Roger Federer Draws Parallels With Lionel Messi

On his flight to his clay-court tournament this year, Roger Federer’s journey to Madrid on the private plane was accompanied with exchanges of words with the British Author, Simon Kuper. The 37-year-old, Roger Federer was entitled as the ‘Roman god’ by the Financial Times author.

Roger Federer expressed his admiration towards the FC Barcelona striker, Lionel Messi and revealed his interests to meet him. Just like the left-footed dribbler glues the ball to his foot and makes an agile escape in the field to pass or score a goal, Roger Federer does reflect the similar instincts as the pique footballer. The one-hander of tennis draws parallels with the one-footed striker.

“I haven’t spoken about Messi nearly enough. What I love about Messi probably most is when he gets the ball and is able to turn the body towards the goal, and then he has full vision. Then he’s going to pass, or dribble, or shoot. There are always three options for him. He’s one of the few who’s got that,” Roger Federer revealed.

At the beginning of this year, tennis researchers from Game Insight Group (GIG) declared Roger Federer to be the most “technically sound” athlete in tennis. According to their analysis, he had 90 percent and above score in technical, tactical, mental, and physical dimensions of tennis.

Also, they deduced that Roger Federer outshines his fellow colleagues in the aspects of agility, repeated sprints, and match endurance. Being aged on the greater side of number thirty impacts his foot speed on the court, but Federer’s unparalleled mental strength nullifies his weaknesses.

Similarly, the Argentine striker’s unrivaled dribble gives him a special niche in the sporting world all because of his acceleration, technique, strength, and agility.

Roger Federer has a diverse game and his early years in professional tennis were spent in learning when to use his arsenal of shots. “The problem when you’re younger is knowing to use what when. That is quite — how do you say? — complex. Whereas if you’re a player who’s just very good at doing forehands and backhands across court all day, it’s easier,” Roger Federer said.

The plethora of options which he has sometimes happens to be way too taxing for selecting his shots, but there’s a reason why he is regarded as greatest of all times as his astute and quick shot selection keeps him ahead of other players on tour. With the rising competition in the sport makes him even more ambitious than before and he drives himself to bring variations in his actions on the court. 

“I’ve got a lot of different options. For us, it’s more challenging. I think once you master the craft of knowing, ‘Which club shall I take out of the bag for this shot or pass?’, it’s incredibly exciting. Maybe this is why my love for the game is so big nowadays. Geometry, angles, when to hit which shot, should I serve and volley? Stay back? Should I chip and charge? Should I hit big?” the Swiss added.

Federer’s departure from tennis started hovering in the tennis world when he earned his Career Slam diadem by defeating Robin Soderling in Paris. Since then, he expanded his major tally by half a dozen and also joined the Connors’ club of centurion. Despite his never-ending streak of winning ATP titles, tennis pundits keep mulling over him hitting the sack.  

After winning his fourth major title at Flushing Meadows in 2004, a star was born at Roland-Garros 2005 as the 19-year-old, Rafael Nadal emerged out to a champion. Their head to head tally in Grand Slams might be 10-3 with Nadal on the lead and Rafa’s incoming must have intimidated his dominance on ATP Tour, but certainly, the aggressive hitting from the lefty Spaniard made him the maestro in the tennis realm.

World Number three, Roger Federer will play Lloyd Harris from South Africa in the opening round of Wimbledon Championships 2019 on Tuesday.