Federer is 33!

[GameSetAndMath]

Let us forget the vague term "ambassador of the sport" and let us focus on something
tangible. Federer served as a member of the players council and its chair for quite a few
years. He was instrumental in negotiating with the GS organizers that led to higher pay
for tennis players.

Before he became a member of PC, it used to be the case that top players do not
mess with silly things like PC etc and focus just on their game.

Happy birthday Roger.

Thanks for all you do on and off the court.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I found the following nice nice collection of pictures presented as a tribute to Fed on his birthday in Sports Illustrated.

 

[britbox]

Well, in fairness to Roger, it's not his fault that America is in the doldrums tennis wise, or that lads are taking the lady razor to their calfs.

That's not really the point. Of course Federer is not responsible for American and Canadian tennis being what it is, which is basically nothing. But if we are going to say he has been such a great "ambassador" for the game, shouldn't we judge his impact on tennis's quality on the continent where he has played half of his tennis?

He also did a lot of stuff in Asia, before they had the WTF and Shanghai as an MS tourney. He's helped bring the sport to new lucrative spots, which is necessary.

Frankly I think this had more to do with business contracts and technology than Federer eating pizza with Chinese kids in front of 400 cameras. There is big money in tennis and Shanghai is a booming city in the modern world. Tennis going there was inevitable, with or without Federer.

He's also a great guy with the press and with any obligations involving fans, far as I can see. Fixture this into a hugely busy schedule where he's reached about a billion finals in ten years - sometimes two finals played in one day, across different time zones, and well...you get the drift. The man is good for the sport.

I agree, but I don't think that smiling for photo-ops is as hard as you're making it sound. It's easy to show up when you're being paid $700k to dress up and smile for some people.

No scandals, good family man, pleasant, but with a hugely competitive streak that brought him a massive haul of titles. I give him huge props for this.

Agreed.

I prefer Pete, as a player, but Pete didn't put half as much back into the sport, he was much more insular, and the tennis brand suffered globally by having such an isolationist great at the helm for so long.

Did it really? Tennis in the post-Sampras era has been a much better product than tennis in the post-Federer era appears to be developing into.

Rafa too is a great ambassador for the sport, too, a player kids can look up too and idolise. Neither of these men carry any baggage, they're sportsmen, first and foremost, gentlemen players, as much as can be at that level, and in their time running the shop, I bet global business has increased...

But this can be said of all major sports leagues in the past 10 years. Technology, business contracts, and inflation account for these changes more so than Federer or LeBron smiling for the cameras and signing off on new endorsements.

Get with the programme Cali - it's a worldwide sport and Federer has transcended it more than most.

He's not responsible for the decline in popularity of US Tennis (Canadian Tennis is in a pretty good place, by the way). There is more prize money in the game than ever before and the sport has a far greater global reach. That's obviously not all down to Federer - but he's a good corporate-type front man - clean living, popular family man... a good look for the sport with regard to sponsorship.

Maybe he could have attacked defenceless middle aged line judges to spice things up a bit... but then again, maybe not.