If the sports world wakes up on Friday, September 16, with a hangover, it’s because one of its finest ambassadors has decided to say stop. The retirement of Roger Federer, a true legend among the greatest sportsmen in history, is not a big surprise, but his withdrawal from the courts has literally upset the planet of sport. From the sports press to the general media, everyone pays homage to the “king”.
“God Saves the King”
Here is the front page of L’Équipe newspaper for Friday, September 16, 2022, after the announcement of Roger Federer’s retirement.
The newspaper: https://t.co/j9DlhqD6zO pic.twitter.com/KX9GhYobqk
— THE TEAM (@theteam) September 15, 2022
A week after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, The Team pulls out the big game, with with “God save the King” (“May God protect the King” in French) in One, and no less than 15 pages. For our colleague Romain Lefebvre, the man with 20 Grand Slam titles “will sit forever up there, next to Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Michael Schumacher or Pelé“.
The pantheon of the greatest sportsmen in history thus welcomes the one who has “reinvented a sport that was already spoiled, dancing on a court where he barely sweated, where airy elegance erased the excess of energy and physical fatigue. A sport that only he was able to practice like this.”
Even in the general press, Roger Federer enjoys an important place. “103 tracks and then go” headline Release whereas Le Figaro makes the event its main entry in its front page: “Roger Federer, the reference bows out“. Our colleague Jean-Julien Ezvan recalls that “tennis and the sports world lose a gem“.
In the regional daily press, The Parisian title soberly on “The tennis legend who bows out“who is and will be”Forever the King” for Provence. In a large black insert, we can see a Roger Federer with a tight spot: “Game, set and end of the match“loop like this Corse-Morning which reminds that Roger Federer will leave forever “An indelible mark“.
On the front page of Corse-Matin on Friday September 16 https://t.co/vwsl5nok2x pic.twitter.com/TFQN48jKEw
– Corse-Matin (@Corse_Matin) September 15, 2022
Finally, The Dispatch simply comes back, and it is probably the most recurrent in the press of the day, on “Federer, the retirement of a legend“.
Around the world, the press hails the departure of the former world number one. In Switzerland, unsurprisingly, 20 minutes would like to say “Thank you, Roger!“. In England, where he still holds the record for Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon with eight crowns, despite the national mourning and this intensely followed news, The Guardianplaces it in One with the traditional but still as effective “Game, set and match.“
Guardian front page, Friday 16 September 2022: Truss to lift fracking ban despite lack of progress on tremor risks pic.twitter.com/OrQL6TNlCF
— The Guardian (@guardian) September 15, 2022
“The tennis artist announces his farewell” and “A genie hangs up his racket“: in Spain, the Madrid and Catalan dailies, brand and Sportwho generally go to war, have agreed to praise the famous class of Roger Federer. La Vanguardia relief “the elegant farewell of a tennis legend”, wheras’El Mundo Deportivo title soberly “Federer legend”. In Europe, from Italy, where The Gazzetta dello Sport displays a thunderous “I saw a king”via the Nordic countries or even Belgium (The evening already evokes his regrets by titling “We already miss him”) and Germany: all are in unison.
The first page of the Gazzetta di oggi:
HO VISTO UN RE
The notizie https://t.co/1BDXAqKwJ5 pic.twitter.com/rTGTaw17t6
— The Gazzetta dello Sport (@Gazzetta_it) September 16, 2022
Finally, on the other side of the Atlantic, and despite the time difference, the New York Times has already broadcast its front page this Friday, September 16. For the famous American daily, it is the “sSign that times are changing in tennis“. A reference in particular to the fact that he is the first of the “Big Three”, which he formed with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, to retire while the new generation, marked by the advent of Carlos Alcaraz, is finally ready to take over.The beginning of a new era which will have, and it is quite natural, to do without Roger Federer, its finest artist.