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Who would Roger Federer be without Anna Wintour?

It may look like the Vogue editor has a crush on the tennis star, but the truth could be slightly more sinister

Roger Federer and Anna Wintour take in another show. Photograph: Peter Kramer/Getty Images North America

Anna Wintour's incredibly enjoyable crush on Roger Federer is one of those very rare phenomena that the tabloids actually underplay. LiS remembers well the first time she saw Anna bring Roger (and his then girlfriend, now wife) to a fashion show and how Anna smiled! How she clung to his arm! How she very pointedly ignored his girlfriend! I am trying desperately to think of a tasteful analogy and all I can think of is Tom Jones (as in Fielding, not She's a Lady) when Mrs Water spots young Tom and turns him into her kept man, but probably minus the scene in the film when she eats a whole fowl.

Rare is the issue of Vogue now that does not include another slightly incongruous interview with this Quentin Tarantino lookalike, in between articles about the importance of long-sleeved dresses and why purple feels so now. Even being described as a "cougar" in the American tabloids did not dissuade this once image-conscious lady from bringing Federer to shows, to parties, to restaurants, clinging to his unresponsive wrist and grinning like the cat who had got the non-fat cream, while he displayed his usual look of impassive bemusement.

That two-hour advert for Vogue, AKA The September Issue, included the love, with Anna making her one true smile in the movie when she asks someone if they saw "Roger" win his latest match. She has flown to Florida to watch him play, and she even left a fashion show early to watch him win the French Open on TV – not just any show, but Jason Wu, Michelle Obama's favourite designer. But who cares about Obama when Roger Baby is on TV?

But this week, an interesting twist was added to the story. So there was Anna on Sunday, watching Roger do his thing in the US Open, when she had to leave for a pesky Marc Jacobs show. Roger went on to shockingly, horrifyingly, lose, and no amount of 1920s-style sportswear could cover up that unexpected development.

Now, this raises an interesting question. Perhaps it's not that Anna crushes on Roger, but rather that she runs him. As The September Issue makes repeatedly clear, she is the controlling force of the fashion industry. So maybe she controls Federer, too, possibly with her death-ray stare. Or maybe, maybe he only plays well to impress Anna, so when she's not there, he can't be bothered. Perhaps we have been misled by his lack of expression and this crush is no unrequited thing. After all, he has been playing particularly well since she enslaved him, I mean befriended him. Mills & Boon? Wintour and Federer.

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