• Roger Federer announced last week that he would retire after the Laver Cup, which takes place next weekend.

  • An immensely talented, elegant player with an extraordinary record, the Swiss has marked an entire generation since his debut almost 25 years ago.

  • 20 Minutes devotes a series of articles to him this week before the final bow, perhaps in doubles alongside Rafael Nadal?

There are those inevitable events for which we refuse to prepare.

Too painful.

The announcement of Roger Federer's retirement is undoubtedly one of them.

No one wanted to imagine what tennis would be like without the Swiss.

But now we have to face the facts.

The Swiss finally said stop

, after 20

Grand Slam titles

in almost 25 years of career.

Before the last strokes of the master's racket, from Friday during the Laver Cup, 20 Minutes devotes a series of articles to the one who will remain a legend of the game. Third episode this Wednesday, on the link maintained by Federer with France .


In the huge list of Roger Federer, France does not weigh heavily: three titles out of 103, with the Open 13 of Marseille (2003), Roland-Garros (2009) and Bercy (2011).

Plus, all the same, a Davis Cup snatched from the Blues cornered by Arnaud Clément in Lille, in 2014. And yet, over the course of his long career, the French public, more than any other, cherished the child of Basel as his he was born in Sérignan (if only) or in Le Mans.

"I am amazed by the very strong attachment of France to Roger Federer, indicated to

20 Minutes

the Swiss journalist Christian Despont, during the great return of the idol Porte d'Auteuil in 2019, after four years of absence.

The taste for style, beauty, elegance, perhaps… I have the impression that the French public expected him even more than we hoped that he would one day play Roland again.

"I may be extrapolating, but I wonder if Federer's failures, especially against Nadal, who represents strength and brutality, have not made him even more sympathetic in France," continued the Swiss specialist.



We come back to the cliché of the Frenchman in love with the magnificent loser, like Poulidor against the fearless Anquetil in the Tour or the Platini gang victim of Germany by the wicked Schumacher in the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup. It may seem strange to move forward the “lose” argument, when we talk about a man who has won 20 Grand Slam tournaments and six Masters.

Very mixed beginnings in Tarbes

But actually, within our borders, “Roggeur” has not always said “yes” to happiness.

Everything had started badly in 1995, when the future darling of the crowds had not passed the round of 16 of the Petits As de Tarbes.

“On the court, he was undisciplined, rowdy, evokes the co-founder Jean-Claude Knaebel on the site of the unofficial World Cup for children under 14 years old.

It didn't look like he was going to do much next.

When you see the great champion he is today… He has become the perfect player, calm and focused.

»

Three years later, however, it was with us that Federer won his very first victory on the professional circuit, in the very intimate setting of the qualifications for the Toulouse tournament, on September 30, 1998 against Guillaume Raoux.

A report from France 3 then immortalizes the yet not unforgettable words of a 17-year-old teenager, German-speaking by birth and not yet as comfortable in the language of Nougaro as he will be years later, when he puts the Parisian public in his pocket over post-match stand-up interviews.


Federer's 1st victory in 1998 in Toulouse😄



📽️ France 3 Occitanie pic.twitter.com/OedFOUUQsp

— Dinora♥RF 🐐 (@norinchi_df) September 30, 2020

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After having come close to the feat in the round of 16 at Roland against the master of the clocks, in 2013, the always frank Gilles Simon also regretted not having been able to count on the patriotic fiber of the Central public: "I would have liked have more support because if I don't have it there, I never will.

“Before pledging allegiance:” It shows how much he has fans everywhere.

But he deserves unconditional support.

»

So, has Roger's aerial tennis always triumphed over French chauvinism?

Not necessarily.

If he presents a largely positive balance sheet in his face-to-face against the Musketeers (Tsonga, Monfils, Gasquet, Simon), Federer has more often lowered his flag against our Fantastic Four than the two other ogres of the 21st century, Rafael Nadal ( 17-0 against Gasquet, for example) or Novak Djokovic (18-0 against Monfils).

La Monf 'and his thrilling tennis had thus electrified Bercy when he torpedoed the Swiss in the semi-finals in 2010.

The Davis Cup, a French exception

The Parisian had atomized the Balois four years later in the final of the Davis Cup pre-Gerard Piqué, in a resolutely cocky Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille.

Two days later, during the warm-up of the decisive match against Gasquet, the public screamed with pleasure at each shot of the Biterrois, then observed a polite silence in front of Federer's gestures.

An unusually cold reception if not frankly hostile, which did not prevent "Rodgeur" ​​from rolling "Richie" to win the trophy alongside a then untouchable Stan Wawrinka.

These few exceptions aside, the apostle of the beautiful game received a royal welcome when he condescended to put his rackets on our soil.

He has indeed often "dried" Bercy, an appointment unfortunately stuck between his dear Basel tournament and the Masters.

A long rock star tour in 2019

We return to Roland-Garros 2019, when the Parisian public thought they were attending the "der" in Paris of the 37-year-old idol.

“It's crazy to see the stadium filled like that for a first round, had dropped Federer after his success on Lorenzo Sonego in front of 15,000 fans and about as many “RF” caps.

I felt a lot of encouragement during the warm-up, like before a final.

It was very special.

The audience missed me, and the audience missed me too.

To the delight of his supporters and the organization, the Swiss Rolling Stone tour will include five additional dates, before the Majorcan host breaks the magic in the semi-finals.



Federer's real farewell to Paris will take place two years later, in the shadow of the Covid, during a nocturnal round of 16 behind closed doors won against the anonymous German Dominik Koepfer and lived by

20 Minutes

until the end of the night despite a bitter cold in the stands of the Central.

The next day, Roger folded the saplings on the sly.

Officially to "listen to his bruised body", unofficially to focus on Wimbledon, his real backyard.

The divine Swiss has always preferred London to Paris.

It is also in the English capital that his epic on the courts will end this weekend in the Laver Cup.

A few days after the (real) end of another immensely popular world legend in France.

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