By James Waterson Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
(September 11, 2011) Ten years ago, a 20-year-old Roger Federer was training at the Swiss National Tennis Center in Biel, Switzerland, just after he lost to Andre Agassi in the fourth round of the US Open.
Federer said he was getting an afternoon workout when he heard something big was going on, and like millions around the world he turned on the TV to see what was happening.
“You know, I was one - I don't know if I got a message on my phone or someone ran down and told me and I started to tell all my friends to turn on the TV and see this incredible news,” he said.
Like so many people who witnessed the two planes colliding into the World Trade Center towers and their subsequent collapse, Federer said he found it hard to understand.
“It's hard to understand and grasp it, really. I mean, I couldn't believe what was happening, you know. I guess I didn't quite understand it almost until I came back to America the next time, or when I came to New York the next time, that this is ‑‑ it was such a shock.Yeah, it was almost surreal that something like this was possible that someone would want to do that. So that was very heavy,” he said.
“For us, it left a big impact, because as tennis players we don't really have the choice not to travel, right? We are a part of, you know, the traveling circus with planes and so forth.”
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Rafael Nadal just lost 2-6, 7-5, 2-6 to then 731st-ranked Guillermo Platel in the first round of a futures tournament in Madrid.
"I remember exactly what I did that day," Nadal said several weeks before the US Open. "I was playing a match to win my first [ATP ranking] point, and I lost that match [after saving] 13 match points."
“I was really sad about my match, because the first point ATP always is really important,” he said. “But when I came back to the locker room and I saw that on TV, I really forget the match in one second. I was there in the twin towers few months before, in the top. On the TV, that’s probably one of the views that had bigger impact on myself.”
On Saturday, Nadal said that the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks isn’t only a hard day for Americans, but for people around the world.
“[Sept. 11 is] a hard day for all the people here in New York tomorrow, all the people in America. But I think for all the people around the world, too, no? Because this kind of tragedy for everybody is hard to accept, hard to understand,” he said. “I am not an exception. I felt much pain and I suffered, too.”
US Open finalist and 13-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams had lost in the final to her older sister, Venus, three days before the attacks occurred.
On Sept. 11, she said she was in Washington D.C., where the military had mobilized in case another attack happened.
“I was in D.C., and there were just Army trucks everywhere. And I was really scared, and it was just -- it was almost like, I guess, a war scene, because the whole streets were filled with these huge tanks. I remember thinking, Oh, my gosh, this is crazy.”
Former World No. 1 and four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier said he was in Florida playing Malivai Washington in a charity match when the attacks happened, and when he returned to New York he was shocked by what he saw.
“It was quite a jolt to come back. When I walked out my door in Soho, I'd look to the left and see the Empire State Building; I'd look right and see the Twin Towers. It was pretty disturbing to see that void,” Courier said.
“I had a neighbor in my city building. It was small, only five apartments. The guy's name was John Law. He worked for Cantor Fiztgerald, which lost 658 employees. By chance, he was not in the building that day. He should have been dead. He and his fiancée attended a CF wedding in Los Angeles and decided to stay a few extra days. Everyone in his team that flew back died,” he added.
“New York City hasn't gone back to where it's been. And it won't. Security is different. Everything's different. There was a spirit there for a long time, but now we've gone back to being hardened New Yorkers.”
Andy Roddick said he left New York City the night before the attacks, and he was one of many people who spent the next morning trying to piece together what was happening.
“I actually had tickets to a concert in New York City that night, and for some reason I left the night before. I was in New York, and I woke up the next morning at my parents' house and just saw it. Like anybody else, you're just shocked. You know, it was a place you were the day before,” Roddick said.
“The six months to a year after that, I probably haven't been prouder of the people in this country as far as the way they came together. I wish it would have had a little bit more staying power. Hopefully the 10-year mark will bring back some of those feelings of unity that we did have after that. I don't think it's a bad thing to remember.”