Roger Federer's spell The greatest tennis player ever announced his retirement after twenty-four unrepeatable years
2022 is more and more becoming a candidate as a generational sliding door in the world of tennis. The rise of young superstars such as Iga Swiatek, Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner and the new – and youngest ever – world ranking leader Carlos Alcaraz, counterbalanced Serena Williams' farewell to professionalism and lastly, announced just a few days ago, also that of Roger Federer, which will take place at the end of the Laver Cup.
The Basel star's parable has unfolded through three tennis generations, shaping a unique mosaic full of priceless fragments, within which it is still possible today to discern the traces of players such as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and many others. Co-protagonists and antagonists who made even more special the player's career who was able to adapt and refine the details of his game, making him a winner along a path of technical-tactical evolution that lasted 24 years of tennis.
Roger Federer has been one of the most monumental athletes in the history of the sport, loved and respected by colleagues and fans alike while also managing to become a style icon. A game changer in the playing rectangle and out of it, Roger was the perfect testimonial for any brand that wanted to offer a model of timeless elegance and poise. Always on the court wielding a Wilson racquet, after 20 years of collaboration with Nike, Federer in fact signed a pharaonic contract of 300 million over 10 years with Uniqlo, while also developing partnerships in the luxury and food & beverage sectors with giants such as Rolex, Barilla and Moet & Chandon. In recent years, the Swiss star has become an investor and testimonial for On, the sneaker company that in a short time has managed to carve out a prominent place for itself in the sports equipment scene. A wide range of rich contracts that in the final throes of the past decade made him, from the height of his $74 million, the athlete with the most valuable sponsorships in the world.
Ultimately, in his various guises as a sportsman, a professional, a man, and a fashion icon, Roger Federer - cloaked in that traditional and immortal elegance - has always generated a magic that is unrepeatable, attracting to himself the admiration of millions of fans, the desire of large multinational corporations, and the esteem of colleagues in the sports world who today, starting with his eternal friend and rival Rafael Nadal, have shared a memory, a moment of what for all was the last icon of a tennis that may never return.
