General Interviews 2017-2018

This is straighforward, and clearly already well formed, since he simply talks about the issues without having to hum or ah about it. He shows a great understanding and awareness.
He is right that respect in life is important. I also like that he encourages fans to show respect.
My basic attitude would be respect, but at times I have a failing when I see unfair practices or unfair and bad behaviours.
Nonetheless, I have tried to improve, and to a certain extent I think I have. But here again is another example why some other players' transgressions irritate me so much in contrast to his.
For players, too, having the respect for opponents and rival is vital, otherwise it becomes a distraction.
Thank you for your thoughts, Roger!
And thank you for posting this here.

Roger, if you can't find your badge, one day they won't allow you on to the court because in this world people have to "prove who they are".
It should be instructive for some players how well prepared you are, with extra everything, shirts, socks, shoes, etc. in your bag.

There was an interview Roger did with the London Times I think? Where he spoke about his life etc. You have to subscribe to see it. Can anyone post it here? Pretty please?

Exclusive interview: Roger Federer on raising girls, his plans for retirement — and why Serena Williams “went too far”

The greatest male tennis player of all time talks candidly to Ellie Austin about family, female role models — and why “Serena should have walked away”

The Sunday Times, November 4 2018, 12:01am


The players’ restaurant at the 2018 Shanghai Masters has the air of an upmarket school canteen. There are 10 different pizzas on the menu, each picked by a tour heavyweight. The Nolé, after Novak Djokovic’s nickname, has a gluten-free base, as specified by the health-conscious Serb, while Roger Federer’s Figalicious is topped with fig, parma ham and truffle oil — the culinary embodiment of the player known for his sophistication and flair.

Every time a pizza is ordered, its creator wins a point, and at the end of the tournament, the victor gets a prize. It’s billed as a bit of light-hearted fun, running parallel to the serious action on court, but good luck explaining that to a room full of men who pore over rankings for a living. “I had a Figalicious for lunch,” I tell Federer when we meet in the Qi Zhong stadium’s garden and settle into wicker chairs.

“You did? How was it?” he asks, grinning.

“Delicious,” I reply truthfully. But, pizza on tour? I thought top-level athletes lived miserable, protein-filled lives? “Maybe I’m more old-school,” he shrugs. “It’s a hobby of mine to try out nice foods, so not to have them … It would put me in a kind of jail.”

How about protein shakes? “I don’t like them. Yes, they might help me like an ice bath might, but I don’t enjoy an ice bath. I’d rather have a warm shower and stretch. The mind needs to be happy.”

Federer is dressed in grey jogging bottoms and a navy T-shirt. Later, he’ll pull on a white sweatshirt printed with an image of Mickey Mouse. There’s a touch of old Hollywood about him and he’s more handsome than he appears on television, with heavy features and a Mediterranean complexion that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dolce & Gabbana campaign.


I’m only supposed to have 30 minutes with him, but when he hears I have flown all the way from the UK to meet him, he ditches the time limit and says we should relax over afternoon tea. All day, he shows a similar courtesy to the younger players he stops to interact with. Their eyes light up as the man widely considered to be the greatest male tennis player of all time inquires about their morning training sessions.

In the run-up to my trip, everyone I speak to goes misty-eyed when I mention the name Federer. He is as loved for his Mr Nice Guy persona as he is for his tennis — a quietly emotional player, untroubled by controversy, on or off court. Much of this is down to careful diplomacy. Born in Basel, Switzerland, he observes his country’s steadfast neutrality over thorny subjects. I’d been warned, for instance, that he wouldn’t discuss Serena Williams, but when I bring up her name, he’s too polite to cut me off.

Both he and Williams recently took time off from the game; his was as a result of knee surgery, hers came after the birth of her daughter. But while Federer’s comeback has been triumphant (he has won the Australian Open twice and Wimbledon) Williams has found herself the subject of various disputes.


During her US Open final in September, she responded to code violations by calling the umpire a “thief” and a “liar”, had a game docked as a penalty and went on to lose the match to Japan’s Naomi Osaka, accusing the umpire of sexism in the process. The incident sparked huge debate: was Williams the victim of society’s inability to stomach a rightfully incensed woman, or was she throwing a strop because the match wasn’t going her way? “It’s a melange of all things, but at some point, I feel like Serena should have walked away,” Federer, 37, says boldly. “She did, but she went too far. She should have walked earlier. It’s a little bit excusable. The umpire maybe should not have pushed her there. It’s unfortunate, but an incredible case study.”

Surprisingly, he didn’t see the headlines as undesirable, a distraction from the game. Rather, he thinks they opened an important conversation. “Anything that’s good for society and gets the ball rolling, I’m all for it,” he says. “We do so well in tennis; our sport is so well behaved. You see the UFC guy [the boxer Conor McGregor] throw a railing, or in other sports they spit and swear at each other on a regular basis. I dove into the situation with Serena on so many levels, to understand [from the perspectives of] the umpire, Osaka, Serena, the crowd.”

Williams had already made headlines in August when the French Tennis Federation banned the catsuit, inspired by the film Black Panther, she had worn at the French Open. Players needed to respect “the game and the place”, said its president. Billie Jean King, the equal-pay campaigner and former women’s No 1, responded with the tweet: “The policing of women’s bodies must end.”

There was also the incident of the French player Alize Cornet being given a code violation for taking her T-shirt off and readjusting it quickly when she realised it was back to front. Outrage erupted on social media. Rightly so, says Federer. “What was the problem with taking the T-shirt off, or the catsuit?” he shrugs. “Serena has worn crazier stuff in the past. Guys have worn crazier stuff. It was a big deal when Tommy Haas wore a sleeveless top at the US Open and then, all of a sudden, it was allowed. For me, it was a bit of nonsense. Just chill out for a second. I was totally on the women’s side. Leave them alone. They are not coming on court wearing wings.”

On the issue of equal pay, Federer has previously said he’s “all for equal prize money”, but that you have to take into account “the history” of individual tournaments and whether they began as male or female events. These comments don’t go far enough for those who’d like him to use his platform to campaign loudly for parity, but Federer baulks at the suggestion that he isn’t doing his bit. “I’m surrounded by women,” he says firmly. “I have two daughters, I’m very close to my mum, I love my wife, I have a sister. If anyone ever says I’m not pro women … I’m for all women. My women are the most important people in my life.”

He’s thrilled, he says, that young girls, like his daughters, have so many brilliant sportswomen to look up to, and he thinks it sets a good example when they return to the game after having children. “I admire anybody, woman or man, who comes back, but even more so a woman, because their whole body changes and that’s a major deal. That’s why I’m doubly happy for Serena, [Victoria] Azarenka and [Kim] Clijsters that they’re able to remember how much fun tennis was before [motherhood].”

How does he justify tennis players’ pay packets? He pocketed £2.32m prize money at the Australian Open alone this year. “In one sentence, I’d say that it’s justified because of the revenue the tournament makes,” he shoots back. “The players make 8% [of the total revenue]. It’s not like we’re saying £2m for the winner isn’t enough. We’re arguing that the first-round qualifier only makes maybe a few thousand. We’re talking about making sure that, at the lower level, more people can survive. I’d also like slams to take part in the player pension fund. Our pension on the ATP level is very small and a lot of players will rely on it in the future. Maybe not me so much, clearly, but I’d like to fight for that and leave a legacy. I think a lot of the top guys feel that.”

The tennis rich list
Federer is second only to Novak Djokovic for match earnings
*Sorry! There's table here but I don't know how to copy it.*

Federer might be known as a dignified presence on the court, but it wasn’t always this way. Early on in his career he had a reputation for tantrums, and once had to clean lavatories for a week as punishment for ripping a courtside curtain with a thrown racket. Age and success have mellowed him, but he has always seemed refreshingly incapable of suppressing how much the game means to him. “God, it’s killing me,” he said, voice trembling after losing the 2009 Australian Open final to Rafael Nadal. What is it about male tennis players that allows them to express emotion in a way that would be taboo in other sports?

“In our biggest moment of victory, we’re all alone,” he reflects. “You don’t have anybody to hug. You shake hands with the umpire and then there’s this moment when you think, ‘I wish I was with somebody right now.’ Then it just breaks — the wall of being a superhero. You realise you’ve achieved your dream. In football, a guy comes over to you and says, ‘Come on, buddy, let’s get to the changing room, show how tough you are.’ We’re alone. There’s no football chant, just polite applause. It’s about you, the person, not a club. It can be very moving. ”


Earlier in the day, I had followed Federer around his pre-tournament media commitments. It began with a press conference, where towel etiquette was the unlikely hot topic. Last month, the Spanish player Fernando Verdasco was caught on camera angrily gesticulating to a ball boy to hurry up with the delivery of his towel. Would Federer support the introduction of towel hooks, or a rail, near the court to release ball girls and boys from having to handle the players’ snotty, sweaty cast-offs?

For five minutes, Federer — the holder of a record 20 Grand Slam singles titles and the longest tenure at No 1 in the sport’s rankings (310 weeks) — analysed the merits of various bathroom fittings. On the one hand, towels are brought to players to speed up points, he acknowledged with polite weariness. On the other, as a former ball boy himself, he knows how important it is for these kids — possibly the future of the game — to be treated with respect.

A long and successful career
At the age of 37, Roger Federer has won more matches in the Open era than any active male player. Only Jimmy Connors has ever won more
*Sorry! There's table here but I don't know how to copy it.*

It’s classic Federer: an expansive, considered answer that avoids coming down on one side or the other. (“What I say matters,” he tells me later.) The press conference over, he heads to a video interview flanked by two hefty bodyguards. Journalists scurry alongside him, firing questions in English, French and German. He answers each in the relevant language.

Eventually, he is asked the million-dollar question: when is he planning to retire? “What I like about my career is that no one knows what’s going to happen,” he replies matter-of-factly. The reporter tries again: is Federer’s new £230m, 10-year sponsorship deal with the Japanese clothing company Uniqlo a tacit announcement of his intention to keep playing until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? “Not necessarily,” he says. “Two years isn’t a lot in most people’s lives, but for me, there’s a big difference between 37 and 39. It depends on how I’m playing, how my body feels. I know I’ll still be playing at club level with my kids, but beyond that, who knows?”

This nonchalance isn’t just for the cameras. Despite the scrum of media and fans that follow him wherever he goes, Federer seems to exist in a bubble of calm. I wonder how much of his transition from erratic youngster to the serene elder statesman of tennis is down to his fulfilment away from the game. He talks adoringly of his wife, the former tennis pro Mirka Vavrinec, whom he married in 2009. They have two sets of twins: nine-year-old girls, who are identical, and four-year-old boys. Twins run in the Federer family: his sister also has a set.

Yet he’s adamant that he had already found a sense of calm before becoming a dad. “I didn’t need my family for a reality check,” he says. “I was in a very good place 10 years ago with my wife and team … Today I’m a father, so yes, I have to cut off faster from the losses. I don’t want my kids thinking, ‘Daddy’s grumpy today because he lost to Zverev in the semi-finals.’”

That Federer is still competing in his late thirties is all the more remarkable when you consider that Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe were both 25 when they won their final slam. What is the secret to his longevity? “No one ever overworked me,” he says, singling out Pierre Paganini, his fitness coach, as an invaluable mentor. The pair met when Federer, aged 14, was accepted onto Tennis Etudes, an elite, live-in programme for talented Swiss juniors, and have worked together on and off ever since. By the time Federer, aged 19, defeated the seven-time defending champion and the then all-time Grand Slam record-holder, Pete Sampras, at Wimbledon in 2001, his team were already planning for the long haul. “Pierre was always a big believer in taking breaks,” he says, emptying a sachet of sugar into his coffee. “Even now I preach to the younger players, ‘Take time off. Your body needs to heal.’”

It was a motto he clung to in 2016, when he was forced to take six months off after tweaking his knee while running a bath for his children. He underwent meniscus surgery — the first operation of his career — splitting his rehabilitation between his homes in Basel and Dubai. “It was emotional looking down at my foot and thinking this leg might never be the same again. But my body deserved a break — for the sake of living a good life after my tennis days, but also giving my game a shot.”

It worked. In January 2017, he made his comeback in Australia, roaring to victory in the final against Nadal — the first time he had defeated his rival in a Grand Slam in a decade — only to clinch the Wimbledon title six months later. In February, 14 years after he first became No 1 in the world, he returned to the top of the rankings.

So far, this season has been less of a fairy tale — victory at the Australian Open was followed by defeat in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and the Shanghai Masters semi-finals a few days after we meet. But this week he arrives in London ahead of the ATP World Tour Finals as hungry for the game as ever. No wonder he’s monumentally bored of being asked to predict his retirement date. “It started in 2009 when I won the French Open. I’d tied Pete [Sampras]’s record of the most Grand Slam wins and then I broke it the following month. People said, ‘You’ve won all four slams, broken the record and are No 1 in the world. What else does a person need to be happy?’”

What the pundits didn’t realise was that Federer has never been in it for the glory. While some players including Andre Agassi have admitted to tiring of tennis (in his autobiography, Agassi describes hating it “with a dark and secret passion”), Federer comes alive on court. “Tennis is my passion and I’ll play as long as possible because I truly love it,” he says.



This balanced disposition is undoubtedly the influence of his parents. Unlike his peers who were coached by family members (Andy Murray by his mum, the Williams sisters by their dad and Nadal by his Uncle Toni), Federer’s early career was blissfully free of the overbearing tennis parent. This separation of training from family life allowed his parents to be, well, parents. His dad, Robert, was livid whenever his son threw a strop on court, while his South African mum, Lynette, used to phone his coaches to check that her son was being well behaved.

Federer’s parents are still in rude health, but he refuses to believe that he’s “a miracle in terms of genes”. “My dad has been up and down with his back, knee and shoulder, but my mum is superfit. They both play golf. I just feel that I got lucky at the beginning of my career and didn’t hit surgery aged 20.”

It’s this sense of good fortune that has instilled him with “a certain obligation” to give back, which is one of the reasons he launched the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003. It supports educational projects all over Africa as well as in Switzerland, and has helped nearly 1m children. Mirka is on the board, which is hardly surprising, given how much he depends on her. “Mirka keeps so many friendships going for me,” he says. “She’s the one who stays in touch with everyone.

The pair first met in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, where they were both on the Swiss tennis team. “We shared a house with the wrestlers and I just enjoyed her company,” he says. “One thing led to another and we kissed. We didn’t know how it was going to continue. Was it just a kiss and nothing more? When we saw each other again, we realised that we liked each other a lot and stayed together for ever.”



Their twin girls, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva, arrived in 2009, followed by the boys, Leo and Lennart, five years later. Twelve days after the girls were born, the whole family decamped to Montreal for the Canadian Open. How many nappies did he change between matches? “I did a ton of them,” he laughs.

Federer’s “kiddies” are currently home-schooled. He wants them to enter mainstream school in Switzerland once he retires, but until then they travel with a nanny and a teacher. Travelling on tour with his family makes for interesting sleeping arrangements, but there is one concrete rule: “I refuse to leave the bed with my wife,” he says. “[I say] ‘We always wanted to have kids, but my [initial] dream was to be with you and not in another bedroom on another floor.’ I’d rather sleep with kids screaming than away from my wife.”

How will he cope when, in a few years, Charlene and Myla are begging for Instagram accounts and wanting to go on dates? “I’m ready for it,” he says with a wry smile. “I was a child who tested the limits, so I’ll have some sympathy for them.”

When it comes to envisioning life post retirement, he’s vague about his professional plans — though I’d predict a fashion line and more ventures from his sports agency, Team8, which helped launch the Laver Cup tournament in 2017. Personally, though, he’s already got it all worked out. “Because I’ve flown so much, I’d like to do a road trip — go through Italy, Germany, France, Scandinavia. I don’t know London that well, so I’d like to have time to experience it properly and say, ‘Tourist Roger is here!’”

It strikes me that Federer’s fans are far more agitated about his retirement date than he is. Having invested so heavily in his career, they can’t bear the thought of it spluttering to a disappointing, unglorified finish. Will they get their happy ending?

“The only thing I care about is my wife, my children and my friends,” Federer says, smiling. “Tennis? Great. If I win more — fantastic. If I don’t, it’s all good.”

Diplomatic as ever. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Roger Federer competes at the Nitto ATP Finals at the O2 London, November 11-18

Xiuying- thank you so much :spinningflower !! I feel like Christmas has come early. It is a great read.

^^^

Thank you very much for your kindness.

Yes, thank you Xiuying!

I looked at the article, but couldn't continue reading it as I don't have a subscription. So, I really appreciate your copying it here.