The 2003 tabloid headline “Roger the Blubberer” may have to be revisited after Roger Federer’s last match ended in the most emotional scenes this side of The Railway Children.
Interviewed by Jim Courier after his doubles collaboration with Rafael Nadal, Federer managed only a few sentences before the tears started to flow.
Federer did his best to choke them back, but without much success. As Courier kept probing away, he ended up doubled over, his hands on his knees, and a small puddle forming around his feet.
The question that really broke Federer – as one might have expected – related to his family, who were all waiting on the sidelines.
“My wife is so supportive,” he managed to stammer out. “She could have stopped me a long, long time ago, but she didn’t. She kept me going and allowed me to play. Thank you.”
As for his tennis, Federer declared: “It has been a perfect journey. I would do it all over again.” And he thanked all the people who have cheered for him over the years – a tally that must run well into the millions.
The emotional clout of the whole occasion was only accentuated by the way that Nadal also found himself overcome by emotion. Once the Courier interview had ended, pop star Ellie Goulding walked out to deliver a couple of hits.
During her performance, these two legends of the game sat on their chairs at courtside and sobbed away uncontrollably.
roger federer last match live laver cup 2022 nadal murray
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were in tears on the bench CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
“What I will remember is the faces I saw emotional ,” said Federer later, as he answered reporters’ questions in the interview room. “The part I was extremely worried about, is taking the microphone. I know how impossible I am on the mic when I am emotional, because I had it many times before.
“But I was able to remind myself always on the court again how wonderful this is. This is not the end-end, you know, life goes on. I’m healthy, I’m happy, everything’s great, and this is just a moment in time, you know. This is obviously supposed to be like this.”
The teams combined to carry Federer aloft after the match
The teams combined to carry Federer aloft after the match CREDIT: AP
Amid such scenes, the doubles contest itself faded quickly from the memory. The important thing was that Federer managed to negotiate a narrow 4-6, 7-6, 11-9 defeat without breaking down. “I thought something was gonna go,” he told Courier. “Pop a calf or block a back or something in the match, so I am so happy I made it through.”
Despite Federer’s sluggish movement around the court – the result of the cranky right knee which has forced him into retirement at the age of 41 – he and Nadal fought gallantly against the young American pairing of Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock.
They even had a match point at 9-8 in the super tie-break at the end. It came on Federer’s serve, too, but he couldn’t land his first delivery and a bold poaching volley from Tiafoe helped win the point for the World team. Moments later, Sock fired a forehand winner up the line to seal victory.
Federer and Nadal fought gallantly in their defeat to Sock and Tiafoe
Federer and Nadal fought gallantly in their defeat to Sock and Tiafoe CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Federer signed off alongside his oldest rival
Federer signed off alongside his oldest rival CREDIT: REUTERS
Had Federer and Nadal been playing for a grand-slam trophy, this might have been the moment to bring out that old cliché “There are no fairytales in sport.” In this instance, however, the result felt completely irrelevant. And the true fairytale was the way in which Federer was able to say farewell alongside his oldest rival, while other tennis legends like Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray watched on from the sidelines.
At the end of the match, Federer went around hugging every member of each team, and then hugged the Europeans a second time for good measure.
It was telling that Martina Navratilova, commentating for the American audience, wished that she had been able to finish her own career by playing doubles with her own greatest rival Chris Evert.
Once Goulding had finished her performance, the other players gathered around Federer in the middle of the court and lifted him unsteadily onto their shoulders, before giving him the bumps in the manner of a ten-year-old at his own birthday party.
Then the announcer finally indicated to the crowd that it was time – with the clock approaching 1am – for them to drag themselves away. “There’s so much love in this house,” he observed.
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