Skidelsky - Federer and me: a story of obsession

Contents

This is not a biography of Roger Federer. Or, at least, it is only in part a biography. There is no exhaustive overview of Federers life and career, no detailed account of his junior record, no roll call of his Wimbledon triumphs, although there have been many of them. The view it offers is partial, subjective, its shape determined by the contours of an obsession. Some time ago William Skidelsky became a fan of Roger Federer.

In Federer and Me Skidelsky sheds light on the greatest tennis player of all time. Through the story of one fans obsession with his idol, he explores: the role of aesthetics in sport; the psychology of fandom; the relationship between sport and technology; the role of family dynamics in forging identity. Thought-provoking and entertaining, funny and touching, it is a personal account of a devotion that, to the extent that it is shared by millions, isnt personal at all.

William Skidelsky is a well-known journalist and literary editor. He has been literary editor for the Observer and the New Statesman as well as deputy editor of Prospect magazine. He has written about tennis for the Observer and for Prospect, and is the tennis correspondent of The Economists sports blog, Game Theory. He played tennis to county level as a junior and now plays at a club in south-east London, where he is the mens captain. He lives in London with his wife and two children.

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Epub ISBN: 9781448190867
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Yellow Jersey Press, an imprint of Vintage Publishing,
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Copyright William Skidelsky 2015

William Skidelsky has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 This book is a work of fiction.

We are grateful to the following for permission to use these images:
Novak Djokovic forehand; Roger Federer forehand (both Getty Images)

First published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2015

www.vintage-books.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

For my father, Robert, who gave me a love of the game,
and to my wife, Gudrun, who helped me see beyond it.

I WAKE UP late, with a question in my head. Will I be going to the Wimbledon final? Before yesterday, this wasnt something Id even considered. On Friday, when he won his semi against Milos Raonic (three 64 sets: surprisingly straightforward), I was so happy so stunned that he was in the final that I barely gave a thought to the possibility of my being there. But now Im desperate to make it if I can. Ive watched Federer play live about twenty times over the years, and nine times in just the past month, but Ive never seen him play a Grand Slam final. Surely, this is my one opportunity: hell never make it to another major final, at least not one I have a hope of going to. And if he does win not likely, admittedly how great to be able to say: I was there. All in all, it has to be done.

But how? Needless to say, I dont have a ticket. Centre Court tickets are notoriously hard to get hold of at the best of times. For the final, theyre virtually unobtainable. The usual fallback queuing isnt an option; the All England Club doesnt release turnstile tickets from the semis onwards. (For understandable reasons: the queues would be absurd.) Basically, to attend a Wimbledon final, you have to be one of four things: extremely lucky in the public ballot; extremely well connected; extremely rich; a member of the Royal Family. Sadly, none of these applies to me, although my mother did discover that she is distantly related to Camilla Parker-Bowles.

The debentures are, of course, a possibility. And I havent ruled them out. Most Wimbledon tickets are strictly nontransferable. In other words, the person who buys them has to be the one who uses them. The club strictly enforces this or claims to. Debentures are different. Basically, its a system of seat-leasing. You buy a five-year debenture the current cost for Centre Court debs is 50,000 which entitles you to all the tickets for a particular pair of seats during that period. And these tickets, unlike others, are yours to do what you want with. You can give them to friends; you can sell them on. And the debenture-holders often do the latter, raking in tidy sums. A pair of Centre Court debenture tickets for a normal day typically goes for two or three thousand. For the mens final, the figure is up near ten grand. In 2013, when Andy Murray won, there were rumours of pairs of tickets swapping hands for 30,000. In other words, debentures not only enable their holders to see lots of tennis; they can be a smart investment. Making pleasure profitable an old English talent.

For the last twenty-four hours, Ive been keeping tabs on the various websites on which debenture tickets are sold, in the hope that some strange market anomaly will result in one suddenly becoming available at a less-than-stratospheric price. This hasnt happened. The cheapest single ticket Ive found is 4,000. Im still tempted. I happen (unusually for me) to have a bit of cash in the bank. Not a huge amount, but enough to cover the ticket. And I probably would go ahead, were it not for one thing: the thought of having to tell my wife. She is currently away in Suffolk with our two-year-old son. She is eight months pregnant. She is already cross with me because I was supposed to be joining them yesterday, but I postponed on the off-chance that I managed to get to the final. If, in addition, she discovers that Ive spent four thousand on a ticket well, I cant imagine her response would be sanguine. Youve done what? Spent how much? Our savings our childrens future frittered away on some fucking tennis match ?

No, that avenue is definitely closed. But there is one other option: the touts.

As at all major sporting events, the touts come out in force for Wimbledon. Ive often seen them myself, near Southfields Tube station, lurking outside cafes, loitering by advertising hoardings. Mostly, the polished hordes who process up Wimbledon Park Road dont give them so much as a second glance. The tennis-watching public arent interested in their furtive queries, their wheeler-dealings. (Got any tickets you want to sell, mate? Need to get into Centre Court?)

But theres surely something a bit odd about the touts at Wimbledon. How, after all, can they exist? If, as the All England Club claims, tickets for the tournament are strictly nontransferable if the club really is scrupulous about enforcing this then there wouldnt be any point in buying touted tickets. Theyd be a waste of money. Of course, it could be that the touts only handle debentures. But as the debenture-holders have websites they can legitimately trade their tickets on, why would they bother using the touts, who presumably demand a sizable cut? (Or to put it another way: why would legitimate touts bother selling their tickets through illegitimate ones?) When you think about it, it doesnt quite stack up. In fact, there are only two scenarios that explain the touts presence. Either they are total scammers, dedicated to ripping off gullible Joe Public by offloading unusable tickets. Or the Wimbledon authorities arent as strict about checking the provenance of tickets as they claim.