Of Federer, fandom and Federer-isms

There are two sets of fans – one, those who have been for and with a player right from the start of his career, tracking his ups and downs, highs and lows and victories and defeats, thus firmly entrenching themselves in the pedestal of ultimate fandom; and the second, who join in the bandwagon, somewhere in the interim of a player’s career.

Me, I am one of those who come under the ambit of the latter description. Neither was I a Roger Federer fan in 2001 when he defeated Sampras in his ‘own backyard’ so to speak, nor was I a fan of his, crying in angst when Mario Ancic put an abrupt end to a surrealistic magic. And, again, I wasn’t a fan of the Swiss when he went on a slam-winning spree back in 2004, ’05 and ’06; but converted into one somewhere in the mid of the 2007 season like an atheist being drawn into a miracle of God.

Conversion wasn’t easy but at the same time it wasn’t difficult, either. For the simple reason that before Federer, there wasn’t any tennis precedent. But post Roger Federer, there definitely has been a succession of tennis players, and most importantly, a successful inclusion of the sport itself, in the list of favourites. The point to ponder though isn’t about the upsides that the preferential change has brought about, but about the flipsides arising out of it.

And what’s the biggest flipside of them all – the problem of quantification and qualifying the quantified perspective with substantial arguments. Or to put it simply, from when do I begin to refer myself as a part of Federer’s scattered, hard-core fans as a comparative half-timer, cherishing and reliving the moment of his 17^th Grand Slam triumph and the regaining of his ‘world’s best player’ status?

Do I say 2007, because that’s when it all started for me or do I say nothing at all? The latter, after duly and thoroughly assuming that it doesn’t really matter when a fan turns into a fan and that all that counts is a fan being a fan, irrespective of the time-lag. And remaining thus until eternity, regardless of the player’s presence or absence in the professional circuit.

Maybe I’ll get a definite answer to that question one of these days, or maybe I’ll not. One fact though, remains clear no matter the actual start on my associational stopwatch with Federer. The fact that I take absolute pride in being a fan of the legend as he takes a jaw-dropping stance, at the tennis top-sport, with a totality of some 287-weeks-and- several-odd-days. And along with pride of being a rooter, comes the knowledge that this pride won’t suffer a fall. Matches and titles will be lost, the ranking won’t last forever, ability and tenacity will take a hit, but pride will definitely sustain, for;

It wasn’t about regaining a trophy,

As much as it was about retrieving splendour

It wasn’t about living the moment,

As much as it was about re-living it,

It wasn’t about winning,

As it was about conquering…

Different shades of words,

Each like a dissimilar homophone

Yet with the same context

‘tween the past and present,

As though there were no lags…

Numbers uncountable,

Stats and figures underrated,

The visage of time and age…

Uncontested and unquestioned

Making no difference to passage rites…

Peers and contestants

Flitting time brings more of them

Each better than before,

Each shrewder than ere,

The champion tho’ with his mettle

Prevails all over, like none other…