In August of 2006, the late writer David Foster Wallace published a fairly-lauded essay in the New York Times titled, “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.” In this article, he talked about the spectator’s experience watching what he dubbed “Federer Moments,” or “times [...] when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re OK” that are part and parcel of watching a tennis match that features Federer.
For Wallace, these moments were so brilliant and graceful and otherworldly that they could be characterized as a quasi-religious experience to those who worship at the altar of the tennis court.