Leap of faith: Federer’s mid-air decade.
On a sun-drenched Wimbledon Friday in 2009, Roger Federer hung momentarily above the Centre-Court turf, racket poised like a conductor’s baton, as if he were less athlete than punctuation mark—an exclamation inviting eternity. The smash that followed dispatched Tommy Haas and, in its parabola, sketched the contour of a career already gilded in legend. Watching that airborne silhouette, one understood what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment”; Federer seemed to live there permanently.
The ascent began long before. In 2001 the Swiss broke Pete Sampras’s London spell, but did so with courtesy so disarming that Sampras invited him to practise in Los Angeles a fortnight later. By 2004 he was winning Slams in three languages, as fluent with a backhand as with a press-room quip. Coaches describe his training sessions as “quiet storms”: no grunts, only the soft percussion of ball on strings and an almost metronomic foot-slide. Ballkids still trade stories of his post-match handshakes, delivered with the same precision as his serve out wide on deuce.
Through it all, grass remained his garden. Eight Wimbledon titles are listed in the record books, but those pages don’t report the scent of rye under a July sun, nor the slight nod he gave the Duke of Kent before accepting each trophy. Melbourne’s hard courts yielded six more, New York five, Paris one—a stubborn conquest that required, as he joked, “permission from Rafa.” Six Masters Cups, that Olympic gold with Wawrinka, and a Davis Cup lifted for a nation that had never quite believed it could top the team podium: together they illustrate a man who treated goals like rungs, climbed them, then polished them for the next dreamer.
Yet anecdotes often reveal more than arithmetic. In Basel, after a late-night victory, Federer once stayed to rally with a custodian’s young son, saying, “The court is happiest when it hears laughter.” In Shanghai he famously practised his backhand slice into a corridor mirror to perfect shoulder alignment—an act equal parts vanity and vocation. Even losses glimmer: the 2008 Wimbledon final, where defeat looked like part of the ornamentation, or that Melbourne epic versus Nadal in tears and humility.
Today, the image of him suspended against Wimbledon’s emerald amphitheatre returns to us in our new Roger Federer print—a fragment of time when gravity seemed optional. Pin it beside any fine tennis poster or let it command a den wall; its negative space is an invitation to breathe. This is not mere décor but quiet testimony that sport, at its highest, is a form of handwriting in air.
Bring home the leap, the light, the hush before applause. Order the tennis wall art of Federer’s airborne smash—match-point grace captured forever—and let a little Centre-Court summer echo across your living room.
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➤ ABOUT THE PRINT
Each artwork is professionally printed on gallery quality matte paper which perfectly compliments the designs using only archival inks. The high print quality ensure that your wall print will last a long time while maintaining its original color.
Premium Matte Paper: 200 gsm, premium quality, matte finish
Shipped in a stiff cardboard tube (100% recyclable, 90% recycled)
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➤ HOW TO ORDER
Simply purchase the listing in your desired size.
Sizes:
A3 (297 X 420 mm / 11.7 X 16.5 in)
A2 (420 x 594 mm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
A1 (594 x 841 mm / 23.4 x 33.1 in)
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➤ PLEASE NOTE: FRAME IS NOT INCLUDED
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➤ ADDITIONAL
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Leap of faith: Federer’s mid-air decade.
On a sun-drenched Wimbledon Friday in 2009, Roger Federer hung momentarily above the Centre-Court turf, racket poised like a conductor’s baton, as if he were less athlete than punctuation mark—an exclamation inviting eternity. The smash that followed dispatched Tommy Haas and, in its parabola, sketched the contour of a career already gilded in legend. Watching that airborne silhouette, one understood what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment”; Federer seemed to live there permanently.
The ascent began long before. In 2001 the Swiss broke Pete Sampras’s London spell, but did so with courtesy so disarming that Sampras invited him to practise in Los Angeles a fortnight later. By 2004 he was winning Slams in three languages, as fluent with a backhand as with a press-room quip. Coaches describe his training sessions as “quiet storms”: no grunts, only the soft percussion of ball on strings and an almost metronomic foot-slide. Ballkids still trade stories of his post-match handshakes, delivered with the same precision as his serve out wide on deuce.
Through it all, grass remained his garden. Eight Wimbledon titles are listed in the record books, but those pages don’t report the scent of rye under a July sun, nor the slight nod he gave the Duke of Kent before accepting each trophy. Melbourne’s hard courts yielded six more, New York five, Paris one—a stubborn conquest that required, as he joked, “permission from Rafa.” Six Masters Cups, that Olympic gold with Wawrinka, and a Davis Cup lifted for a nation that had never quite believed it could top the team podium: together they illustrate a man who treated goals like rungs, climbed them, then polished them for the next dreamer.
Yet anecdotes often reveal more than arithmetic. In Basel, after a late-night victory, Federer once stayed to rally with a custodian’s young son, saying, “The court is happiest when it hears laughter.” In Shanghai he famously practised his backhand slice into a corridor mirror to perfect shoulder alignment—an act equal parts vanity and vocation. Even losses glimmer: the 2008 Wimbledon final, where defeat looked like part of the ornamentation, or that Melbourne epic versus Nadal in tears and humility.
Today, the image of him suspended against Wimbledon’s emerald amphitheatre returns to us in our new Roger Federer print—a fragment of time when gravity seemed optional. Pin it beside any fine tennis poster or let it command a den wall; its negative space is an invitation to breathe. This is not mere décor but quiet testimony that sport, at its highest, is a form of handwriting in air.
Bring home the leap, the light, the hush before applause. Order the tennis wall art of Federer’s airborne smash—match-point grace captured forever—and let a little Centre-Court summer echo across your living room.
---------------------------------------------------
➤ ABOUT THE PRINT
Each artwork is professionally printed on gallery quality matte paper which perfectly compliments the designs using only archival inks. The high print quality ensure that your wall print will last a long time while maintaining its original color.
Premium Matte Paper: 200 gsm, premium quality, matte finish
Shipped in a stiff cardboard tube (100% recyclable, 90% recycled)
---------------------------------------------------
➤ HOW TO ORDER
Simply purchase the listing in your desired size.
Sizes:
A3 (297 X 420 mm / 11.7 X 16.5 in)
A2 (420 x 594 mm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
A1 (594 x 841 mm / 23.4 x 33.1 in)
---------------------------------------------------
➤ PLEASE NOTE: FRAME IS NOT INCLUDED
---------------------------------------------------
➤ ADDITIONAL
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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