GENIUS, MUTANT OR AVATAR?
So Roger Federer lost his first game in the Shanghai Masters. You just know it will only make him more determined to win the tournament outright. It’s just the nature of the man (and all great sportsmen for that matter), to overcome adversity despite not performing at his peak. The will is the wings that carry talent across the line, and pure determination so often the difference between maestro and wasted talent, between fully fledged genius and meaningless potential.
And for a reminder as to just how brilliant Roger Federer is, take a look at this piece by David Foster Wallace (it’s over a year old now but no less evocative today) that compares watching the great man to something verging on religious experience -
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html
Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite:
“Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. Good analogues here include Michael Jordan, who could not only jump inhumanly high but actually hang there a beat or two longer than gravity allows, and Muhammad Ali, who really could “float” across the canvas and land two or three jabs in the clock-time required for one. Federer is of this type - a type that one could call genius or mutant or avatar. He is never hurried or off-balance. The approaching ball hangs, for him, a split-second longer than it ought to. His movements are lithe rather than athletic. Like Ali, Jordan and Maradona, he seems both less and more substantial than the men he faces. He looks like what he may well (I think) be: a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light.”
And for a reminder as to just how brilliant Roger Federer is, take a look at this piece by David Foster Wallace (it’s over a year old now but no less evocative today) that compares watching the great man to something verging on religious experience -
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html
Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite:
“Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. Good analogues here include Michael Jordan, who could not only jump inhumanly high but actually hang there a beat or two longer than gravity allows, and Muhammad Ali, who really could “float” across the canvas and land two or three jabs in the clock-time required for one. Federer is of this type - a type that one could call genius or mutant or avatar. He is never hurried or off-balance. The approaching ball hangs, for him, a split-second longer than it ought to. His movements are lithe rather than athletic. Like Ali, Jordan and Maradona, he seems both less and more substantial than the men he faces. He looks like what he may well (I think) be: a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light.”
