By Kristi Hujik
I know…Why in the world is a health coach posting a blog about professional tennis? My coping mechanism has always been to write so when it was time to say goodbye to my favorite athlete of all time, I sat down and decided to tell you all a story…
When my husband and I first met and were talking, tennis entered the conversation right away. Alex played and coached the sport and was one of its biggest fans. I will never forget when he said to me “you look like a Fed girl”. Yep, I was. But I found out quickly he was one of the many middle-aged male Fed Fans. One of the most interesting phenomenons in sports by the way. There’s a lot of them! It makes me chuckle but I get it. We went on to experience many Federer matches together in person and on TV and even a couple of times via text when we were in opposite places.
My love of Roger dates back to the year 2001. I grew up watching tennis with my grandpa. I fell in love with it the first time I played it at YMCA day camp and between watching Wimbledon matches, Pop and I liked to go out in the driveway and have a little hit. I also used to pepper the large cement wall on the backyard patio with tennis balls when Pop wasn’t available.
For some reason growing up I just never liked Pete Sampras. I can’t explain it. Just was never a fan. When Roger took him down at Wimbledon that year, it started a love fest for the Swiss star with the man bun. He evolved into my hero of all sports heroes because of the way he played tennis, the way he rose to the occasion when it mattered most, and also the way he carried himself in life as human being.
Handling fame – especially at that level is NOT easy. I’ve never seen anyone better at it than Roger. To be known globally as one of the world’s highest paid athletes and still be so kind and humble, so gracious, so competitive, and yet still be able to soak in every moment, that’s hard. It amazed me how he always comprehended what one small interaction and moment with him meant to a fan. It blew me away how on a changeover during an intense US Open match he will still look at the silliness on the video board between sets and smile. He looked you in the eye, and nevere past you. It was a unique package. His personality anad his unadultered pure love for the sport definitely fueled these qualities. He loved the game and the game loved him back. He embraced every part of it – even the losses – and treated every day as a privilege. He spoke to all of us through the game.
Then came the day where I got to speak to him. The day the reality lived up to the legend. A day I will never forget and proved to me he’s everything we think he is and then some.
In March of 2017, just before the Miami Open’s final week began in South Florida, my phone rang. It was Izzy DeHereira, a super talented producer at Golf Channel who was working on a Jack Nicklaus documentary. He proceeded to ask me if I would be willing to drive to Miami and interview Roger Federer for the documentary he was producing. Roger had just won his 18th major and that’s Jack’s career total. I had to think about it for a nano second before I said “Oh my God, YES!” I could talk tennis and I could talk Jack and everyone knew my love and respect for Roger ran deep so I was the perfect option to help here. The circumstances of that day told me all I needed to know about Roger and the terrific people he surrounds himself with.
I drove to Miami and started writing out my questions. I immediately called my good friend Tom Rinaldi for advice. Tom was at ESPN back then and interviewed Roger countless times. I said, “what do I need to know? What should/shouldn’t I do?” Once Tom gave me his stamp of approval on my questions he said to me, “Here’s the thing, you’re going to be shocked because by the end of the interview he will have asked you more questions than you’ve asked him”. I didn’t fully understand this but I would soon. I also confessed to Tom one of the biggest challenges would be not to ask for a photo with him. I was used to being around athletes and never thought about a photo, but this was my sports hero. However, as a media professional this is something you just don’t do. I would not compromise my professionalism even for the GOAT.
The next morning I was feeling good about my questions and headed to the arena for the day. I hung out during the day while Fed did media. I got a glimpse of life on the ATP Tour and I also got to watch him practice from court level. All around it was a super cool experience.
We were supposed to meet and do the interview shortly after that practice session. As the clock ticked well past our scheduled interview time, I started to wonder what was going on. Roger struck me as the punctual type. I started to get that pit in my stomach thinking something is wrong.
Let’s just say there was a misunderstanding by Roger about the location of the interview. He was in his car heading towards his South Beach hotel – in the opposite direction of the arena – and in Miami traffic at 5pm. There was no turning back to return to the venue. You see here’s the thing – honest mistakes happen to everyone. But apparently things like this NEVER happen with Roger . His agent Tony Godsick and long-time ATP Tour media official Nicola Arzani explained to me, “you just don’t understand this has NEVER happened.” I could tell this was a big deal. It would’ve been easy for Roger and his team to say they would get us what we needed tomorrow. But I didn’t have tomorrow and had to go back to Orlando that night because I was scheduled to travel the following day. Suddenly I started thinking ‘I’m going to come all this way and not get to do this’. It was likely I would have to have to pass along my questions and the ATP Tour and its crew would take care of it. But Tony and Nicola knew I drove all the way to Miami to do this. Tony stepped up and said, “We’re not doing that you came all the way here to do this interview and we’re going to do it today”.
The ATP camera crew who was helping agreed to the change and we were invited to move our set up to Roger’s South Beach Hotel. We got the royal treatment by the hotel staff including food and beverage while we set up a new spot for the interview. After Roger got his massage treatment, and once we were ready, he would come down to do the interview.
Fed walked in the door and after saying hello, he promptly began to apologize profusely for his error. To me, to the crew. I mean like profusely. I spent the first 10 minutes I met him having to butter him up and tell him how much this meant to Jack and that he was going to be touched and that it was an honor for me to interview him after being a fan for so long. I never dreamed that’s how the first 10 minutes would go but he was that distraught over the curveball thrown.
We did an interview where I asked him about 10 questions – I paralleled his career to Jack’s, showed him a list of Jack’s accomplishments, talked about the rivalry with Rafa and rivalries and how they help a great player etc. After the interview he apologized to me again, he got up and we started chatting. He proceeded to ask me about 15 questions – about the Masters, about golf in general, about Drive, Chip and Putt – which was a project I was working on, and about being a producer at Golf Channel. He asked about me about attending the U.S. Open (tennis) each year and New York. He wanted to know where I was from, etc…Tom was right.
Then the moment of all moments…His agent Tony got up and said, “hey let’s get together and take a picture.” Tony proceeded to snap some photos of me with Roger. It all started to make sense. Tom had talked to Tony and he knew I was not going to ask for that photo, and they knew that driving there to see and meet Roger would make my day, year, century… This was a big reason why they made sure that interview took place with me there. Tony and Tom helped give me a moment and a photo I will never forget and I was able to maintain my professionalism.
Let me tell you, there are not too many athletes or agents that would’ve handled the situation like they did. That’s not to put down anyone else, it’s a busy life and usually athletes are on to next thing pretty quickly because they have to be. This was an extraordinary display of kindness all the way around.
So I got my own personal Federer moment. I only wish my husband could’ve been there too. I couldn’t wait to call him on the phone on the way home to tell him our hero was everything we thought he was and then some. I texted him the photos right away. The picture is in now in about 3 different places inside of our home! My husband doesn’t mind it.
Tennis is a hard sport and really since about 2013 I was making sure not to miss a match. You just never knew when the last one might be. We continued our yearly US Open trip and a few others but I dreaded the day he would retire because I just knew how much I was going to miss watching him play tennis. That’s the reason I got up for every match – even in the middle of the night – no matter where I was to watch him play. I also didn’t want to miss one of those quintessential Federer moments. Those moments that made you start sentences with “how did he ?…” or “I’ve never seen …”.
Right up to the last moments at the Laver Cup I was saying those words. He put a ball through the opening between the net and post (never seen that). He was playing alongside his greatest rival in his final match and put everyone in tears. Rafael Nadal was inconsolable. It was amazing to see. I’ve never seen that in any sport (There are those words again). It showed so much about those two players and what they mean to each other and the sport.
Luckily I have 15 hats and many shirts to remind me of the amazing memories!
Greatness to me is total package. So for me, Roger will always be the GOAT. It’s way more than a number for me. There will be and are, other talented players, but the Federer years were special.
I decided there are a lot of G words that describe him and this time:
Genuine
Gratitude
Giving
Generous
Gracious
Graceful
Goofy
GQ (he’s got style and fashion sense)
Grit (one he doesn’t get enough credit for)
GOAT …ALWAYS
Happy retirement Roger! You will be missed on the tennis courts.
