Roger Federer’s Legacy Is Unquestioned. But Who’s Next?

“For one week that match was the main topic in Switzerland,” Allegro said. “People were down and sad. I think Roger doesn’t realize it, but it hit me again after this loss that he actually has an impact on the national mood.”

And yet on the surface, Federer fever remains a low-grade affair in Switzerland compared with the way a sports star of Federer’s stature might have been treated if he were, say, an Italian, Argentine or American.

Celebrity worship remains out of character in Switzerland, a place that emphasizes egalitarianism from school days onward.

“It’s one of the few countries where Roger rarely needs to have security and people give him his space,” Godsick said. “He still goes out. He’s definitely not retreated because of his fame and still does everything, goes to the restaurants and walks down the Bahnhofstrasse, which is to Zurich what Fifth Avenue is in New York. When you see people stop him, if you were to ask them what their passport was, most of the time it wouldn’t be Swiss people. It’s mostly tourists.”

For Federer, the generally relaxed vibe is one of the keys to his longevity.

“I really feel I can come back to Switzerland and decompress,” he said.

There are polite exceptions. Earlier this year in the mountain town of Chur, he walked into a full restaurant unannounced and drew only smiles or polite stares. But 10 minutes after sitting down and before his lunch was served, a Swiss familyapproached him from across the room to ask for a group photograph. He agreed.

“I’m not a huge believer in star signs and all that stuff, but I am a Leo, and I think the Leo, he likes to be the center of attention but when he likes to be,” Federer said. “So for me, the tennis world works perfectly. I’m happy to face it all: the music, all the big stadiums, the media, the attention. But then I need to get away from it all. And I need to feel like, O.K., this is not about me right now. Somebody else deserves the limelight or I deserve a break or whatever it may be, so I feel I find it very easily and very quickly in this country.”

Source: The New York Times

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