A Classy Look at a Class Act's Final Match
Federer: Twelve Final Days (2024)
A Quick Film Review
I'm not 100% convinced that Federer: Twelve Final Days, recently released on streaming service Amazon Prime, was "originally a home video never intended for public viewing". Okay, parts...but with high production value and many direct interview commentaries, Federer sure does feel polished and intentional.
A Quick Film Review
I'm not 100% convinced that Federer: Twelve Final Days, recently released on streaming service Amazon Prime, was "originally a home video never intended for public viewing". Okay, parts...but with high production value and many direct interview commentaries, Federer sure does feel polished and intentional.
We don't learn anything particularly new in Federer - perhaps the greatest tennis player ever comes to term at age 41 with his now-chronic knee problems and announces his retirement in September 2022. The tennis Hall of Famer and ardent Olympian then has less than two week before a final match alongside longtime friend and rival Rafael Nadal.
And, while the documentary is billed as the tennis legend's 'twelve final days' of his career, it really boils down to his final match - that well-documented Laver Cup in London.
I hope all that's not overly critical, because Federer really offers a poignant, personal, and cinematic closure to Federer's on-court reign. I choked up during the Laver Cup portion! Plus for me, it's a nice bookend to tennis writer Christopher Clarey's brilliant The Master, a 2021 treatise on Federer's career that I only finally read earlier this year.
In addition to revisiting that overall emotion of the Laver Cup, nice, generous moments fitting of his image include Federer giving deference to tennis hero Bjorn Borg, Federer's kind, rational perspective on Novak Djokovic's intrusion into the Federer - Nadal narrative ("I look past the media and see the man that he is"), and Nadal's own acknowledgement on "the most important player in my tennis career".
Federer's release was timed fittingly just ahead of this year's Wimbledon, the tournament Federer won eight times and the one with which he was most identified. It's a welcome revisit to one of tennis' all-time greats.
And, while the documentary is billed as the tennis legend's 'twelve final days' of his career, it really boils down to his final match - that well-documented Laver Cup in London.
I hope all that's not overly critical, because Federer really offers a poignant, personal, and cinematic closure to Federer's on-court reign. I choked up during the Laver Cup portion! Plus for me, it's a nice bookend to tennis writer Christopher Clarey's brilliant The Master, a 2021 treatise on Federer's career that I only finally read earlier this year.
In addition to revisiting that overall emotion of the Laver Cup, nice, generous moments fitting of his image include Federer giving deference to tennis hero Bjorn Borg, Federer's kind, rational perspective on Novak Djokovic's intrusion into the Federer - Nadal narrative ("I look past the media and see the man that he is"), and Nadal's own acknowledgement on "the most important player in my tennis career".
Federer's release was timed fittingly just ahead of this year's Wimbledon, the tournament Federer won eight times and the one with which he was most identified. It's a welcome revisit to one of tennis' all-time greats.
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