In the beginning...

When Roger Federer beat Pete Sampras, my boyhood idol, at Wimbledon 2001, I was too blind to realise how good he was. I missed it all, the great movement, the championship mentality, the big match composure, because it hurt too much to see Sampras go down.

Today it happens to be my favourite tennis match of all time.

I eventually saw why he was so special. It took some time. Many Federer fans describe a singular moment or match that they went from interested tennis fans to Federer maniacs. He has that effect on people, something I do admit to myself now that Pete never had. For me that moment was Wimbledon 2003, the first time I felt I'd seen a truly complete player. In Pete I looked for perfection in every serve, in every volley, and mimicked it through my junior days. Even today my own game has a lot of Sampras in it simply from attempting to hit the ball like him or trying to serve like him. In Pete, I always saw perfection. I saw something to aspire to. I still do. 

With Roger, however, it's a quality that I just can't put my finger on. 

When Federer won in New York in '08 when everyone counted him out, I knew for the first time that he was my favourite player ever. My worship of Pete was respectful. My worship of Federer is adoring. Very few Sampras fans ever came to terms with Federer's assault on his records, but I did. Happily. The Swiss' records are being challenged now. And they'll be challenged until they're broken, but somehow, I don't think I'll ever feel about his retirement the way I felt about Sampras'. Back then, all that mattered to me was that Pete could beat anyone at his best. When it comes time for Federer to walk away, that thought will never cross my mind. I will never wonder whether he was the best, at his best. His wins and losses would matter little to me in that final analysis. I'll simply know that when he lost, he lost better than anyone else. I'll simply know that I don't need a textbook to point me towards the perfect stroke.

Aspirations be damned. I'll simply know that tennis should be played the way Federer played it.