Roger Federer's top 5 moments 2:01
(CNN) --
We live in a moment in which the expected has surprised.
In life, there is always an end.
Always.
We know.
We anticipate it.
We try to prepare for it.
But when the passage of time inevitably forces a chapter to close, the reality of it all continues to stun like lightning.
Roger Federer was not going to play tennis forever.
At 41 years old and having endured injury after injury in recent years, the arena was rapidly falling to the bottom of the clock.
Even the great champions retire.
But like Serena Williams, Federer had altered the expected arc of a tennis career.
While their longevity allowed us to appreciate their talent, to savor each tournament and each passing year, it also lulled us into a false sense of security, believing that they would always be there, even when injuries led to extended absences in later years.
They would come back.
They always came back.
Roger, the greatest beyond numbers.
Juan Pablo Varsky's editorial on Federer's retirement announcement
Federer won the first of his 20 Grand Slams in 2003, a time when people were raving about the latest Nokia phone and before the US and UK went to war in Iraq.
With a professional career spanning 24 years, Federer had become a constant in our sporting lives.
While all of us were getting older -quietly and slowly-, Federer kept playing, winning, defying time, making us believe that neither the world nor we had changed that much.
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But on Thursday - two weeks after Williams played what may be his last professional game - we were forced to acknowledge that we were entering a new era.
"I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career," Federer said in announcing he would end his career after next week's Laver Cup in London.
"I've worked hard to get back to full competitive shape. But I also know the capabilities and limits of my body, and its message to me lately has been clear."
Roger Federer won the last of his Wimbledon titles in 2017.
The Swiss has not played competitively since Wimbledon last summer, after which he underwent a third knee operation that ended up forcing one of the most incredible tennis careers to end without the blossoming it perhaps deserved.
Federer was the first man to amass 20 Grand Slam titles.
Yet no other man has won as many of his eight Wimbledon titles, played as many (429) or won as many grand slam matches (369).
He leaves the sport with 103 titles, second only to Jimmy Connors in the Open Era, and more than US$130 million in prize money.
During a five-year period at the turn of the century, in which he won 12 of 18 grand slams, Federer redefined the meaning of brilliance in men's tennis.
Many of the records he set have been surpassed by Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, the other outstanding talents who would later rise to make the last 15 years the golden age of the sport.
Federer spent 310 weeks as number one in the world;
Djokovic has surpassed that feat.
Nadal now has 22 major titles, Djokovic 21.
All of Federer's records are likely to be broken one day, but the numbers only reflect part of Federer's genius.
A Google search of his stats doesn't explain his greatness or his attractiveness.
He is about a man who has won the fan favorite award at the ATP year-end awards for 19 consecutive years.
Federer and Nadal's rivalry will go down as one of the greatest of any era.
Federer is praised not only because he won, but because of the way he won, because of the way he played.
Nobody has stepped on a court like him.
Will we ever see something like this again?
Maybe, but he would be a great player.
Has there been a better forehand in the game?
A sweeter reverse?
A more effective serve?
At least in the men's game, because Williams' serve is widely considered the best it's ever been.
Has there been someone in any sport with such beauty?
"It's like a symphony," is how Patrick Mouratoglou, Williams' former coach, described Federer's style a few years ago.
"Nobody is ever going to play tennis like that, impossible. It's just perfection. The movement, the timing, everything is perfect and that's amazing."
Roger Federer on his retirement: "Tennis has treated me better than I could imagine"
Acclaimed author David Foster Wallace, in his 2006 New York Times essay "Roger Federer as Religious Experience," described Federer's forehand as a "big liquid whip."
Federer's genius of the game, Wallace explained, was lost on television.
Federer was a young man when the essay was written, but already, at 25, he was being talked about as the greatest who ever lived, and not just by Wallace.
There were good players on tour, of course, but none who could live with Federer's shooting ability and intelligence on the court.
It was that good.
Six years before the publication of Wallace's essay, no one believed that Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles was going to be broken;
then Federer arrived, who would later be joined by Nadal and Djokovic to form the "Big Three".
Now, of course, there are those who will argue that Nadal has proven himself to be the greatest of all time, or that Djokovic is a better all-rounder.
Maybe maybe.
Federer's forehand is considered one of the best shots in tennis.
The balance of power may have changed, but what cannot be denied is that neither Nadal nor Djokovic is as aesthetic as the Swiss.
Seeing Federer play in person is - there is still time to talk about his style in the present tense - to be mesmerized.
It was, sorry, it's special, an "I was there" moment that can be told, and told again, to the grandchildren or anyone who wants to listen.
No one has ever made playing the sport at the highest level look so easy.
The annals of sports history will place Federer alongside the likes of Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods and, of course, Serena Williams.
All of them were pioneers who transcended their sports and who will be talked about for years after his retirement, inspiring generation after generation.
Tennis enters a new future.
Federer is retiring soon, Nadal, at 36, is unlikely to play until the same age as his friend and rival, given his injury history, and Djokovic is 35, still capable of racking up more major titles, but aging just the same. .
We knew one day it would happen.
But, as we know, it takes time to adapt to change.
Roger FedererTennis
