Roger Federer: Phenomenon. Enthusiast. Philanthropist.

by Simon Graf

The tennis virtuoso strikes each ball with a watchmaker's precision. But he's more than a Swiss national hero, enthralling the masses across the world with his elegant play, his groundedness and his resilience. At 37, the father of four is still diligently increasing his stardom. He is considered not just the best tennis player in history, but one of the greatest athletes of all time. This book is a bestseller in Europe and is now available in English for the first time.

160 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2019

Reviews

[Ghada Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I won this book in an online contest which makes it special because it's the first time I ever win something like that!
The book consists of chapters that discuss different aspects of Roger's life. I enjoyed the book a lot, I think any fan would love to read and learn all these things about Roger, I'd definitely recommend it to any Fedfan.
Here are some of the quotes I liked:
-"Melbourne smells of coconut sun cream, Paris of Chanel No. 5 and crêpes, Wimbledon of strawberries and freshly mowed grass, and New York of the big, wide world."
-"But he always finds a way to have fun. You can play from the baseline for 20 minutes and he will do something different with each ball. He’ll play one with extreme topspin, the next one with slice, sometimes he even groans differently with each stroke. Or he imitates other players. When you’re in practice with him, you don’t feel like you’re on court with an older player."
-"Federer was proof of his theory that beauty may not be the goal of professional sports, but can often be found there. And Foster Wallace was grateful that, in the era of power- baseline tennis, Federer has turned back time, bringing back a touch and finesse not seen since John McEnroe."

[Oscar Dent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet. This book takes an anthological view of Roger, 16 individual chapters that offer no rhythm and prescribe no order (and even encourages you to take the path less travelled). Each offers a different viewpoint or focuses on a different aspect of the man. It covers some topics that other (far longer) books skate over if touching at all.

Concise, well written, very enjoyable.

[Michael Chepesiuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short read but great.

[Ross Macpherson · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be clear, this is in no way an excellent book. Whatever the writing was like in the original language, the translation is sloppy and workmanlike. The book is very short, and is padded with material taken from elsewhere - there is a chapter that essentially repeats, quotes and very close to plagiaristically repurposes David Foster Wallace's peerless essay on Federer. The book is filled with grammatical errors and typographical errors, and it feels like it was probably rushed out to commemorate the 100 titles.

That said, the stories presented about Federer are accurate and true, and I'm not giving anything associated with the greatest sportsperson of all time anything less than a perfect rating.