Hyperbole about a superlative athlete

More often than not, sportswriters go overboard in their praise of athletes. No matter how fleeting a person's claim to fame may be, the norm these days is to refer to them as "stars", though they are probably more suited to be slotted in the "shooting" kind. Sometimes, however, the article can be informative while still having an adulatory tone.

Roger Federer is an exceptionally talented athlete and tennis player. My admiration for his game goes up everytime I watch him. And it appears that this view is shared by many. One among them is David Foster Wallace, of the New York Times, who wrote a detailed and elaborate piece on Federer. However, unlike most other fluff pieces, if you sift away the gushing words, there is still a lot of enlightening stuff about the man nicknamed the Federer-express.

And additionally informative are the footnotes of the article, which in itself have little nuggets that are interesting to read.