On October 29, 2006, Roger Federer achieved one his major goals as a professional tennis player. As excerpted from the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com), Federer, after seven attempts, hosted a pizza party for ball kids at the Swiss Indoors in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland as he finally won his hometown tournament with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3) final-round win over Fernando Gonzalez of Chile. “It’s a dream to finally win my home tournament,” said Federer, “This is an exciting moment and one of the nicest titles (out of 44) of my career.” In the on-court trophy ceremony, Federer, a former ball boy at the tournament, told ball kids, “Don’t go away, there’s pizza coming for you later, that’s something I remember from here.” Writes Rene Stauffer in THE ROGER FEDERER STORY, QUEST FOR PERFECTION ($24.95, New Chapter Press, www.RogerFedererBook.com) “He did not forget that years before, he too was a ball kid at the event.”
Federer, who has won the event the last three years and will again play the tournament next week, was unable to play the event in 2004 and 2005 due to injury. The following is another excerpt from THE ROGER FEDERER STORY, QUEST FOR PERFECTION, that describes Federer’s 2004 withdrawal;
By early October, Federer already won ten titles in the 2004 season. His match record stood at 69-6 and there were still four tournaments remaining on his schedule. Two more important ATP records were within reach—most victories in a season (86) and most tournament titles in a season (12), both set in 1995 by the left-handed Austrian clay courter Thomas Muster. But then, the unexpected happened. Federer withdrew from the event in Madrid because he didn’t feel sufficiently rested after his world tour. He preferred to concentrate his energies on winning the event that was as high on his wish-list as the French Open—the Swiss Indoors. At the tournament’s Monday opening presentation in Basel’s town hall, Federer was in a fine mood, upbeat and told all the assembled media how well prepared he was for the week. However, just a few hours later, he was overtaken during a practice session by what must have been the curse of Basel—he suddenly felt an unusual pain in his left thigh. The pain persisted during his practice session on Tuesday. He hastily underwent a magnetic resonance imaging examination, which revealed a muscle fiber rupture—an injury common for tennis players. Instead of his long-desired triumph in his hometown, the Swiss Indoors brought him some of the bitterest hours of his career. He showed up at the St. Jakobshalle Tuesday evening—when he was scheduled to make his tournament start—wearing street clothes. He withdrew from the tournament and explained to the media and the public what happened. “I never imagined that it would turn out like this,” he said. “I had made perfect preparations and had a good chance at winning the tournament.”