Today the 136th edition of Wimbledon began, with a notable absence on its courts. Roger Federer said goodbye to tennis in September 2022 and this year will be the first in which, after ending his career, the tournament that was best given to him will be played.
Federer made his debut on the grass of the All England Lawn Tennis Club in 1999, 24 years ago, so the 1998 edition was the last one before his debut in London. Now, in 2023, Wimbledon faces a new stage away from its top male winner (he won it eight times).
In the late nineties the championship was experiencing a golden age in the hands of another of its greatest exponents. Pete Sampras won the tournament in 1998, winning it for the second time in a row, and the fifth time in the last six years. In addition, he had to win it two more times in 1999 and in 2000.
Seven titles for the American, who marveled at a Wimbledon that he possibly imagined being before his most iconic player, before the ambassador who for many years would be the one with whom his lawn would be associated. Few imagined at that time that just a few years later an even bigger story would begin.
The one of 1999 was an edition of first sensations. The young Federer, qualified thanks to the wild card, appeared before the London public in the first round against the Czech Jiří Novák, whom he took to five sets to finally be defeated. That year was also Boris Becker's farewell to Wimbledon. One legend for another.
In 2000 the story was the same, but it was in 2001 when the history of Federer in the British Grand Slam began to be written. He finally managed to advance from the round, to the second, to the third, and to the fourth, where the whims of fate made an appointment with Sampras.
That Monday, July 2, 2001, in five sets, the Swiss made history by defeating the American, who was seeking his fifth consecutive title. Sampras did not win Wimbledon again. In fact, he only played it one more time, the following year in 2002. The torch had, still unknowingly, passed into the hands of the young Roger Federer.
Now without Sampras, the 2003 edition was the one of change (like this one from 2023 without Federer). The Swiss swept all of his opponents, winning each match in three sets except the third round which he won in four. And on June 23, 2003, Roger Federer lifted the Wimbledon trophy for the first time, after defeating Australian Mark Philippoussis in the final.
From there, the rest is history. Federer won Wimbledon in the next four years, and was also the winner in 2009, 2012 and 2017, to write his name in gold letters and become the man who has won the most times in the cathedral of tennis.
In 2022 he said goodbye to tennis, although his last appearance at Wimbledon was in 2021. But 22 appearances later, the tennis legend left behind a legacy that few imagined seeing when that long-haired young man made his debut in the distant 1999 tournament.
Now, in 2023, the torch that Federer held for many years may begin to change hands. The Serbian Novak Djokovic is on the verge of reaching the eight titles of the Swiss in the British Grand Slam, if he manages to lift the trophy on July 16. Of course, the mythical history of Federer, as well as that of Sampras, will be impossible to forget.
