The day after the announcement of his retirement from sport, the world press praises Roger Federer, the man with twenty Grand Slam lifts, the “God Save the King” on the front page of the French daily The Team to the BBC’s comment that the Swiss has “achieved sporting perfection”.
“Roger Federer, the reverence of the reference”, title elegantly Le Figarothe daily newspaper of a country, France, where Federer’s popularity is immense, even if he only won the Roland-Garros tournament once, which he sometimes shunned.
“The whole of his acting confined to the art and the sublime”, writes The Team. Can’t Federer be considered the greatest sportsman of all time, ahead of Pelé, Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt or Michael Jordan? asks the newspaper.
the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia also highlights the artistic dimension of the game of Federer, winner of the Australian Open six times: Federer raised tennis “to an art form”, writes the daily. “The more you studied him, the more you noticed that no element was rushed or forced”, underlines the newspaper about the great fluidity of his game and the impression of ease he gave off on a court.
In Switzerland, home of the champion, Time echoes, saying in his editorial that he “will be remembered above all for his love of tennis and his unique style, made of ease, beauty and silence”.
In Spain, the daily El País affirms that the announcement of the retirement of the man with 103 titles, if it is not in itself a surprise, “does not make it less painful”.
Obviously, back in Switzerland, it is also sadness that dominates.
“Now it’s over”, writes Basel Zeitung. “It feels like saying goodbye to a loved one,” adds the daily Basel, the region where Federer is from.
“Roger Federer will not play again, except in our hearts and our memories”, regrets for his part The gallery from Geneva.
“Gracious”
In Great Britain, the BBC takes up a formula of Novak Djokovic, one of the two great rivals of Federer during the first two decades of the 21st century: “You must wonder if he comes from the same planet”.
“With a graceful forehand, a service of great precision, a gentle look at the crowd, the Swiss won the hearts of the fans like no one before him”, says the BBC, paying tribute, at- beyond the sportsman, to the gentleman and to the man, bursting with class.
The shock wave caused by the announcement of the retirement of Basel, shortly after that of another tennis legend, Serena Williams, also 41, was felt as far as China.
The newspaper ThePaper in Shanghai, where Federer has twice won the Masters, considers the Swiss to be “an old friend of the people of Shanghai”.
For the Indian Expressin New Delhi, “a page has just been turned” with the announcement of Federer, three days after the appearance of the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, 19, at the first rank in the wake of his triumph at the International tennis tournaments the United States.
According to New York Times, which tells how “a ballboy turned into “one of the world’s most brilliant athletes”, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, even if they won more Grand Slam tournaments, “cannot compete with Federer in terms of grace and class. »
“Federer… he touched fans around the world with his striking technique and his class on and off the field,” sighs the New York daily.