My Federer Obsession: Part 1

I first saw Roger Federer play in 2003. At Wimbledon on Centre Court. It wasn’t love at first sight.

During the first week of the tournament, I received a call from a friend. He had a spare ticket for the next day. Would I like to go? Although I wasn’t a big tennis fan back then, it was an offer I felt I couldn’t refuse.

The only problem was practical. How to get out of work? I’d recently started a job as junior books editor on a weekly current affairs magazine, and the day in question–a Thursday–was our deadline. Moreover, my boss was away, leaving me, for the first time, in sole charge of our section.

After giving the matter some thought, I decided that a course of brazenness would be best. I would simply leave–as if heading out for an important meeting. The next day, at noon, I sidled out of our offices, took a Tube to Waterloo, and, from there, caught a train to southwest London. Predictably, my plan was foiled, in the sense that my absence was noticed, and resulted in a ticking off. But I’ve never had any regrets.

It was one of those indecisive early…