Roger Federer said Goodbye to Tennis on Friday night. This day had to come for Roger Federer and tennis. Roger bid adieu Friday night with one last contest before he heads into retirement at the age of 41 after a superlative career that spanned nearly a quarter-century including 20 Grand Slam titles.
The occasion was about his farewell or better the farewells plural: Federer’s to tennis to the fans to his competitors and colleagues and naturally, each of those entities’ farewells to Federer.
Roger Federer said It has been a perfect journey I would do it all over again. He wrapped up his days as a professional player with a loss in doubles alongside his long-time rival Rafael Nadal for Team Europe in the Laver Cup against Tiafoe and Jack Sock of Team World. When the match and, with it his time in professional tennis ended, Roger hugged Nadal, then Tiafoe and Jack. And he began crying. There were plenty of eyes filled with tears to go around, Rafael Nadal wiped his own away too.
Photo by: GLYN KIRK
Jack Sock said that “Obviously had 99.9% of the crowd against us but it was super fun to just part of that match, I think we are going to be grateful to be the part of the GOAT’s final match.
Roger paid a tearful tribute to his wife by saying “she could have stopped me a long, long time ago, but she didn’t, she kept me going and allowed me to play, It’s amazing, Thank you.
Roger’s wife Mirka, their four children, and his parents joined him on the court afterward for embraces and, yes, more bawling. He announced last week that the three-day team event, which was founded by his management company, would be his final event before retirement, then he made clear the doubles outing would be the last match.
Members of both teams joined together to hoist Roger up in the air. Roger has shared his experience by saying “It‘s been a wonderful day, I told the guy I am happy, I am not sad, he added I enjoyed tying my shoe one more time, everything was the last time.
Roger Federer’s life and career
Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player. He was born on August 8 1981 in Basel, Switzerland. His Swiss-German father. Robert Federer is from Berneck, and his Afrikaner mother, Lynette Federer is from Kempton Park, Gauteng in South Africa.
Roger was a ball boy at his hometown Basel tournament, the Swiss Indoors in 1992 and 1993. He played his first junior match in 1996 at the age of 14 at a grade 2 tournament in Switzerland. Roger’s main accomplishments as a junior player came at Wimbledon in 1998 when he won both the boys’ singles final and doubles teamed with Olivier Rochus. He attained the No.1 junior world ranking and was awarded ITF junior World Champion by the end of 1998.
Roger Federer made his ATP debut at the 1998 Swiss Open Gstaad in his home country of Switzerland losing to Lucas Arnold Ker in the first round. Later that year Roger had his first ATP match in Toulouse against Guillaume Raoux. He entered the top 100 ranking for the first time on 20 September 1999.
Roger was ranked world No.1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. five times. Roger also won 103 ATP singles titles, the second most of all time, including 20 Grand Slam singles titles, a record eight men’s singles Wimbledon title, an Open Era record-tying five men’s singles US Open titles, and a record six year-end championships.
