Within months, golf and tennis lose their main men

The story was less a surprise than a disappointment. Roger Federer will undergo another knee operation.

The career of the most popular man in tennis may be finished. Only a few months after an accident surely put an end to the career of the most popular man in golf, Tiger Woods.

Two sports dependent on personalities losing their prime personalities, virtually at the same time. Ironic. Unfortunate.

They had slipped, but not from our memories. Or in the TV ratings. Federer won 20 Grand Slams, more than 100 tournaments. Tiger won 15 majors, 82 tournaments.

Woods is 45, Federer just 40. Once they were linked not only by greatness but by commerce, each wearing attire with the Nike logo until Federer switched two years ago to Uniqlo. Woods at times would attend Federer’s matches.

Now neither is able to play, and we are left with the question whether they’ll ever be able to play, other than in an exhibition.

We know that nothing, and no one, lasts forever. The history books and media guides are reminders. We grow up hearing and reading about legends, Babe Ruth, Bill Tilden, Johnny Unitas, maybe Rod Laver, who just turned 83 and is the last man to win the true Grand Slam, all four majors in a single calendar.

But there’s a special connection to those we’ve watched and cheered, if only silently, as they performed. Arnold Palmer may have made tournament golf the game it would become, but over most of the past 30 years Woods was the man.

Just as, starting in 2001 when he defeated Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, Federer was the man, as popular in Britain as any English player.

The late Bill Veeck, who owned the St. Louis Browns (he once ordered 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel sent up to bat) and understood how to get people in the park, said, “If you had to depend on baseball fans for support you’d be out of business by Mother’s Day.”

Veeck had a gimmick, a midget. Tennis and golf had figurative giants, players even somebody who didn’t know a bogey from a birdie or a double fault from the San Andreas Fault would recognize.

Roger Federer got you headlines and viewers — and ticket sales.

Sure, there are other top players, Novak Djokovic, the current world’s No. 1; Rafael Nadal, who along with Djokovic and Federer has 20 Slams. But they weren’t the same as Roger.

Federer didn’t mention the “R” word, retirement, but from what he told the New York Times in discussing what lays ahead, the future is hazy at best.

“I will be on crutches for many weeks and also out of the game for many months,” Federer said. “It’s going to be difficult of course in some ways, but at the same time I know it’s the right thing to do.

“Because I want to be running around later as well again, and I want to give myself a glimmer of hope also to return to the tour in some shape. I am realistic, don’t get me wrong. I know how difficult it is at this age right now to do another surgery and try it, but look, I want to be healthy.”

The health of tennis may be in question, not at the Slams but at tournaments such as the BNP Paribas at Indian Wells, where Federer usually was as entrant at an event he described as one of his favorites.

Change is a constant in sport, and there always are dozens of talented athletes capable of becoming a winner. Yet only a very few have the magic to make us care.

Tiger and Roger did, and now they’re not playing.