At the 2017 US Open, seven-year-old Izyan Ahmad, known as ‘Zizou’, received the opportunity of a lifetime to ask Roger Federer a question at a press conference. After making a joke asking about why people call Federer the goat, the American got down to business.
“You’ve been the most consistent player of all time. Can you please continue to play for eight, nine years so that I can play you when I turn pro?”
“I’ll make sure that maybe I come back for you,” a smiling Federer responded.
“Is that a promise?” Ahmad asked.
“Almost,” Federer said after a pause. “Almost one. Pinky promise.”
Little did the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings know that eight and a half years later, Ahmad would be playing in the BNP Paribas Open. Now 15, the unranked Ahmad is competing in qualifying for the ATP Masters 1000 event. The wild card will take on third seed Thiago Agustin Tirante Monday.
“I’m super grateful and I’ll do my best to make the most out of it,” Ahmad, the No. 130 junior in the world, said. “It’s obviously amazing to be this young and getting to experience this and see all the pros and get to play with them, too.”
Although Ahmad will not get to play Federer, the memory of the 2017 press conference remains with him and has been circulating on social media ahead of the tournament.
“He’s been my favourite since I was a little kid, so I thought hard about what I wanted to ask him. I didn’t want to ask a boring question, or something that he probably answered a lot, so I tried to come up with something that would be a little out of the box,” Ahmad said. “So I came up with this funny joke. It was not really that funny, but for a seven-year-old, it was kind of funny.
“And then my second follow-up question to that was if he would stay after eight or nine years for me to go pro. And he said, ‘I’ll think about it’. And then my mom, who was right next to me, whispered to me and told me, ‘Ask him if it’s a pinky promise’… That got clipped. So I guess that moment, I’ve got my mom to thank for that.”
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Five years later, in 2022, Ahmad got to hit with Federer in Switzerland. That remains a highlight for the young American. But even then, Indian Wells was quite far away, literally and figuratively.
“Obviously that experience was quite surreal and it was highly unlikely that that specific clip would become what it became. This opportunity again is unbelievable. But I think, for me, I worked a little bit more for this one. Obviously, I was still given this crazy opportunity, but I did play and work hard for this one,” Ahmad said. “This one, even though it was, like 90 per cent luck, 10 per cent I feel like I did enough for them to think about me. So I feel like this one in particular, I’m trying to do my best to make the most of it.”
Fans are familiar with Ahmad’s interactions with Federer. But they might not realise that the New Jersey resident has trained at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Randall’s Island in New York since he was six years old.
“He’s there every day. If I see him on the wall, he’ll stop. We’ll talk. We hit all the time. He’s very invested, which is something I’m super grateful for. He is a great human being,” Ahmad said. “He doesn’t need to take time out of his day to come, give advice and play against me. He’s watching, he comes in the gym, watches me work out and stuff. Just a super cool guy, very chill. He is very chill off the court, very cool on the court. I like him a lot.
“I really respect him and thank him for all he’s done for me. If it wasn’t for his academy, I would not be here.”
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