Goodbyes and Hellos

Reflections on Serena and Federer retiring and the new generation stepping up

Sports writers love to talk about a “changing of the guard”. I don’t blame them- I’m about to do that right now. In part it is because such a concept is inevitable in sport. Players come and go a lot. Every year there is a new breakout star whose future potential will be endlessly spoken about. How many grand slams will Carlos Alcaraz win? How many Ballon d’Ors will Kyllian Mbappe rack up?

Time always wins. Even the greatest of players and brightest of stars diminish and lose their lustre. The cycle always repeats; a generation fades and bows out, a new group comes to the fore. It is inevitable you will write about the changing of the guard, because it is the one certainty of sport. Players retire. Players come; players go. That doesn’t make the goodbyes any harder, though.

When I told my mum Serena Williams retirement announcement was making me emotional back in August, she was confused. “Well, it’s expected, isn’t it?” Was her response. She was right; we all did expect Serena to retire. I had said after Wimbledon that she would probably play a few more events and retire at the US Open and she has done exactly that. Serena is 40 and hadn’t played for a year going into Wimbledon 2022, retirement was always looming and drawing nearer.

And yet even with all of that information, my certainty the US Open would be her last event, I was shocked. I cried reading her Vogue article where she announced she was going to be evolving away from the sport. It felt like my whole world had been flipped upside down.

I felt the same when I listened to the video Roger Federer put out on Twitter about his own retirement. The weight of his words announcing that the Laver Cup would be his last event hit me like a tonne of bricks. I felt numb listening to the rest, talking about what a great career he had, life on the tour, the difficulties with the knee…It all washed over me.

Federer’s retirement is not a surprise either. He is 41 himself and hasn’t played since his loss to Hurkacz at Wimbledon 2021. His last match at Wimbledon will have been losing the last set 6-0 with one uninjured knee. He had to get another major surgery afterwards and there was hardly any positive word about his recovery. He stated towards the end of last year that Wimbledon 2022 was his aim, but that has been and gone. I think at best, it would have been a small return to the tour to play Laver Cup, Basel and then try to get to Wimbledon 2023 for a big goodbye. He certainly stated as much when he was interviewed at Wimbledon for the 100th anniversary of Centre Court. He was hardly playing incredible tennis on his return in 2021 and at his age and condition, returning from a big surgery on his knee was just never going to be possible. We knew the end was very near for Federer, too.

These legends of the sport retiring are not a surprise, but they are still a shock. Much like the Queen’s recent death, it feels as if there is a certainty in your life that has now been removed.

I was never a big fan of tennis growing up. I wasn’t a fan of any sport; I grew up with three rugby playing brothers but wanted nothing to do with it. I was happier sat reading a book than screaming at the football. I have since warmed to sport, first football and then from Wimbledon 2021 tennis. You might think it is odd then that I cried over Serena retiring or ended up stunned at Federer’s goodbye, as someone who did not experience their careers and successes as an avid watcher or lover of their sport. Maybe it is, maybe I’m a bit weird for getting emotional over sports stars I didn’t watch.

Even if my interest in tennis has come late, I still experienced the careers of Serena and Roger through Wimbledon. Through cultural osmosis and British tradition to watch the tennis, I knew their greatness. I saw the majestic things Federer could provide on the Centre Court of Wimbledon. I saw Serena Williams lift the Venus Rosewater Dish countless times. These were superstars that propelled the sport into a new stratosphere, and I was lucky enough to watch it all on BBC One every year.

Back then I was not aware of all of their successes; I couldn’t tell you the exact breakdown of where they won their slams, the jaw dropping records they set or anything like that. But I was aware of them. I was aware of their auras, their greatness and their spellbinding tennis. They were always there, always present. I did not follow sport as a kid, but I had a vivid image and knowledge of the superstars and champions atop many of them.

In many ways, I think it made my life easier when it came to getting into tennis. Federer, Williams, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, all the players I had grown up knowing about and watching were still there. Even if Serena and Federer were not on the tour when I started following it, they were always in the background. Their records hung at the top above everything else, the markers the best were trying to reach. There was always the knowledge, the assurance that they would be back someday. Even if it wasn’t to dominate the tour, to win grand slams, even if it was just to say goodbye. They would always come back.

In a way, I have only ever known life as a tennis fan without those two. The first grand slam I really committed to following was the 2021 US Open; the first time Federer, Serena and Nadal hadn’t been present in over 20 years. Even without them, that slam was incredible and highlighted by the runs of teenagers: Leylah Fernandez, Carlos Alcaraz and of course Emma Raducanu. Daniil Medvedev also won his first grand slam over Djokovic, ending the latter’s hopes of a calendar grand slam. It was, as this year’s US Open has been, a slam about the future. I was watching and falling in love with the new stars, not the old.

So yes, I have not really known tennis with Federer and Serena at the top of it. I have since learnt all I can, of course. A young Serena Williams with beads in her hair, shocked as she realises she has just won the US Open, is engrained in my mind now. I’ve watched Federer getting emotional after he beat Pete Sampras in the 4th Round of Wimbledon in 2001 (a couple of weeks before I was born) and the emotions flowing again as he lifted his first Wimbledon title in 2003. I’ve seen Serena jumping for joy over and over in the moments after she beat Sharapova in the 2015 Australian Open final. I’ve seen the pure joy on Federer’s face as he won the 2017 Australian Open and that rally in the 5th set against Nadal. I’ve learnt of the incredible dominance going on around me as I ignored it to become an English student and writer.

But even if I did not watch those trophy lifts or epic rallies first hand, I have never known tennis without Roger Federer or Serena Williams. Everyone is aware of them; everyone knows how much they have won and their importance to the sport. These two transcend tennis.

I sort of feel a safety in knowing the knowledge of their presence in tennis. As I grow up and live in increasingly unprecedented times, it is always nice to have a constant still there. The world and my life might have much uncertainty, but sport is a reprieve. Sport has chaos and uncertainty, but those two brought an order in their dominance. Sport exists in a nice little bubble that I can hop into when a match starts and can leave when a tournament ends. Even with chaos, even with losses, there will always be another win.

There is something quite reassuring about those huge names and players still being there at the top. It gives you something to latch on to, a set of familiar faces to see every week. The world might change, but there will always be another Serena Williams match. I have only ever known a sporting world where Serena Willians and Roger Federer are tennis players, always present and winning.

As I grow up and evolve more into adulthood, I am becoming acutely aware that I am no longer a child. That warmth, nostalgic security of my youth drifts further away. Federer and Serena are a core part of that nostalgia, that nice and simple point in my life.

I think I find myself so struck by their retirements because they are another reminder that my childhood is over. It is easy to say that they will retire, to know that that will probably happen, but it is tough to accept it. I am now forced to actually accept that that era is over, that point in time where Serena Williams was just winning everything and was the face of the sport is gone. Players retire. Players come; players go. The players that defined your childhood and your earliest memories of sport only come and go once.

But even with these goodbyes, there is a lot to look forward to for me. I did not closely watch every moment of the career of Roger Federer or Serena Williams and I am sad about that. However, I now have the chance to closely follow the careers of this new generation. Players retire, but new names come to replace them. Players are going, but new ones have come.

This year’s US Open feels like a perfect changing of the guard moment. We saw Serena Williams’ last tournament and her final goodbye in week one, but then got the youngsters coming forward in week two. World number 1 Iga Swiatek won her third grand slam and Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest ever ATP world number 1 by winning the US Open on the men’s side. The kids are alright.

This US Open has been a realisation that these two are going to be here for a long while. Swiatek won while never really producing her best tennis in conditions that do not suit her. Alcaraz took the scenic route but got over the line with a ferocious intensity and shot making ability. They are going to rack up a lot of slams, and I’m going to get to watch them all happen.

Iga Swiatek is 21, her birthday comes just under 2 months before mine. I’m practically the same age as her. My adult life watching tennis has and will continue to be spent seeing her dominate it. I watched that horror-show of a tiebreak against Belinda Bencic at last year’s US Open, I felt so unbelievably proud of her talking about PMS in a press conference at the WTA Finals last year. When I was sick at the start of this year upon returning to university, I spent my mornings in bed watching her at the Australian Open. I saw almost every match of her 37-match winning streak. I stayed up until 4am to watch her semi-final win against Sabalenka at this year’s US Open. I somehow convinced my girlfriend to tune in to the final against Ons Jabeur. She’s noticed I use a lot of Iga Swiatek gifs when texting now.

Swiatek is the new superstar, my new superstar. While my childhood was spent knowing and occasionally watching Serena Williams and Federer, my adulthood will be spent with the new generation. I will not only watch Swiatek and Alcaraz, but I will also be writing about them. I will feel the bizarre anxiety and ecstasy as they win and lose one only gets from sports. I grew up as a child watching Serena and Roger. I will grow up as an adult watching Iga and Carlos.

The changing of the guard is inevitable. Players retire. Players come; players go. Serena Williams and Roger Federer have come. They have changed the sport of tennis forever and been a huge part of my childhood and life as both a sport hater and sport lover. They are now going. Serena Williams gave her last twirl under the lights of the US Open this year, Roger Federer will have his last hurrah with the rest of the Big 4 at the Laver Cup.

Now, I get to watch new players coming in and dominate the sport, taking it to new heights. I will be able to tell people about seeing Swiatek winning her first slams, talk about how incredible that winning streak was and her goofy off-court moments. I can talk about seeing Alcaraz for the first time against Tsitsipas at the 2021 US Open, the unbelievable tennis he was able to produce at just 18. I will get to relive him winning his first slam and being a world number 1 at 19.

Am I sad that Federer and Serena are retiring? Absolutely. I’m shocked and I’m gutted that I could not experience more of their success myself. I feel lucky that I’ve been here for the goodbyes and got to be a fan and writer about this sport while there were still active in it.

I am not distraught, however. My attachment and love for those two great players is in part because of their role in my childhood. That time is over now. I’m not a kid watching Wimbledon out of the tradition and only knowing Federer or Serena. I’m 21 now; a 21-year-old immersed in the sport of tennis, loving it so much he decided to write about it. Serena Williams and Roger Federer are a huge part of why I do this now. They will be the reason I started this journey, but Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz will be the reason I continue it.

We say goodbye to two glorious, illustrious and incredible champions. We say hello to two new ones. Will they be able to live up to the heights of the old? Maybe not in full. No one will reach 23 grand slams. No one will reach 20. I think both of these world number 1s can reach double digits, but there is no guarantee in sport.

I am saddened to see two greats leave this sport and I do not know what tennis will look like without them. I am sure, though, that it will look good. It will look great, even, because it has found to wonderful players to take it forward. Saying goodbye is horrible, but it gives us the chance to say hello to the new generation to take us forward.