Roger Federer: a metaphysical genius exempt from the laws of nature

Damian Thompson is Editor of Telegraph Blogs and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He was once described by The Church Times as a "blood-crazed ferret". He is on Twitter as HolySmoke. His new book is called The Fix: How addiction is invading our lives and taking over your world.

 

Roger Federer: a metaphysical genius exempt from the laws of nature, said David Foster Wallace

By Damian Thompson Sport

Federer: almost supernatural power, said David Foster Wallace

Hat-tip to Andrew McKie for this insight from David Foster Wallace, writing in the New York Times. You may think it belongs in Pseuds' Corner. Then again, DFW was a tennis player of near-professional standard who wrote the finest novel of the 1990s, Infinite Jest. And he's been dead for four years, which gives you some sense of how long Federer has been at the top:

Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. Good analogues here include Michael Jordan, who could not only jump inhumanly high but actually hang there a beat or two longer than gravity allows, and Muhammad Ali, who really could “float” across the canvas and land two or three jabs in the clock-time required for one. There are probably a half-dozen other examples since 1960. And Federer is of this type — a type that one could call genius, or mutant, or avatar. He is never hurried or off-balance. The approaching ball hangs, for him, a split-second longer than it ought to. His movements are lithe rather than athletic. Like Ali, Jordan, Maradona, and Gretzky, he seems both less and more substantial than the men he faces. Particularly in the all-white that Wimbledon enjoys getting away with still requiring, he looks like what he may well (I think) be: a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light.

In other words, Murray didn't stand a chance.