Federer for president!

132 voters in canton Schwyz have chosen tennis star Roger Federer as one of their two senators.

A Facebook site was started by a young voter who wanted to “put an end to the ‘old people’s home’ parliament”.

“Don’t vote for an official candidate – write ‘Roger Federer, Wollerau, tennis player’ on your ballot paper,” he urged, citing Federer’s “sporting ability, team spirit, humour and modesty” as ideal qualities in a candidate. Needless to say, running for the Senate was the least of Federer’s worries, having recently dropped to four in the world rankings.

But while Schwyz’s two incumbent senators were hardly shaking (Alex Kuprecht was re-elected for the People’s Party and Bruno Frick from the Christian Democrats has to go into a run-off), in theory Federer – or indeed anyone – could be elected to the Senate.

Unlike with the House of Representatives, where candidates have to register and appear on official lists, voters simply write two names on their piece of paper. The important thing is to make the individual(s) recognisable. So you shouldn’t just right in “Bob”, for example. It’s recommended to include the person’s surname, where they live and their job.

But back to Federer, as a treat here’s one of my favourite shots from the “magician with a racket”. Many people would choose the through-the-legs shot against Novak Djokovic as the greatest shot ever – and they’ve got a very strong case – but I like this one made in Basel back in 2002, which had Andy Roddick flinging his racket across the net…