Roger Federer: Knockin' on century's door

"There he is..like it was yesterday (chuckles), I kind of remember it you know. I did it for two years...It's a great memory for me. I loved being a ball boy here,"

-- confessed the 20 time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer, staring at his boy self receiving a medal from Michael Stich, in a video interview with TennisTV.

On 28th October, Sunday, Federer stood on the brink of breaking coveted records when he won his 99th tour-level title at his hometown championship, the Swiss Indoors Masters. The hallowed courts in Basel is where young Roger's journey had all began as a young and enthusiastic ball boy to being the greatest and easily most admired player of all time.

Decorated with way too many accolades, it's a wonder how Federer manages to keep his feet right on the ground even though he glides across the courts with balletic charm and bowls us over with his humility. "At the heart, I am always gonna be a ball boy, " says the man who is all for keeping the memory of his childhood years alive.

Federer's life has been nothing short of a fairy tale ever since those days on the court in his hometown. Right from his pre teen years when as a 12 year old boy he would scamper the courts of Basel as a ball kid to coming back to his beloved city over and over again to crown himself as the champion of the court for a record 9 times!

For a journey which has spanned two decades, Federer's life has been glittered with records rave and inspiring.The platform of tennis has been graced by countless legends each possessing a strong sense of signature style and individuality that comes with the aura of being who they are.

From the time of Rod Laver, to that of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe and Andre Agassi to that of Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg, tennis has been fashioned out of the racquets of such eminent players. Yet when it comes to a certain 37 year old man with auburn locks and warm brown eyes and a charming smile splattering on his face, one cannot really pinpoint the mystical quality associated with him. If tennis ever had a Prince Charming, it must be the easy charisma and grace of Roger Federer who will assail the title without much competition.

After a troublesome past few weeks with things falling a little out of place here and there, the Swiss Maestro was in the impatient wait for a victory. For someone whose professional career has been littered with magnificent statistics from the beginning, it must have been a very special feeling to win the 99th title cradled in the alpine ranges of the Swiss ranges he calls his home.

The road to the finals at the Swiss Indoors Basel was pretty smooth for the World Number 3. Faced with the challenge of overcoming a heavily inspired and ambitious World Number 93 Marius Copil who had demolished World Number 6 Marin Cilic and World Number 5 Alexander Zverev in the preceding rounds to set up a delicious date with the Basel-born Roger Federer, the task at hand seemed a little easy.

Sailing in with the usual confidence which comes with the knowledge that he was in the possession of the record of not having been defeated by someone this low ranked in a tour-level final as Copil was, things did promise to look one-sided until the match began.

However, it isn't easy to write off the 28 year old Copil so easily as he had quite a few tricks up his sleeves which he demonstrated early into the match, catching the genius of Federer off guard. Soon Copil broke Roger but his success was short lived as Federer broke back and seized the first set in a nail-biting tie-breaker.

The second set also had the big-serving Copil digging deep into the Federer serve and producing some spot-on backhand winners which often left Federer a little amazed. Some one hour and thirty four minutes later, if we are to consider the entire match in perspective, it was Federer who clearly dominated the Romanian and handed him a neat defeat in 7-5(6), 6-4 to maintain his 20 match winning streak at Basel and win his 9th title in his hometown and his 99th tour-level title!

"'I’ve played well, but at times also I didn’t play as well, so it’s nice to come back to winning ways. Now we’ll see what happens next. But obviously getting 99 is a huge, huge number for me," Federer expressed in the middle of joyous emotions flooding through his heart post the big win!

The man who in spite of being the possessor of innumerable records is still that humble 12 year old ball boy at heart, gaping with wide eyes at the medal he just got presented with by Michael Stich in 1993, is easily the greatest player of all time.

The sole person in the men's circuit to have won 20 Grand Slam titles on tour to languishing for 237 consecutive weeks at the top perch of the ATP rankings and being the oldest Number 1 in history, spending 310 weeks overall, to having won two Grand Slams-the Wimbledon Championships and the US Open for five times in a row, Federer has in short, been there and done it all.

With the 99th title win, the ball boy at heart, who still affably throws a pizza party with all the ball kids after every conclusion of the Swiss Indoors Masters, is just knocking on the door of the three digit figure which is almost in his grasp. The only other man to have decorated himself with a whopping 109 career titles is Jimmy Connors.

Federer, who is touted to begin his quest for the century title in the ongoing Paris Masters in the capital city of France, is yet to take a call on his participation in the ultimate Masters event on the tour before the Nitto ATP Tour Finals in November.

The curious case of Roger Federer is such that no record stays free from the Maestro's control as he has made it his habit to topple records and place his name as the 'only' this and that in several realms of tennis. Federer's genius on the court will forever remain unparalleled and his dominance unquestioned even though the day of his retirement might be fast approaching some fear.

His story from being an ordinary ball boy lurking behind stalwarts like Stefan Edberg ( who'd later become his coach! ) to becoming the greatest player of all time is perhaps how fairy tales come to life in the real world when you have a certain Roger Federer assaying the unsuspecting role of Prince Charming in the most surreal way expected and waltzing into our hearts, one ace at a time!