Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the photo – Photo getty images
A few days after the release of his documentary “Federer, the last twelve days”, scheduled for June 20th on Amazon Prime, Roger Federer returned to talk about his life as a professional tennis player and the last moments of his career. In an interview given to “El País”, the former Swiss champion talked about the sensations he felt during his farewell to tennis and revealed some anecdotes about his rivalry and friendship with Rafa Nadal.
The documentary retraces the last moments of Federer’s tennis life, from the statement on social media in which he announced his retirement, up to his emotional last doubles match with Nadal at the 2022 Laver Cup in London. “You feel an incredible feeling, as if you were at a sort of funeral of your life. It’s a very strange feeling, to be honest. You are fully alert and experience a great slow motion blur of everything that is happening. It’s like an operation: you only know how it feels after experiencing it. I never thought that the end would be so full of experiences.” confesses Federer.
The Swiss admits that he did not expect such an intense farewell and that the release of the documentary was not initially planned: “I thought maybe there would come that moment with the microphone, where you’re the center of attention. I thought something like that, it was what I expected, but it was much more. That’s why I convinced myself, together with my team and everyone else, that maybe it was worth showing this material, because it was something so special, so unique and so painful, and at the same time so beautiful, that maybe the fans would could have been interested.”
The winner of 20 Grand Slam titles also commented on the iconic scene where he and Nadal cried together, hand in hand: “I have it framed at home, in a space where I keep some images from my career; I don’t want photos everywhere, so I keep them in a specific area. And when I walk past it, it always strikes me as reflecting our friendship, our rivalry, all in one image. It’s a moment where we’re both able to reflect on everything we’ve just experienced, remembering our careers and how lucky we were to be tennis players, to have been able to turn our passion into a dream profession.”
Federer also revealed that he feared that Nadal might retire before him: “I was worried that Nadal might leave before me. There were signs that made us feel that Rafa was not well and that he would not last as long as he did. I didn’t think I could play past 37 or 38, same for him, but then you find a place again where you start to feel better. But yes, I was worried that Rafa might leave and, in fact, I thought he might after beating Medvedev in the 2022 Australian Open final. I thought maybe he would do it there or at Roland Garros. I would have been incredibly happy for him, but at the same time it would have been a shock for me.”
Finally, Federer spoke about the relationship with the other members of the “Big 4” and the element that united them in his farewell to London: “I think what really ties us all together, including Andy, is that we became fathers; beyond all the games we have played and the rivalry, in this sense we have a lot in common and to talk about. Novak has two children, Andy has four and Rafa was then close to having his first. It was nice to be able to experience all this as a family”concludes Roger Federer who, with his documentary, will make tennis fans vibrate again with his emotional farewell.
Francesco Paolo Villarico
