Madrid: Jesus Aparicio – a Roger Federer fan – watched the tennis star play against Novak Djokovic (ranked 186 then) in 2004 at the US Open final following which he met with a serious accident. The then 18-year-old was in coma and he woke up on August 27, 2015. After 11 years of being in a different world, he was surprised to know that Federer is still in action and is aiming for his 18th Grand Slam.
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In 2004, Federer was on top of the ATP world rankings.
“I thought he had retired. When I knew that at 34 years old, he is still playing and is number two in the world, I thought they were kidding me. I could not believe it. When I heard that he reached 17 slam titles, I put my hands on my face. I knew Federer was very good but I never thought he could win all he has won,” Aparicio told tennisworld.org.
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Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt were Federer’s contemporaries in that era. Most of them have retired barring Hewitt who will call it a day after the Australian Open in 2016.
Aparicio is now waiting to catch Federer at Wimbledon in 2016.
