Roger Federer's style is distinctive. His forehand is described as a "liquid whip", his footwork as "floating over the court". As a younger ATP player, Stefanos Tsitsipas said of Fed's stealing time from opponents by seldom retreating, "What can I learn from him? He half volleys everything from anywhere on the court."
Fed's classic forehand. The straight-arm forehand he shares with Rafa, Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Martin del Potro may be out of vogue but it's the technique behind several of the very best forehands in tennis history.
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You can find more images of Fed on a separate page, click here for Fed's Legacy, the Laver Cup and The Match for Africa.
Fed en Fuego! Here, I attempted to show what it felt like to watch Fed, not what I literally saw. Federer's movement is so fluid people underestimate his speed. Here, playing Novak Djokovic, Fed sprinted from hitting forehands in his backhand-side doubles alley, to a forehand in the opposite doubles alley. Peak Fed from 2004-2008 was, in Andy Roddick's words, "Simultaneously, the best defensive and the best offensive player in the world."
⬅ Fed Rising From the Ashes represents how it felt to watch Roger Federer comeback, after missing 6 months following knee surgery, with people calling his career over, to win his first tournament back on the tour, with three 5-set victories over top 10 players, including the final over Rafael Nadal -- at the Australian Open for his record 18th major title
This is also an homage, a meager attempt to emulate a Japanese art form known as ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) prints in a specific vertical, narrow format known as hashira-e (pillar prints).
Their fading effect at the bottom is a printmaking technique called bokashi. Ukiyo-e flourished during the Edo period of samurai in the 17th - 19th century, and fit on thin, narrow wooden support pillars in Japanese homes.
Fed seems so quick at times it's as if he warps space time, here flying across the court logo to hit a squash shot against Alexander Dolgopolov. "Painterly" photo-illustration created in Photoshop from my photo at the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells.
Fed in action at the Laver Cup Chicago, 2018 with the one-time-only red RF97 racket. Two classic images of Fed's unique ground strokes, his eyes glued to the ball on impact during his forehand on your left, and his extravagant follow through on his graceful one-handed backhand on your right. A separate page at the link shows more images from the Laver Cup at multiple sites as well as Fed's "Match for Africa" charity event.
A tweener, of course. Guillermo Villas "may" have invented the "Gran Willy" but Fed certainly made it a main stream shot, and hit some of the most freighted tweeners in tennis.
It's in his eyes. The way Fed sees the ball all the way to the racket, then freezes his head there. The way he picks up the ball's path instantly. His stare.
And, he's never gotten a big head, except in this cartoonified image :) Source photo from Australian Open on social.
