It’s not the title count that makes Seminara a die-hard Federer fan anyway. In fact, he thinks it goes against his usual rooting interest.

“I’m used to supporting doomed sports teams like the Buffalo Bills,” he says. “I don’t usually identify with high performing teams or individuals. I am generally for the outsider. So when Roger was absolutely dominant, I loved him ”- but I didn’t love him yet. It came later, as Federer grew older with the same sort of grace he had long played with. “The less successful he was, the more I became a fan. “

Then one day, in 2019, Seminara had a eureka moment: going to Switzerland and following in Federer’s footsteps. And a big part of the story was that he could walk at all.

Two years earlier, Seminara had been diagnosed with pansclerotic morphea, a rare autoimmune disease. He could barely stand, let alone walk any distance. The pain was so great that at one point he considered the amputation. Tennis? He was sure he would never play again.

Seminara had faced this feeling before. In 2004, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and he did not gamble for several years. In 2014, he tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus and didn’t play for a year and a half. Then, the day after the New Year 2017, came this latest illness. Her doctors told her her condition would improve in three to five years. He found it hard to believe because of the pain. But of course in the summer of 2019 he was slowly feeling better. Maybe, just maybe, he could think of replaying.