It has always been a dream to watch a match in Wimbledon at least once in my life. But little did I imagine that I would be watching the legend with 17 Grand Slam wins, Roger Federer, play a game of tennis in front of my eyes. The venue changes. It is not the centre court at Wimbledon, but a snow-white court set up right in the middle of a glacier in Switzerland, Europe.
The sun is shining but the temperature is well below zero. It’s a white world out here. I am in Jungfrau, at a height of 11,371 feet, watching, along with 150 media professionals from around the world, a tennis match between Federer and ski champion Lindsay Vonn. The atmosphere is quintessential Swiss. There are chocolates, snow and tennis. And a spirit of sportsmanship in the air.
We waddle like penguins, clumsily walking on snow. It has taken me almost two hours and three trains to get here from Interlaken. Chugging along the Alps, the Jungfrau railways takes me up the slopes of the mountains carpeted by meadows. Pretty wild flowers nod at me. Little houses huddled together stand out in the lush landscape. The hallowed Swiss cows make music with their bells. Colourful trains trundle past us. And then we are lost in a long dark tunnel that takes us right into the heart of the Alps.
The sun glares above my eyes as I pull my muffler around my neck.
Federer and Lindsay are warming up. Standing in the open gallery, I shiver a bit in the cold but am excited. There is so much fun and banter as they play it like a tie breaker. The match soon ends as the choppers hover in the sky and the crowd disperses.
However, I hang around, like a desperate fan, my feet buried in snow, and hands freezing , watching Federer as he obliges some kids with autographs. And then all of a sudden, there he stands with a twinkle in his eye, right in front of me. I find my nerve and introduce myself and ask him if he has ever been to India. He smiles and says he would love to come sometime soon. “ How about a match with Sachin Tendulkar?” Federer laughs and says, “Oh yes, why not? I would love to. I met Sachin in Wimbledon,” he says. We speak a bit about the Wimbledon final and then Federer is just swarmed by the media. I manage to shake his hand and get an autograph before he is whisked away.
Standing there, I am stumped for words. It was just for a couple of minutes but it seemed like an eternity to me. A dream trip like this could not have had a better fairy-tale ending.
