was chatting to a reporter on BBC Radio Four's current affairs programme.


After a couple of minutes the interviewer, too, was struck by the anomaly and could no longer contain himself: "Why did you agree to do this interview?" he asked with a genuine sense of awe.
"Because," replied Federer, "many years ago I learned that journalists and reporters are merely a link between me and the people who support me and I am grateful for the chance you give me to speak to them." Bloody hell."


I rest my case, not just a great champion on the tennis courts but a true champion of a human being too.

2 comments:

David Richardson said...

Hey Francois!

I thought about you after the Wimbledon final.

Being an American, I was obviously pulling for Roddick. He was the underdog, and I thought it would be good for him to pull off the huge upset. He played good...but so do Roger.

It was just a great match to watch.

In the end, Roger deserved to win. He simply had more in him, and he earned the trophy.

I tip my hat to Roger. He is an amazing athlete, and a classy guy.

I hope you and your lovely wife are doing well.

David
U.S.A.

The Running Golfer said...

Hey David!!! I`ve been trying to email you but none of the addresses work!

Please email me on therunninggolfer@gmail.com

Thanks for the comment. I felt really sad for Andy. He gave it his all and just didn`t have anything left. A great match, truly great!

Please send me your email, I would really love to stay in touch.

Francois