Roger Federer continues to be talked about. The latest revelation has definitely surprised all tennis fans
In less than a month, three years will have passed since the last match played in his career Roger Federer. It was July 7, 2021 and, on Wimbledon Central, the court that consecrated his legend, the Swiss champion lost the quarter-final match against Hurkcaz in three sets.
Despite a career now inevitably drawing to a close, no one expected that, after that knockout, Roger would no longer take to the field, thanks to a flare-up of the knee injury which was then subjected to surgery.
From that July 7, Federer would return to play a match on September 23, 2022 at the Laver Cup on the day of his farewell to tennis. A doubles match, paired with his friend Rafa Nadal, at the end of which Roger said goodbye in tears to the public who had cheered him for years.
An unforgettable moment that all fans will now be able to relive in the documentary “The Last Twelve Days“, a production visible on Amazon Prime Video from 20 June, in which the days that preceded Federer’s farewell to tennis are recounted with unpublished footage and testimonies.
Federer, the unpublished backstory: we only found out now
In the Amazon documentary, Federer spoke about one of his greatest career rivals: Novak Djokovic. Many matches were played between the two, 50 with the Serbian ahead 27 wins to 23. One of Nole’s latest successes came in the legendary 2019 Wimbledon final, lost by Federer 13-12 in the fifth set after having nullified two match points in the service.
A rivalry, the one between the two former world number one, which began 13 years earlier when Roger and Nole met for the first time in an ATP match in Monte Carlo. A match won by Federer in three sets and, which went down in history, also for one of the rare moments of nervousness on the court of the Swiss who addressed with rather piqued tones towards the corner occupied by Djokovic’s coach and family.
A Djokovic who would soon become the third wheel in the great rivalry already underway between Federer and Nadal. About this, Roger revealed an interesting backstory years later. “Thinking back to those moments – we read in the preview taken from ‘OAsport’ – I think I didn’t give Nole the credit he deserved. When he arrived I think a lot of people felt that tennis didn’t need a third wheel. He then improved in a very short time and became an incredible tennis player, simply monstrous.”
A miscalculation, therefore, for Federer who, after many years, admitted that he was wrong about Djokovic. An afterthought that even Nole himself will certainly have appreciated.
