'Roger Federer's so down to earth', says American player

During the COVID-19 outage, J.J. Wolf spent a lot of time in the gym to improve his stamina. He says he's ready to play five sets with any opponent. In 2014, Wolf battled with Stan Wawrinka at his hometown Western & Southern Open and trained with Roger Federer while on the 2018 qualifying draw. Wolf points to the experience with Federer as one that made a difference. J.J. Wolf seized the opportunity and attempted to learn everything he could from Federer in their brief session. 

Wolf on Roger Federer

“I got to practice with one of my idols. I was so nervous, but we hit for an hour or so and then afterwards we sat down and spoke for about 30-40 minutes. It was small talk and advice about anything,” J.J. Wolf said. “That meant the world to me. I got to have a normal conversation with a definitely extraordinary human being. It just made me look up to him more. He’s just a regular guy who has unbelievable accomplishments. He’s so down to earth. It made me want to keep working hard and be someone with influence like Roger Federer.” Wolf was born to play a sport at the highest level. It wasn't a question of if, but rather which one he'd choose. When your entire family has found success in sports, J.J.'s fate was already sealed. When we say 'entire family', that is not hyperbole. The Wolf clan's sporting heritage goes back to his grandfather Charley, who played professional baseball for the Cincinnati Reds and coached in the National Basketball Association for the Detroit Pistons and Cincinnati Royals. In total, 26 of Wolf's relatives have taken up a sport at either the collegiate or professional level, from basketball to baseball, volleyball, soccer, boxing, track & field and tennis. "If you go anywhere in Cincinnati, someone is going to know one of us. My grandfather is a pretty big deal. When I played Cincy qualifying [Western & Southern Open] for the first time, all the questions from the local news sites were about my grandfather coming out to watch. All of us got our starts because of him." Following a pair of wins in his US Open debut, it won't be long before Wolf can call himself a Top 100 player. The American understands that this whole experience is a process. In order to arrive at this moment, he had to cut his teeth on the Challenger circuit.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2ZesYBy