Roger Federer Book Author - Questions and Answers

The following is a question and answer session with Rene Stauffer, the author of THE ROGER FEDERER STORY, QUEST FOR PERFECTION, the first US published biography of Roger Federer. Federer won his record fourth straight US Open men’s singles title Sunday, defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the championship match. The title also marked Federer’s 12th career Grand Slam singles title, tying him with Roy Emerson for No. 2 all-time for most Grand Slam men’s singles finals, two shy of Pete Sampras’ 14 Grand Slam singles titles. Q: What are your thoughts and impressions of

Roger’s win at the US Open?

STAUFFER: Roger did not play his best tennis overall. It was more hard work than magic, but certainly his hunger and desire to win were as big as ever. That's what carried him through all those difficult moments in the semis and final. I'd say he won due to this desire, his mental strength and toughness as well as his ability to stay calm and positive, even facing set point after set point. He also won based on his experience in all these major finals and his ability to change his game if things did not work as well as he wished. Q: How does Roger’s four straight US Open titles compare to his five straight at Wimbledon? Is this more significant of an achievement since the hard courts of the US Open are more of an equalizing surface than grass?

STAUFFER: Good question. Actually Roger’s four US titles in a row are more meaningful and representative of his overall strength, because hard courts are a fair surface for everybody and there is much more competition than on grass, which doesn’t suit a lot of players well. But since Wimbledon was always closer to Roger than Flushing, even as a kid, his five Wimbledon titles mean more to him, and having tied Borg’s record this year, certainly stands above his fourth U.S. title and was the defining moment of 2007. Q. How important do you think winning a French Open is to Federer and his legacy? STAUFFER: That’s a good question, and I agree that the French is a very important point to clarify Roger’s legacy. In my opinion, you can really call him the greatest player of all time only if he wins there as well. But he should have some years left, and I really like his chances in Paris.