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Tennis legend Roger Federer spoke with Extra’s Mona Kosar Abdi at the premiere of his new documentary, “Federer: The Last 12 Days,” at the 2024 TriBeCa Film Festival. Federer reflected on his illustrious career and spoke about his family life after retirement.
He said of the documentary, “This film is of course a very personal journey for me so it’s great to be able to celebrate it – my career, maybe again. It’s like therapy for me so it’s great to see people coming and being excited about it.”
Regarding life off the court, he said: “Retirement has been great. It’s been going well. I’ve been a little bit lucky, a little bit unlucky with my knee. It’s been getting worse and worse, but I think I’ve got a feel and a taste of what life will be like when I retire, spending more time at home and things like that.”
Federer continued, “My life is going really well and I’m very happy. We have four beautiful children – twin boys who are 10 and twin girls who are 14 – and my wife. We’re traveling the world and having the best time, and of course helping them with their school work and then projects like this – it keeps me busy and it’s fantastic.”
At one point in the documentary, Federer becomes speechless while talking about his life after tennis, something he says he has always tried to keep an objective view of.
“I always felt that if I got injured it could be the end of my career, but I always told myself that’s tennis,” Roger recalled.
He recalls: “Every time I won a match or a tournament, especially a tournament, I knew it could be my last. So I had to live my life with the thought that one day I would come home and I would no longer be a tennis player. I would just be a former tennis player. And I think that mindset helped me not to worry too much about what would happen after tennis. It was a great change. I’m very happy and I’m glad that it was destined for me.”
Mona asked him, “What would you say to a young kid who was a ball boy?”
“Get ready for a great life and a very enjoyable journey. A lot of time in the spotlight, trying to save break points under pressure, trying to say the right thing on the red carpet and in press conferences,” he replied. “But it’s going to be a great time and you kind of wish it would last forever, but everything has to come to an end. I’m happy to have made it this long, on the biggest courts in the world, under pressure in the public eye. It’s been a dream career and I couldn’t be happier.”
The player also spoke about how his wife Mirka has been by his side throughout his tennis journey, and now in this new chapter.
He said: “Luckily, we started dating when I was 18-and-a-half, 19, so we were really young then and we’ve basically been in our lives together for a long time. First half of my career I didn’t have kids and then second half I did, so the logistics were super hard. So now life has completely changed, but in a good way, I’m happy to be back to the way it was before. I think when I’m at home I’m a lot more relaxed because one day there’s no game, the next day there’s no practice. But of course the kids keep me super busy. Their schoolwork is super hard so we try to help them out as much as we can together.”
Roger still watches the matches and wrote of the French Open final: “Great win for Carlos [Alcaraz]It was a great final for Zverev, and the semi-final was great too. I love watching the French Open and any tournament is a joy to watch.”
He added: “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch the final yesterday because I was giving a commencement speech at Dartmouth College and was very busy giving a good message to all the students. But Carlos has had a great career and the tour is doing well with the younger players. I’m still a big tennis fan and I’m happy to follow the results every day. I’m not happy to be retired – not at all.”
And he has no regrets: “I think losses and failures are necessary and I thought it was the right decision at the time.”
He continued, “I honestly never dwell on the past. My career has been a lot better than I ever thought it would be. I was happy just to stand on Centre Court, let alone win Wimbledon. I’ve achieved a lot more than I ever thought I would, so I have no regrets at all.”
“12 Days” will be available on Prime Video from June 20th.