Tennis fairytale at the Biathlon World Cup: Federer spontaneously fulfills a dream for ex-ball boy

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Even biathlon superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö (30) is surprised when Roger Federer (42) suddenly stands in front of him. The tennis maestro sneaks into the athletes’ zone of the Biathlon World Cup in Lenzerheide on Saturday as a surprise guest – and also exchanges a few words with the Swiss shooting star Niklas Hartweg (23) or the Swiss ski president Urs Lehmann (54).

But behind the scenes, another man has a very special meeting with Federer. His name is Klemen Bauer (37), he was once a Slovenian biathlon professional and came fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He is now an expert for Slovenian television and is therefore on the cross-country ski trails in Lenzerheide every day. But he shows up at the media center not only with his cross-country skis, but also with an old, broken tennis racket in his backpack.

Why? This, it turns out, is the ticket to fulfilling a big dream. Moments later, Bauer posted a photo of him with Federer. And writes: “There is a story behind it.”

And it goes like this: in 1999, the now 37-year-old was assigned to play ball at a Challenger tournament in Ljubljana. The then emerging Federer was also in the field – and so it happened that Bauer was also used in a match by the Basel bidder.

Bauer says: “I kept a broken racket from that time, convinced it belonged to Roger. When I heard that the Biathlon World Cup would stop in Lenzerheide, I immediately realized: this could be my chance. Because of course I knew he owned a building here (in Valbella, editor). It was always my dream to have him sign the racket.”

“Roger still knew everything about the tournament”

So Bauer informed the organizers in Lenzerheide, who actually helped him arrange a spontaneous meeting: “Suddenly I received a text message telling me to contact you as soon as possible.” A little later he shook Federer’s hand and told him his story: “He is a real gentleman, it was as if we had known each other for twenty years. He still knew everything about the tournament in Slovenia.”

However, it also turned out that Bauer had lived for years under the false belief that he owned a Federer racket. Laughing, he says, “Roger told me he’s never played this model – it must be his opponent’s. “Besides, during his wild times he never smashed the rackets like that, he always just threw them away.” Oops. But both Federer and Bauer laugh about it. And Bauer is now very happy anyway. He has a photo with his ‘great idol’ for eternity.

Source : Blick