On September 23, 2022, Roger Federer said goodbye as a professional tennis player with a doubles match in the Laver Cup. His partner that day was someone he had rivaled for almost two decades, Rafael Nadal. One of the images of the day, and of the year within the sport, was that of a couple that has more than 40 titles of the grand slam The two holding hands and unable to hold back their tears, as the Swiss retired from the slopes. The great tennis rivalry of this century was coming to an end, but the legend of Nadal-Federer (or Federer-Nadal) remains.
Another very different image brings together the two players who shared the first two places in the ATP between 2005 and 2011: in the Italian Dolomites, at 3000 meters high, with backpacks on their shoulders and looking at the horizon. This is how photographer Annie Leibovitz has captured them, in a metaphor for the careers of both athletes in a very different context than the tennis courts. The image is part of Louis Vuitton’s new Core Values campaign, which already has a long tradition of uniting great sports figures, and is also the celebration of a brilliant era of tennis history that is now ending.
“I remember the first time we met. It was in 2003, the year you won your first Wimbledon,” says Nadal in a meeting to promote the campaign. “You were a little arrogant to me… No, seriously, you were very nice to me. “I was really embarrassed to talk to you, but you were very nice.” For his part, Federer remembered the first time he played against the Mallorcan. “I had sunstroke, but he still beat me fair and square. That first game will always have great meaning, even if he lost it. I have had great rivalries with other players, but with Rafa, because of his style of play and his attitude on the court from a very young age, it was different from the others. “You could feel that something special was coming.”
Two decades and dozens of grand slams Later, Nadal and Federer have entered the Olympus of sport, writing an era. “We have been on the tour for more than 20 years and, in the end, what really makes me proud and happy is that, when I leave this world, the tournament directors, the tournament workers, the ATP, “Say good things about what I was like as a person, more than as a tennis player,” explains Nadal. “I have achieved more things than I could have dreamed of, so for me legacy has more to do with who you are as a person.” “I hope to be remembered not only as a tennis player, but also the person behind it. I was also a good model for the children. That would make me very happy,” explains Federer.
Summit meetings
That of Nadal and Federer is, literally, the last of the unions of great sports figures sponsored by Louis Vuitton and under the gaze of Leibovitz, in addition to other great personalities from culture or politics. In 2007, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf were the protagonists, in a campaign in which they both celebrated their love. A year later, Francis Ford Coppola and his daughter Sofia Coppola represented intergenerational talent in a country scene. In 2010, three football legends from different generations such as Pelé, Maradona and Zidane played a game of table football coinciding with the World Cup in South Africa.
![Cristiano and Messi play chess in the historic photo of Annie Leibovitz](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/YSTNAECIGBEUNFMOVNK4C7TEWM.jpg?auth=d7ad7a0817fb1c935a72c6c721be0274a8e01602a338231730838a5480f6cfcf&width=414)
![Tennis couple Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf pose for Annie Leibovitz's lenses in a 2007 campaign](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/D5SK6HS7JFFVBAX7GP63SHV55Y.jpg?auth=e92cdea369a8f6d5fabdd2de5261e95c2af086f0fddbc036cb8e27b1e69929f6&width=414)
![Pelé, Maradona and Zidane play table football at the Café Maravilla in Madrid for a campaign before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/OXRPBH4NSZGYHHCMKRJOMJ44K4.jpg?auth=3c195e3d3e16b21b6ff213237b15a76a98989f780fa5b327e5a97f477cf438fb&width=414)
Two years later, with the London Olympic Games as an excuse, the American swimmer Michael Phelps and the Ukrainian gymnast Larisa Latynina brought together 40 Olympic medals in one image. And in 2022, the two great rivals of international football, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, played a game of chess against Leibovitz’s goal.
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