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Claire:

A few things I found about Federer:

“Look. There's many former players, many experts, who think they know everything. Sometimes they're right, but they can also be wrong. You can't always listen to them, especially as a player. From a former top player — almost a legend of the game — to hear stuff like this is obviously very disappointing. I thought I got along well with him; I probably still am, because he never told these things to my face. Next time I see him, maybe I'll say something. Or maybe he's not a man to be around for me. Because if you say stuff like this? There's professional and there's friendship, but if you cross the line too many times eventually you're going to lose your friends. That's maybe what he's doing.”
– Roger Federer on Mats Wilanders' comments that he had “no balls” when playing against Rafael Nadal.

.RF: She’s been a great support, her always being there for me and being at every tournament. It’s just been good. You know, [you’re out on the circuit] having good times and bad and there’s always somebody reminding you what’s good and bad.

She’s known me since I had zero titles, and now I have 53. She hasn’t just been there since I had 20 or something. She came along with me right at the start. This is where she’s been so helpful. To clarify, people think she’s a manager or something. She’s not. She just handles a little bit of the press, but I’ve been trying to take that away a bit, because it does stress her out. I have a manager now with Tony Godsick and IMG. They handle that. She does organize flights and hotels, but…

“It could get into my mind. I could start thinking, 'I can't play against
The week before the (US Open) I gave a few interviews for CNN, USA Network, New York Times, USA Today and Sports Illustrated which had been arranged beforehand. The reason for giving these interviews is not only because working with the media is just part of the job, it is much more my desire to contribute to the promotion of tennis in the U.S.”
– Roger Federer writing in his on-line diary. Which he lets us read. Thanks Roger.

“The nicer the point, the more — the better I feel, the more excited I get. But I never play that my opponent looks stupid. I think that is wrong. I have too much respect for every opponent I play.”
– Roger Federer on his shot selection.

“For me, I'm in the driver's seat; I'm No. 1 in the world. I've won the last couple of meetings, and I've won the big tournaments lately. Whoever comes, I'll try to beat him. But it's almost up to me to decide who's my rival, isn't it?”
– Roger Federer, who says he'll decide whether Andy Roddick is his rival or not, thank you very much.

It seems we're all amazed by it. Kathryn Flett, a columnist for The Guardian, argues that the best-ever status for Federer shouldn’t just be constrained within the white lines. “It's not just Roger's game that is enviably together,” she writes, “it's his everything — the 10-year relationship with the lovely Mrs F, Mirka, mother of his twin baby daughters, plus the ability to combine a family with being The Best of The Best, because most great male players lose the plot when they marry and/or breed and discover that babies have an even sweeter sweet spot than a brand-new, zingily strung Wilson BLX Six-One Tour racquet.”

“I don’t know if we’ll ever know who was the greatest of all time, but I’m definitely happy to be right up there,” said the 27-year-old Federer, who plans to play into his 30s. “I think it should be judged at the very end, you know. How well did I do? Good? Great? Very good? Or medium? I don’t know. It’s for other people to decide.”

The old like Federer. He plays a classic game, never upbraids umpires or linespeople and, though he spent 2004 on one of the most spectacular rolls in tennis history, shows little sign of conceit. After being named the tour's most popular player, Federer thanked everyone and finished with a catchphrase prized by grandmothers the world over: “It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.”

It's no wonder that Basel tournament president Roger Brennwald, noticing Federer posing for a photographer before the oversized draw sheet, bolted in mid-sentence and darted across the room to throw an arm around his neck. Ten years ago Federer had been a ball boy at this tournament, and his mother had made name tags in the press office. This all fits nicely with Basel's homey self-image; the town sits just minutes from both the French and the German borders, and in his multilingual openness, Federer is, as provincial president J�rg Schild puts it, “typically Basel.”

“Roger's easy,” Brennwald said. “We are down-to-earth people. In Zurich they are a little …”–and here he lifted his nose in the air–”… like the French. Basel is not like that. You can talk to Roger like a simple man on the street.”

“I knew the day Rafa won’t be in the finals, I will be there and I will win,” Federer said. “I always knew that, and I believed in it. That’s exactly what happened.”