Talking Tennis with… Geoff Dyer - author of ‘The Last Days of Roger Federer’

The acclaimed writer - and lifelong tennis enthusiast - talks to us about the role the game has played in his life…

”…Tennis has been a source of joy and a key component of my week… I mean, there I'd be on a Tuesday afternoon, say, playing tennis, thinking to myself, ‘Yes, the writing life is great because it enables one to do this…”

Geoff Dyer possesses one of Britain’s most interesting, witty and incisive minds - so it’s no wonder he loves tennis. Born in Cheltenham but currently living and teaching in Los Angeles, he is the multiply award-winning author of four novels and a host of highly original, genre-busting nonfiction works including Out of Sheer Rage (a very funny book about failing to write a book about DH Lawrence) and Zona (a dazzling, virtual frame-by-frame analysis of the movie Stalker).

His latest work is The Last Days of Roger Federer and other endings. A profoundly personal meditation on late middle age, it looks at the many different ways that the careers and the creative periods of artists of all kinds can eventually come to an end.

The book is very much not a tennis book, but rather a retrospective contemplation of all the passions that have animated Dyer’s life, so his subjects include Beethoven, Nietzsche, Bob Dylan and JMW Turner. But amongst the painters, philosophers and poets are cameos by Borg, Becker, Agassi and Murray, and of course, his tennis hero Roger (“Yes. ‘Roger’ not ‘Federer’, even though I’ve never met him it’s Roger, always and only Roger”) - the player who most embodies the beauty and artistry of the sport.

So The Last Days of Roger Federer is highly recommended for anyone who thinks that tennis is a small but special, strange and somehow symbolic part of the great tapestry of human cultural life.

Here’s our Q&A with Geoff…

Now that Roger Federer really has had his Last Day, how do you feel about it?

I've never felt convinced by the Laver Cup as an event but obviously that doubles match with Rafa and the scenes afterwards were incredible. Roger was always going to end up crying but the fact that Rafa was in tears as well is yet another indication of how loved Roger is. I can’t imagine that we’ll ever see such beauty on a tennis court again.

When did you first start playing tennis… and what was your most recent game?

In the very early 70s when I was twelve. My last game, which might be my last for a while, was on 6 September, indoors. I did something to my knee which is a great shame as I'd made a full recovery from the elbow surgery I’d had in October. Clearly, my life and Roger’s are destined to be linked forever.

What role has tennis played in your life?

In this last phase, which I'd date from about 2001, it’s been a source of joy and a key component of my week. The week organized itself around the tennis even though the tennis was not the most important part of if it.

I mean, there I'd be on a Tuesday afternoon, say, playing tennis, thinking to myself, ‘Yes, the writing life is great because it enables one to do this.’ 

There are many ways to play tennis… What’s your preferred form of playing, and why?

I like playing with friends or becoming friends with people I play with. Only singles, I hate doubles. For the last five years I’ve abandoned serving so we just do that thing of feeding the ball under arm; no winner off the first return; first to 11. Variants of that. The key thing is that tennis for me has to be a local activity, never more than a walk or reasonable cycle ride away. 

For most players, tennis involves some winning but also an awful lot of losing. Does the fear of losing trouble you?

No I don’t mind losing at all though I try not to. I like the competition but I am happy to be playing at all.

Are you a racquet-smasher or do you play with a Roger-like serenity?

Serenity without beauty.

Do you have a favourite tennis-related book?

The David Foster Wallace collection, String Theory.

Are you still in love with tennis?

Less so, without Roger, and in the last eighteen months various injury woes have compromised my love of the game. 

The Last Days of Roger Federer and other endings by Geoff Dyer (2022) is published by Canongate in the UK and FSG in the US.

Photo top by Matt Stuart