Roger Federer made his Wimbledon debut against a certain Czech tennis player, 24-year-old Jiri Novak. 17-years-old then, Federer lost to Novak, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in Wimbledon's 1999 edition. It was the first round.
It was 20 years ago, but we are pretty sure that nobody would have such an impact on world tennis. Regarded as the greatest player of all time, Federer has become the face of tennis. Ask anyone about tennis, and probably the first name which comes out of their lips will be Roger Federer.
Speaking to AFP, Novak said, "I was in the top 100, I had no problem qualifying for Wimbledon and I played against Roger who was a junior and a wild card. I was thinking – what a great draw, I wasn't too good on grass so I thought this was a good chance to win a match." Novak soon faced defeat in the second round against Todd Martin. The 44-year-old has never crossed the third round at the All England Club.
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The Swiss Maestro caught everyone's eye when he defeated Pete Sampras en route to the 2001 quarter-finals of Wimbledon.
After that, it was all Federer.
He went on to win five straight Wimbledon titles, and also notching his eighth in 2017.
Novak has stated that he never expected Federer to reach such heights, but he wasn't bad when they both faced each other for the first time.
"I met him at other tournaments, on concrete and clay, and I could see he's good. In total I played against him nine times, including finals at Gstaad and Vienna when he was already the world number one," quipped Novak.
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Jiri and Roger share a special relationship until this day. It is due to the latter's wife Mirka. She was born in Slovakia which was a single country with Czech Republic until 1993. The duo were close and trained together due to Mirka and Roger's Czech physiotherapist Pavel Kovac. Also in the players' room, both of them played table tennis or pool. "He was always closer to the Czechs. But we never talked about his Wimbledon debut," quipped Novak.
According to him, Federer is simply exceptional when compared to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Novak called it quits when he was 32-years-old, and last met Federer ten years, although he does follow his career occasionally.
