David Foster Wallace: Federer as Religious Experience

Date
21 November 2011

With the world’s eight best tennis players currently battling it out in London for the ATP World Tour Finals, we were reminded of this staggering essay by the late David Foster Wallace on Swiss star Roger Federer. It remains the best piece of sports writing I have ever read, just ahead of King of the World the peerless boxing book by New Yorker editor David Remnick. Anyone who has read Infinite Jest will know just how anatomically Foster Wallace understands the sport, and this thrilling piece of prose captures Federer at the very summit of his powers.

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Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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