Roger Federer: An irresistible storyline

Roger Federer was only two matches into a comeback that has already scaled wildly improbable heights when he was heard consoling one of his twin daughters after his first loss – a high quality three-tiebreak affair against emerging star Sascha Zverev at Perth’s Hopman Cup invitational. Why, Papa Fed asked jovially, was she upset? No need. None at all.

Clearly beyond the seven-year-old’s understanding was the hint that, even then, Federer’s return to competition after a six-month layoff was already showing hugely promising signs. And what was already ahead of schedule has since progressed far beyond expectations, an irresistible storyline unfolding via drought-breaking major title No.18 at Melbourne Park and, now, with No.19 through a record eighth Wimbledon triumph. Even if, it must be said, a fair few more people had seen this second one coming.

RELATED: Nadal, Federer and the race to world No.1

Still, even Lleyton Hewitt was moved on Twitter to question which year this is. 2017? Surely not. The past three major winners: Roger, Rafa, now Roger again, in a tennis time warp that includes its own jump to the left(hander) at Roland Garros and then step back to the right at a slightly anti-climactic SW19. Overwhelmed opponents are the ones left to put hands on hips in what, from midway through Sunday’s first set, poor, sore Marin Cilic may well have likened to his own rocky horror show.

In Federer’s case, though it seems timely to revisit the words of one of the Swiss champion’s former coaches, Paul Annacone, during a post-finals chat with this reporter on the players’ lawn at the All England Club in the hours following grasscourt slam No.7, and career major 17, way back in 2012.

Annacone had coached both Federer and the other seven-time Wimbledon men’s champion of the Open era, Pete Sampras. The contrast between the two players, he said, was that the almost-31-year-old Federer still had more to come. What could not have been forecast then was that the prophecy would take four-and-a-half more years to be validated on a grand slam finals day. Or, now, two.

“The biggest similarity is that they’re both great and very driven,” Annacone said after Federer equalled the Wimbledon record held by Sampras and 1800s star William Renshaw. It is now owned outright by the superstar who turns 36 next month, and is the oldest male winner in the modern era. “And the biggest difference is they’re very different people, and Roger is much more in the middle of his career at [almost] 31 than Pete was at 31.

DID YOU SEE? Wimbledon 2017 winners’ gallery

“Roger just loves the game and loves the life, and his life is the road. He loves it, his family loves it, and he loves tennis, he loves who he’s become.

“I think Pete – with all due respect at that age, to him – was a little bit tired, and had achieved what he wanted to achieve. Pete was his own barometer, and he felt like he didn’t have to prove anything to himself any more, so he preferred to be home and kind of go into a different phase of life. He was very different at that age than Roger is.”

And, so, on he goes, back up to No.3 in this week’s ATP rankings, and with a return to No.1 a firm possibility by season’s end. He may play until 40, says the man who now considers himself something of a part-timer, but still speaks convincingly of how much he likes playing, practising, and travelling with a show-stealing family that has expanded to include three-year-old twin boys Leo and Lenny, and well as Charlene Riva and Myla Rose.

So back to Annacone. What did he regard as Federer’s barometer? “It’s kind of an endless pool of youthful exuberance that he has for the game that’s really amazing to be around,” the American said. Was then. Remains so. Incredible.