Cav's Place

Seems that I find myself writing about tennis again, but I did watch Federer’s retirement match and it feels like the end of an era. Sure, after not playing since losing in the quarter-finals of last year’s Wimbledon, this only makes his retirement official, while on the other hand Nadal, Djokovic and even Murray are still active, and all three were right there next to him, Nadal even playing alongside him. However, Federer always felt like the “frontman” of that generation that dominated men’s tennis for so long. Perhaps even more importantly, he also seemed to be the nicest and the easiest to like, as a person, both on and off the court… Which doesn’t mean that I could forgive the fact that he didn’t just breed, but even ended up having four.
But this is, mostly, about tennis, and while his style wasn’t, in itself, the most spectacular, his raw talent and the ease with which he played, and with which he managed amazing shot after amazing shot, seem unsurpassed among his contemporaries… Which makes it quite sad that he ended his career with a defeat, especially since he and Nadal ended up having a match point in that match tie-break only for him to lose both his serves, providing Sock and Tiafoe with a match point, which they capitalized on. But the ideal retirement would have most likely been winning another Wimbledon title, preferably in a five-set match against Nadal, and since that was not an option, and he didn’t consider himself fit to even play another singles match anymore, the fact that he retired at Laver Cup and Nadal was also there, alongside him instead of on the other side of the net, is likely good enough… Inasmuch as anything can be good enough to end the career of one such as him.