Federer sees himself 'very far' from best player in history

By Sebastian Fest Mar 19, 2007, 19:22 GMT

Miami - Roger Federer has his dreams - like being a rock star or scoring the winning goal in a World Cup final with a spectacular overhead kick. But when it comes to his own profession, there is no time for daydreaming for the top player in men's tennis.

'I am very far from being the best tennis player of all time,' he said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

At 25, Federer dominates tennis like few players have done in history. He already has 10 Grand Slam titles, and he looks like the man to end a 38-year wait since Australian Rod Laver achieved the Grand Slam, winning the four greatest tournaments in the same year.

'Of course I have clearly earned the praise and all that, but at times I wish people gave me a bit more time and said, 'OK, you do great stuff, etcetera, records, etcetera, but we will only evaluate you after the end of your career and only then look at whether you really were the best or even came close,'' Federer said.

'If I keep on like this for the next two years, then it looks like I will be (the best). But we are not going to see that for a long time. One must always look at the game this way - if I stopped (playing) now, would I be the best player of all time? No, not a chance.'

German Boris Becker for one does not think Federer is the best in history and claims today's top 10 players are less strong technically and psychologically than those of the 1980s and 1990s.

Federer does not enter that debate, but does feel that so much praise poured on him may be annoying to the sport's former greats.

'Sometimes it is really too much for me. It is clear that I should not be compared to the best sportsmen of all time, like Muhammad Ali, or to the best tennis players. It is of course logical that some former players get almost angry about it, because there is already so much talk of it. One just comes across it and goes 'huh!', and gives a side-swipe,' Federer explained with a laugh.

'I do not provoke that, it's the media. Respect is important,' he stressed.

As a child, Federer was a useful footballer with a dream: 'to be a footballer and to score the goal of the year, with an overhead kick, in the World Cup final.

Luckily for tennis he had another dream: to achieve 'a victory at Wimbledon in which one falls to his knees on the grass like all his idols have done.'

This year he could be kneeling for the fifth time, matching the Swede Bjorn Borg's record of five consecutive titles. 'That would be special,' he said.

The dreams don't stop at football and tennis though. He wouldn't mind being a rock star either. 'I would so like to be Lenny Kravitz...' he said with a half-smile.

'I saw him live in Paris. And I was so moved by his behaviour with the audience, and by how he was cheered, by me too. I have to say it - I would like to experience that some time.'

He tried the recorder, he tried the piano. But he was less disciplined with those instruments than with a racket. 'I was too lazy and did not practice for a week and then in time I stopped.'

Behind his polite manners, behind that apparent self-control, there is a 'drug' that feeds Federer's spirit - the spectators. The electric atmosphere generated when he plays before thousands of people is what motivates him.

'I feel nothing can beat that, the live public. Those are moments of which everyone dreams.'

Federer's great objective for this year is winning the French Open. Only the Spaniard Rafael Nadal is better than him on clay. Last year Federer got to the final and fell to the world number two. If at the beginning of June he manages to lift the trophy at Roland Garros, he will have the key to the Grand Slam in his pocket.

Federer is not interested in records - like the one over 161 consecutive weeks as number one that he took away from Jimmy Connors. He prefers to talk of the present, of rivals like Nadal.

'In any normal situation he would already have been number one a long time ago,' he said of the Spaniard. Federer meanwhile believes Argentine David Nalbandian, a rival who used to mean trouble for him, 'has missed the chance to go for number one a little bit.'

Nadal is his main rival, but he is also a colleague whom he respects, a lot. In November they shared two days between Shanghai and Seoul in which they talked about many things.

'It is good that we talk to each other, that we discuss problems with the tour.'

Problems like those generated by the Davis Cup, a tournament that Federer practically does not play. He only gets involved when he has to save Switzerland from relegation.

'At the moment I am still fighting to get them to change the whole thing. I find the weeks are not well structured, it should be the weeks after the Australian Open, after Miami, after the US Open and directly after Shanghai. Always straight afterwards, not with one week in between.'

Federer feels his success in tennis has 'brought me a lot further as a person, without forgetting where I come from.'

Mirka Vavrinec, the Swiss former tennis player who has been his girlfriend for almost seven years, helps him in this respect. She is also a sort of personal assistant who helps ease the enormous media pressure on Federer. What does Mirka mean to him?

'Just a colleague,' he says laughing. 'She is the most important person in my life, of course, with my parents. And I am very glad about everything she does for me. She will remain my girlfriend or my wife, and she does everything that she does only because she has fun helping me, and if ever she no longer feels like doing it she must stop.'

Vavrinec, who polished Federer's look and made him interested in the fashion world, devotes all her time to the tennis player, but has said, 'My time comes after Roger's time.'

'Yes, exactly,' agreed Federer. 'Actually, when we are on holiday I do everything she wants. If she wants to go shopping for 10 hours I go with her, because she has to wait for me for 10 hours in every tournament. I have no problem with that.'

Federer is still very far from setting a date for his retirement, but he can think long term. 'I already said that I will play at Wimbledon at the 2012 Olympics in London. This is the first long-term goal I have.'