A Star, and Maybe a Future One
Christophe Karaba/European Pressphoto Agency
Roger Federer and David Goffin, 21, embraced after meeting in the Round of 16.
By GREG BISHOP
Regis Duvignau/Reuters
Roger Federer, right, leaves the court with
David Goffin after their Round of 16 match.
It did not seem fair, what happened on Court Suzanne Lenglen on Sunday afternoon, where Roger Federer advanced to his 32nd straight Grand Slam quarterfinal at the expense of an opponent who looked more like Harry Potter, or perhaps Federer’s own son.
It was fair, of course, and closer than expected, but that did not diminish the striking contrast, one man tall and tan, famous and regal, and the other, well, pretty much the opposite. David Goffin took the court with arms the size of toothpicks, clothes that looked purchased from a juniors section and a skinned right knee.
You half wanted to run on court and hand him a Smurfs bandage.
To be fair, Goffin is 21 years old and ranked 109th in the world. Yet despite his loss in the final round of qualifying, when he sneaked into the main draw here as the so-called Lucky Loser, he rattled off three wins and became the first such “loser” to make the Round of 16 at Roland Garros since 1978. That was 12 years before he was born.
His backstory, too, seemed perfect. Not only did Goffin consider Federer his idol, he had posters of Federer plastered on the walls of his bedroom in Belgium growing up. When Goffin spied Lord Federer last week in the locker room, he practically ran the other way.
That set the stage for Sunday, for the painfully thin, painfully shy Goffin to play against his idol, his tennis bag slung over his shoulders like an oversize knapsack.
But Goffin was not steamrolled. Quite the contrary. He even won a set during Federer’s 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 victory. That said something about Goffin, who emerged from the spotlight not only unscathed but celebrated. Boris Becker posted on Twitter that tennis fans should remember the name Goffin, and if his frame did not inspire, his game sure did.
He provided the kind of story that makes sports worth watching in the first place. After one long rally, which Goffin won when he pushed a charging backhand volley up the line, the crowd exploded and Goffin held a finger aloft and bowed to great applause. Federer cracked a smile. Reporters in the press room cheered.
“I will never forget this moment,” Goffin said.
This match said something about Federer, too, but not so much as to incite panic, even if he sometimes seemed near a defeat of epic proportions. It said he is old enough (31 in August) to meet another player who once idolized him, who was 8 when Federer turned professional, who was born in 1990.
It also said that Federer, despite 48 wins in his previous 52 matches before this tournament, despite winning seven titles since last September, continued to look shaky here.
The question, since Federer lost in that instant-classic semifinal against Novak Djokovic at the United States Open last September, a defeat that hinged on an improbable return by Djokovic against match point, is whether Federer could still win a Grand Slam tournament. In the months since, he has proved he can win — and win often, more often than his rivals — elsewhere, and he remains too dangerous on grass, too dangerous in New York, to discount.
But his performance here, against an opponent who played better and older than he looked, did not inspire confidence, not the champion-of-a-major-tournament kind. Federer needed four sets to get past Adrian Ungur in the second round. He again required four sets to dispatch the journeyman Nicolas Mahut in the third.
Afterward, Federer spoke glowingly of Goffin, said he thought Goffin “played really well” and made a “great impression,” even if, “for his size, and, you know, he’s not the heaviest guy out there...”
Federer noted that this kind of run, by a 21-year-old deep into a Grand Slam tournament, happened so rarely anymore, like when Becker won Wimbledon in 1985 at age 17.
Federer is correct there. The Big Four — Federer, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray — have so dominated men’s tennis that their late meetings in Grand Slam events seem all but assured at the outset. Those meetings have become the stuff of legend.
Fans have been spoiled by this era in men’s tennis, one Federer is still very much a part of. But he is the oldest of the four, the one closest to the end. Another child with a Federer poster on his wall is out there somewhere, and it is as fair now as it was 10 months ago to wonder how long Federer will play, how many major tournaments he will win. For all we know, he could triumph in this tournament, but in the first week, that seemed if not improbable, then unlikely.
When the match with Goffin finished, Federer met him at the net. Both smiled. Federer wrapped an arm around the young man’s back while television cameras captured Federer’s wife, Mirka, sighing in relief in the stands. “Good job, son” is what the embrace looked like. Then the two hugged. It was touching, the wise veteran and his biggest fan, a true tennis Kodak moment.
“Like men!” Federer made sure to add later of the hug.
Then they both headed for the locker room, the champion who struggled again and the opponent who looked young enough that it was natural to speculate if his mother’s minivan was parked outside. The crowd roared, and the champion waved as he exited.
In that moment, Federer looked like Federer again.
