"An absolute honour," India's 'Golden Boy' Neeraj Chopra after meeting Swiss tennis icon Roger Federer
Jan 25, 2024
New Delhi [India], January 25 : India's 'Golden Boy' Neeraj Chopra met with Swiss legend Roger Federer in Zurich, Switzerland.
The reigning Olympic and world champion javelinist shared glimpses of his meet with the 20-time Grand Slam winner.
"An absolute honour to meet a sporting icon, whose career has been and continues to be an inspiration to people. I had a great time talking to you, and hopefully we'll meet again," Neeraj wrote on social media platform X.
https://x.com/Neeraj_chopra1/status/1750447005753631179?s=20
Federer gave Neeraj an autographed tennis racquet while the 'Golden Boy' handed the Swiss star a signed India jersey from the Asian Games.
In 2018, Neeraj made his impact at the continental and Commonwealth levels. He won gold in the javelin throw at the Asian Games in Jakarta. With a throw of 88.06 m, he made a mark at continental level, giving signs of a fine future. He also secured a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games 2018 with a throw of 86.47m.
But the year 2021 was when everything changed for Neeraj and suddenly, he had become India's 'golden boy'. He captured an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo with the best throw of 87.58 m. With this, he became the first-ever Indian to win an athletics gold.
In June 2023, he set a new national record and finished with a silver medal with a throw of 89.30 metres at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland, bettering his own previous national record of 88.07 metres, which he had set in Patiala in March 2022.
Neeraj lived up to expectations to win gold at the Asian Games, and his compatriot Kishore Kumar Jena took home a silver medal as Indian athletes put up a power-packed performance at the Hangzhou Olympic Stadium in 2023.
On the other hand, Federer is a winner of a total of 103 ATP tour-level championship titles in singles competition, the second-highest in the Open era next to America's Jimmy Connors (109 titles).
Out of these are 20 Grand Slam titles he has won across the Australian, French, US Open tournaments and the Wimbledon, which is the third-highest among all players, with Rafael Nadal (22 titles) and Novak Djokovic (23 titles) above him.
Federer has secured the Australian Open six times in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2017 and 2018. He also has one French Open title win, back in 2009.
Federer has secured eight Wimbledon titles on the lawns of London. He won the title successively from years 2003-07 and then in 2009, 2012 and 2017. He has the most Wimbledon singles titles in the history of the sport and in this way, has become the poster boy of this prestigious tournament.
