THE AARP OF FEDERER BY CRAIG CIGNARELLI

Written by: Staff on 8th September 2015

THE AARP OF FEDERER BY CRAIG CIGNARELLI

epa04908223 Roger Federer of Switzerland serves to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina during their match on the second day of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 01 September 2015. The US Open runs through 13 September, which is a return to a 14-day schedule. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT |

My grandfather’s couch was the color of desert sand. As a boy, I’d fall back into its soft, thick cushions and stare up into his big brown eyes to listen to stories of his youth. He’d recount tales of Prohibition, when he and his friends would break into perfume factories and siphon off alcohol from the fragrance vats and then refill them with water before vending the illegal liquid on the streets. I’d hear accounts of his gambling habits – the day he won $30,000 at the racetrack – but too, how he’d partied the money away so the IRS wouldn’t get its share. At the end of each story, there’d be a lesson about morality, some pearl of insight that would sustain me throughout life. Age and experience wield a wisdom, which youth cannot create.

At age 34, Roger Federer is the grandfather of elite level tennis. Sure, Tommy Haas and Kimiko Date-Krumm are still out there, flashing their AARP cards to the ushers before taking the court, while legions of blue-haired supporters push their spectacles to the ends of their noses to get a look at these one-foot-in-the-grave seniors before they head off to tennis Heaven. But Roger is waging a different battle, pulling the clock’s big hands backward, hydrated with liquid from the Fountain of Youth. He’s like Wilfred Brimley’s character in Cocoon, launching back flips from the diving board, with hip bones more brittle than old matzah. For Roger, experience has not come with a withering, but rather, an intensification of effort.

Seventeen slams means the court geometry is now part of his DNA, means the “right shot” is no longer a consideration as much as an instinct, means his reputation causes other players to press while he relaxes into the advantage of past successes. If you listen to Roger in post-match interviews, you hear words like “fun” and “calm” and “focused.” You hear responses that make you believe the man has learned so much from his career that these sunset years are a time when he appreciates the beauty of his own game and he is ready to pass on lessons to the next generation, and perhaps even the one after that.

And so, as he prepares for the quarterfinals of the US OPEN for the eleventh time, I’m going to fall back upon the soft, thick cushions of my own desert sand-colored couch, stare into his big brown eyes, and watch the stories of a youth recaptured. And maybe, someday soon, I’ll tell my own grandkids about him.

Roger Federer of Switzerland hits a return to John Isner of the US during their match on the eighth day of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 07 September 2015. The US Open runs through 13 September, which is a return to a 14-day schedule. EPA/JUSTIN LANE

Topics: Atp, Craig Cignarelli, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis, US Open tennis