Federer Has Visions of Something More

His trail of tears finally dried, and a new emotion settled over the newest Wimbledon men’s champion Roger Federer on Monday.

Confidence.

A day after Federer won his first Grand Slam singles title, beating Mark Philippoussis of Australia in straight sets, the 21-year-old from Switzerland adjusted to his new life in the spotlight, one in which TV cameras seem to follow his every move.

Federer was shown on British TV flipping through sports sections of the daily newspapers, all with his face on the cover.

“Now after winning Wimbledon I can think about No. 1,” said Federer, who moved to third in the world in the ATP’s entry system rankings, trailing only Andre Agassi and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.

Federer is aware things will be different with the words “Wimbledon champion” permanently attached to his name. More TV crews were waiting for him when he touched down in his native Switzerland in a private jet later in the day.

“I know my life is about to change,” he said after getting off the plane in Gstaad. “I know I will have less time for myself than before.”

The Swiss newspaper Blick featured a full-page poster of Federer holding the trophy at Wimbledon and called him King Roger I.

The other Wimbledon singles champion is quite familiar with life changes. They happened to Serena Williams after she won her first Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open in 1999. Her unexpected victory -- after all, older sister Venus was supposed to be the first Slam winner -- disrupted the family hierarchy and even seemed to throw Serena off for a time.

It took her until the 2002 French Open to win a Grand Slam event again, and she has been unrelenting ever since, losing one match in her last six Slams.

None other than Martina Navratilova, who won her record-tying 20th title at Wimbledon on Sunday in the mixed doubles, said that Serena has the potential to be the greatest of all time.

“There’s no doubt about that, because she’s got the size,” Navratilova said. “Billie Jean King was the best athlete out there. Then I came, I was the best athlete out there. Comparing me and Billie, I did everything just a little bit better only because I was longer, taller, I could do more.

“The same goes for Serena, she’s that much taller, that much stronger. And she’s got huge shots off both sides. The only thing she still doesn’t do well enough is volley.... She doesn’t get to the net that much, but then again she doesn’t need to.”

There was one other difference between the newest champions. Federer is playing in tournament this week. As for Serena? She’s working on her other career, filming a movie in Los Angeles.

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Federer’s victory over Philippoussis drew the lowest overnight TV rating on record for a Wimbledon men’s final.

NBC’s coverage of Sunday’s match received a 2.7 preliminary rating with an 8 share, 13% lower than the 2002 final between Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian.

Overnight ratings go back to 1987.

Serena Williams’ three-set win over injured sister Venus in the women’s final Saturday produced a 4.0 overnight rating with an 11 share. That’s 13% lower than the 4.6 -- with a 14 share -- for their meeting in last year’s final, also won by Serena. Overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets in the United States, covering nearly 70% of the country. Each overnight rating point represents about 735,000 TV homes. The share is the percentage of televisions in use tuned to a program.

Associated Press contributed to this report.