The last time I saw Roger Federer, in person, was 10 months ago at the Beijing Olympics. In the first round, he played Dmitry Tursunov. Seated on Row 2 just 30 feet away, my wife Jasmin and I gazed at a man who wore a red T-shirt, white bandana and shorts, and a pair of Nikes with the letters engraved, “RF.” On the stands watched LeBron James.

“Patience is bitter, but it’s fruit is sweet.” Those words were first uttered by an 18th century philosopher named Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was born in Switzerland but later moved to Paris, France.

Another great man, in this 21st century, also born in Switzerland but now in Paris, France, will try to remember those words today. Patience is bitter…. but it’s fruit is sweet. For, true enough, hasn’t Roger Federer been most patient? At the French Open? On clay? Learning the game of tennis at the age of eight, he grew up playing on Basel’s clay courts. Then, starting in 1999, he joined his first-ever Grand Slam event. On clay. He lost that year at the French Open. And the year after. And each year ever since up until 2008.

Today, June 7, 2009, the French-speaking Swiss is back. Today, as painstaking as it was losing the past 10 years, he’ll attempt to grab the sweetest fruit of all: the Roland Garros trophy.