In the future, will we be able to see everything from our desks? Trolling around the Interweb this morning, looking for tennis, I found what I at first thought was a match between Ivan Ljubicic and another player with a one-handed backhand. I couldn’t see who it was, but his first couple of shots reminded me a little of Roger Federer, a very casual Roger Federer. But I knew these two seeded players weren’t playing in the first round. Of course, when the camera went close up, it turned out that it was Federer, in a Nike T-shirt, and that this was a practice session. The top players' practices are increasingly showcased at tournaments, so why not let us see them at work, right?
When Federer practices during a tournament, there are a few re-occurring elements: He bounces the ball off his head. He hits it back to his opponent from between his legs. He walks into a few backhands and goes for broke with a bunch of forehands. He leans on the net and shares a few jokes with his opponent and coach (Severin Luthi this week; no Annacone in sight). In general, he looks for reasons to smile and screw around as often as possible. The purpose, more than anything else, is to work up a sweat and get the blood flowing. Interviewed after this one, he said he “had to conserve energy" because he was tired, but that he thought he would be OK for his match tomorrow. If he was jet lagged, he didn’t show it.
Was there anything at all revealed? Well, Federer did come over a few backhand returns and follow them to the net, and he took a couple of forehand returns earlier than normal. Make what you want of that. Most interesting to me was his answer to this question in the interview afterward:
“Davis Cup, Olympics, what would you like more to complete your collection?”
“I’d like to win Wimbledon one more time,” Federer said.
—Steve Tignor