Doctor Roger Federer Will See You Now [VIDEO]

Do you want to warm up first? What do you do normally? Voice. I do the voice stuff.
Yeah? You normally do like a little... No, I mean, I'm trying to put you in the tennis mode.
No, no, totally good. Can I tell you, that's probably my favorite thing about tennis, is that you warm each other up.
Yeah. That is weird.
It's really weird. It is super strange.
There's no other sport I can think of where the opposing athletes help each other get into the zone. Hey, can I give you a good rhythm so you can beat me after? Yeah, I've just never...
You won't see boxers doing the bags with each other. Yeah, just doing a little punching before you go knock each other out.
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Well, welcome everybody to another episode of What Now?

The podcast where we have interesting conversations with the interesting people who make us think or feel.

Today is, I mean, this is always one of my favorite things to do, is sit down with somebody I consider a friend,

somebody who I've got fond memories with, funny stories, whatever it may be,

and really just chat about how they see the world, what they're doing in it. And that person today is the one and only Roger Federer.
You probably know him if you've lived on earth, but if you don't, he's widely regarded as the greatest tennis player that has ever done it. He also gives that accolade to many of his peers who are also some of the greatest to ever do it.
But today we're talking everything in between a documentary entitled federer 12 final days which is exactly what it sounds like the 12 final days of roger federer's professional playing career and yeah man thank you so much for joining me on the podcast friend for sure good to see you trevor absolutely the same i'm happy to see you again you know my tennis partner man from from cape town we did it together i mean your tennis rival but i mean yeah but we were we were in it together yeah we were in it together yeah but you still beat me that's amazing that you actually did that that was crazy 52 000 people i mean you just started to play tennis barely and here you are walking out in cape town that was wild yeah my my first and last public tennis match was against Roger Federer with Rafa Nadal as my right yeah that's it I mean Rafa was your partner quit the game on top do I now have to say doctor how does this work it's up to you but if you have any issues ever or any problems you come to see me I mean doctor of many things but yeah the doctor thing comes from you're probably referring to my uh commencement yeah man congratulations thank you that was that was fun in dartmouth and uh you get an honorary doctorate so here i am sitting as a doctor you know i'm yeah a former tennis player that's what i can't think of many people who would be a better doctor than you you you're one of the most precise human beings i know you're one the most, like, you have everything that I think a good doctor would have, right? And I mean like a doctor, like medical doctor. You have great bedside manner.
Everyone that meets you likes you. And they probably give you more information than they should.
They start just sharing their secrets with you. Do you know what I mean? You've got the precision.
You've got like the memory, the touch, the everything. i it also seemed like emotional for you you know and i i know a little bit of your story because you were you know thrust into the you know tennis profession like so early on high school wasn't a thing for you no college wasn't a thing for you was it was it like a little emotional experiencing a part of life that you maybe wouldn't have otherwise? And very strange because, like you said, the academic world and that part of life is so far away from it, right? I knew that in Switzerland, it's super important.
Academics come first and everything else is a hobby, you know, tennis, especially sports in general anyways. so for you to pursue tennis or sport in our country is like what do you i mean you're obviously not going to be good at it so make sure your grades are good you know because this is obviously not going to work out oh wow and so for us to dive into that and believing and dreaming of you know the big time is is not something that is very common uh maybe now more so since you know i made it and we have more athletes making it you know and it's a thing and you can see how much emotions actually a athlete can bring it can be more seen as a career you know but uh then yeah you i mean i remember i tried hard you know when i stopped school at 16 and and chased um you know my tennis dream.
I remember I did French, English, and German online classes for those because I said, oh, I got to do something after 16. I can't just stop it all.
Then after a couple of weeks, I asked my dad and my mom, like, it's so hard. I don't have the discipline to sit down and do English and all that stuff and German and French.
They said, okay, we do up French you know i'll just do german and english i'm better at that than the french part they're like okay fine so like two weeks later like i can't do it just give me a chance just to do only tennis and if if tennis really doesn't work out i'll go straight back to school but please let me go like are you whittling down the language i can't do french i can't do i can't do language. I just want to hit the ball.
And then here I am, you know, yesterday at Dartmouth, I mean, in my robe, giving commencement speak, speaking, you know, to all those graduates. They're going to be so bright.
They're going to be incredible people, you know, and yeah, I feel very humbled and it was a great moment, you know. And you brought the family.
And then all brought the family and then all the kids came yeah and everybody came so it really felt like a um a deep dive into american college you know which i had you know i know very little about obviously in recent years i've gotten to know more and more about it so when they asked me i started preparing because i don't give many speeches like that so you seem natural though like thank you like i know this about you personally you're not the biggest fan of being on the mic you're not the biggest fan of like being but i've met few people who are more natural at it like you it's not just the the the glamour it's like you you have this vibe like you could be a swiss james bond yeah what is that swiss james blassie yeah yeah i see him showing up here i am saving everything very responsible yes very responsible he'll be on time yeah that's very on time very responsible wouldn't blow anything up no he would just fix things absolutely he'd make them better no i mean yeah i mean i like being you know on the Yeah. But then also I very much like, again, being gone from it all, you know.

So and I think for me, most important was always try to keep sort of the authenticity, you know, just being organic myself, not change too much, you know, adapt fine, you know, to stardom and all that stuff. You know, that was weird in the very beginning of my of my life.
but I'm happy I got out on the other side after this whole like 25 years of being in the limelight

to still feel like I'm actually still a good normal guy you know just i don't take myself too serious i like to make jokes all the time as you know and um so then having a conversation like with you like today i knew it was going to be fun so i mean thank you why do you think that is by the way like like my dad's swiss so i know that swiss people aren't like the funniest like i mean we just have to be honest like what do you think it is, by the way? Like, my dad's Swiss, so I know that Swiss people aren't, like, the funniest. Like, I mean, we just have to be honest.
Like, what do you think it is that gave you that little spark? Like, you, when we were doing the Swiss tourism ad, we spent most of the day laughing, right? When we were playing the tennis, we spent most of the day laughing. When you were launching the Oliver Peoples collaboration, your sunglasses, we spent most of that evening evening laughing where do you think you get that from i i mean it has to be from traveling and getting on the road and the people have been surrounded by i mean as you know when you wait around along and you're around good fun people uh that you know life's serious enough most of the time yeah i mean you have a lot of time to just um you know talk smack all the time so that's why i think it has to come from from the road um i think then when i speak french um whereas my french is uh never as good as my english um i still feel like i'm a teenager right so when i speak french oh that's funny i feel like i'm super young still and super silly because the vocabulary is way more limited.
That's really funny, Roger. And English to me is like the language where I'm maybe the happiest and the most open.
Okay. And maybe Swiss German is maybe where I'm the most, how do you say, the most me per se, where I can get into the details because that's the language I grew up with.
The most precise. Of course, this is the most precise.
There you go. It has to be that way.
So that's why I think it also has a little bit to do with all of that. I'm not sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
For this conversation, I was trying to think of, like, what would be something that the listeners would really love? You know, what would they get from Roger that they may not be able to get in another conversation? And because on the podcast, What Now? What I'm always fascinated by is not just what happened, but what that thing that happened will change for the future. So sometimes if it's news or politics, it's like that.
That happened, okay, what now? But with people, I also find it interesting because we always meet people at a moment in time and very seldom do we get insight into where they're going to go what they're going to do how they're going to do it and then you came out with this with this um with this documentary film oh the 12 final days and man i like i i know you fairly decently and i've been lucky enough to know you for a few years but there were there were parts of it that were really intimate and really you know um revealing yeah i would say and maybe maybe that's the first question i have for you is like were you worried at any point like why would you make a documentary that is following you for the last 12 days of one of the most illustrious careers that anyone has ever seen across any sports you know was there a part

of you that worried that maybe you'd be losing the intimacy of that totally and that's why i think the best part of it all was it was not supposed to be a movie it was just supposed to be for the vault to put it away for my children no way for my team for my friends one one day just so we could look back and say, you know, we actually grabbed some content. Because the thing is, I've been super giving, open in the media.
I mean, always happy to take pictures and talk to everyone. But then private is private.
You know, like nobody comes to my house. We don't do home stories.
It's just sort of off limits. And I tried to keep my kids out of the limelight as much as I could.
Of course, they've come seeing some of the matches then down the road. And of course, people can see them sometimes.
But for the most part, I've really tried to keep that more of a private thing. So when then, well, the career was coming to an end, the question was, well, where was it going to be? You know know where do i retire because i knew sort of um at some point in the summer that you know my uh my knee was not improving anymore and you could see the trajectory going and um and then you know and some people around me really thought that i should maybe have uh at least some footage taken from the end because i really never wanted a camera team uh in my in my life because i said like i couldn't think of anything worse here i am trying to prepare for wimbledon or french open us open you name it you've got all these people around and they're here and then you know you're tying your shoes and you know they're looking over your shoulder so you tie them extra nice and then you go in front of the mirror you put on the headband and you make sure it's it looks epic you know even though it makes no difference you just want to be focused so i think it gives i always felt like that's not the thing i really need in my life and i don't want that okay so then we decide that it's going to be london o2 doubled with rafa at point.
And I thought, okay, if I can just have a camera team around, knowing that it's going to go into the vault, I'm going to be relaxed. Because then I can just leave it there forever.
Or if ever there is a life doc, you know, about my life 30 years from now, I actually have some extra footage while I still was active. I mean, there is obviously tons of footage out there and maybe some I never remember.
And I allowed some behind the scenes, sometimes at like exhibition matches, like in South America tour. Because I just thought, okay, exhibitions, you're relaxed.
It's much more on the fly, everything. There is no rules, whereas you know you're playing for so many points and so much history at this other events i don't need the extra distraction okay so then team shows up was joe sabia from 73 questions oh yeah yeah so i was like okay i need someone i kind of know it cannot be just somebody out of nowhere that shows up and then is in my life especially yeah especially for

something so intimate yeah it was super intimate because i said okay if we if i bring somebody in i mean the guy has to come home and i'm like i don't want anybody at home but he has to yeah so we did that and um you know days go by as i prepare in switzerland i release you know the the news to the world that I'm retiring.

I read, you know, sort of my,

my audio form letter to the world that I'm retiring.

I read sort of my audio form letter to the world

because I didn't know how I was going to announce it, if it was going to be a video. But I knew I was always going to regret a video because I was going to look at it later and go like, oh my God, that was such a bad video.
But you know, you have to do something. And then a little tweet is maybe not good enough because that's not good enough for the career.'s not good enough as well so i read this letter so the crew is there as well so they captured that and then as i get ready and travel to london and prepare with the media and all that stuff so literally the the crew is really more just a fly on the wall over the shoulder very raw footage and then as the days go by joe says i'm so sorry this footage is so sick it's crazy i mean it'd be such a way such a pity if you don't share this with your fans and your people i'm like yeah whatever i'm not i'm not here for that i'm trying to cope with my emotions you're essentially making a home video right so capturing a final moment so it was nuts and then of course uh you know everything's over joe reaches out to me uh to the director couple uh maybe a couple of weeks later i don't remember he goes look i just put something together for you to see 60 minutes have a look or 50 minutes i don't remember right and uh he was on zoom i was watching it at the hotel in zurich and uh okay cried a couple of times because again you go through the emotions of watching it and i was thinking with mirka and tony were watching it and thinking is this something that really needs to go out to the world and maybe it's just like a snapshot of like you said that very very end of it all you know it's it's literally like rehab also for me going through it all again oh in what in what way i don't know because you know it was so emotional the end so i think for me to talk about it again and go and emotionally go through it all it's like therapy you know it feels good but it's as you know in the movie I'm so vulnerable yeah and I don't know so I I just hope that the people think thank you for letting me see it so cool you actually didn't keep it and so when I that people like it i'm just i'm just relieved because it was so hard at the end i i know i know for a fact that people are going to love it because it's it's it's not just the fact that they're watching a documentary about roger federer it's it's the fact that you are bringing them into a space that we very seldom get to see which is the human human side of being an athlete.
Do you know what I'm saying?

When we watch the documentary

and when we think about teammates,

relationships, partnerships,

I think arguably the greatest doubles partnership

of all time is you and Mirka.

I watched the two of you.

I've seen you at everything from the Met Gala to just like a little vacation together to you know chilling in Switzerland to whatever it is the two of you have the most beautiful synchronicity between you as human beings I've always wondered what that is you know what do you think it mirka that that that enables you to go off and become the greatest of all time what like what do you what do you think it is about her and and what do you think you in turn give her as well because the two of you really have a wonderful synergy as human beings i mean i think you have to go back to the early days you know where um when we we got together pretty much at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, I was young at the time. Mirka was, you know, in the middle of her career, started having some heel Achilles issues and was struggling after the surgery to come back.
I remember she was on crutches walking all the way through Paris at the time. Super tough moments, you know, was on crutches for a long time yeah i mean over a month i think you know at the time i was like my god i mean how long are you having these crutches for i thought like it's just a surgery and we get back up on the horse you know and you keep going and then she's doing rehab always pain um and then i told her but why don't you just i mean retire i I mean, like this is not the idea of playing tennis with pain all the time.
And then we can be on tour together. And I was on the ascend of starting to win Wimbledon, top 10, world number one.
And she's like, yeah, you're right. I'm done.
It's good. And then here we are.
Me, I don't know if I should retire. I'm 36, you know, 37, 38.
You know, it's so hard to retire. I'm thinking of her.
She just like went like, okay, I'm done. You know, it's no problem.
What's the big deal? I'm like, well, and I'm here. It's the biggest deal in the world to retire.
I make it so emotional and I love the game so much, which does too but i think she loved the tour through

my career and the travels and the logistics behind and like being you know my rock really through thick and thin and she's been incredible you know throughout and then first half thankfully we had it with no children and thankfully we had it with children you know the second half you know And that's obviously like, that was a whirlwind of a life that we had.

And I missed that that to be honest like creating that home away from home experience like in a room like this creating a corner where the kids would be playing and then i would jump in and out and read a book and go build lego together and whatever we did you know create little corners like this was great so mirika has been phenomenal you know and i think that's why also was so hard for her at the end when she could see the suffering that i was going through with my knee and she's like this is not the roger that i know who you know who can crush everybody and beat everybody and we just have a good time if he loses no problem but if he loses at least you know he's feeling okay but she could see what i was going through on a daily basis so i think we were all super relieved at the end and you know in the movie as well she speaks to the she speaks to camera which she hasn't done in like 18 years people don't even know her voice you know because she's like i'm done with the media because once she was taking care of the press and i just thought that was a not a great situation to have your you know your wife or girlfriend at the time take care the press. And all you say is 99% of the time, oh, I'm so sorry, Roger doesn't have time to do media.
So she got a bad rap for that. So then we said, well, why not just stop doing that? We give it to somebody else and she won't do any more interviews.
Who knew that she was not going to do interviews for like 18 years? And she did one, just quick one the um you know for the for the movie at the end we just wanted to capture just to see how she felt and actually the the beautiful thing was i think when she was speaking to camera i was actually in the bedroom of the the girls i believe the boys were there too maybe and i told them that i was retiring because i didn't tell them until i read the audio form at home because i didn't want them to tell their kids their friends and then it leaks yeah yeah and we were crying in the bedroom she's crying in the front talking about how much the career and how much i've meant to meant to her and i mean she's been incredible i mean throughout because it hasn't been easy for her but you know by any stretch. But so much fun and we look back with great, great memories.
We're going to continue this conversation right after this short break. One of my favorite moments is where you're sitting in the change room, and I think you're going to be playing against Francis, right? It's like it's for the doubles match, and you're talking about your knee.
Ah, yeah. And you say, like half joking, you go, if I knew it was going to be what it is, and I'm paraphrasing you, if I knew it was going to be like this, I would have never gotten into it in the first place.
And, you know, I obviously don't take it literally. I don't think you would have never done it.
But I do think people can take for granted how much sacrifice goes into a career like yours. You know, physical sacrifice, mental sacrifice, the time sacrifice of life.
When you look at your body now, your mind, your everything, do you ever take stock and think to yourself, man, I really gave a lot to tennis as a career? Yeah. And especially when I see like yesterday, you know, you see the French Open finals, Alcaraz against Zvereva five sets and they're chasing each other around the corner i'm like i did that too you know i did that too many many times uh yesterday at uh when i was the commencement speaker i was talking about that i played 1 526 matches i had to look it up how many i did and then you realize my god there was a lot of tennis a lot of running and i I'm so relieved that I don't have to go through it anymore, you know,

because, I mean, as fun as it was, but especially towards the end,

I remember, I mean, the warm-ups, you know, the stretchings to warm up,

to go warm up, then tennis, to take a break, to then warm up the body again,

to then go play, you know, a match.

I mean, it was massive, monumental effort to do that. Now you can say, well, what's the big deal it's just tennis yes just tennis but it's your life and you and you've been trying to you try to perform at your best in front of people and you know that better than anybody performing in front of people just adds that extra pressure there's no okay cut let's do that again that didn't work out like you're out there and you're vulnerable and it's tough.
So I honestly, I feel super relieved and I see any athlete now or any person who performs at the highest of levels, especially with a live audience, you know, I respect them. And I'm so happy I have that, but it almost feels like it was a different me now.
I don't know, you're probably still so in the thick of it, you know, but- No, no, you're agree with you so yeah because it's funny and we talked about this like um you announced like your departure from tennis around the same time i was departing from the daily show and i think i can relate to many of the things you're saying there's there's a moment in your life that is defined by a certain action and activity you know what it's going to be like when you wake up you know what it's going to be like when you go to bed simple actually your body starts to get used to it your mind starts to get used to it and when you step out of it like you said that there's there's the there's the grief of what you've let go of but then you start to experience like a little newness a little free a little you know like for me my version of the of the you know no tennis warm-up is some days i don't read the news yeah now i can just do that i just go before you had to know what was going on i would be at parties i'll never forget this i was at like a dinner party and in the middle of the dinner party a notification came up on my phone there was breaking news and i literally had to like i stepped away from the table and i went to read you know just because i was like i don't want to not know what this is because my job requires it. And now I'm just like, hey, phone off.
Yeah. Let's see what happens.
But I'm sure it's like that for you, right? Similar to me now as well. And where I feel it the most is where, you know, if I'm with my children or with my friends, I don't really have to think about tomorrow's practice.
That's interesting. Or tomorrow's match, you know, like where all of a sudden you're sitting there, I don't know, you're having a good time,

but you're thinking,

so when he goes back

and down the line on me

and I'm on the four

and on the run,

do I hit it back up the line

or do I cross court?

Hey,

you know,

you're like,

you end up visualizing.

Wait,

wait,

don't rush away from that.

No,

this is fascinating to me.

I've always wondered this

about like the best athletes

in the game.

You have memories

and visualization

Thank you. No, this is fascinating to me.
I've always wondered this about the best athletes in the game. You have memories and visualizations that AI would want to replicate.
Talk to me a little bit about that. So you're going into a match.
You know a match is coming up in the next few days. You're visualizing what the match will be and how your opponent plays, and you're basically playing the match in your head before the match yes i mean yes absolutely and i think some do it by watching video i didn't watch a lot of video of my opponent even though towards the end i did because there's a couple things that worked for me is the memory of remembering how it feels to play an opponent.
Then what I would want to do. So how does that match up together? Then how has my opponent played that particular week compared to how have we matched up against each other, let's say, the last 10 years? And then you have fast court, slow court.
So all of that matters. How do I feel that week? The things I've been doing maybe prior to the match?

Have I been playing aggressive?

Have I been playing more safe?

Am I carrying an injury or not?

How do I feel?

And then, especially against the best players,

the ones I've played the most against,

it's always a game of chess for pattern.

Who gets the patterns they want, right? And that's then when you realize, well, okay, it's very uh it's a game of chess like for pattern who gets the patterns they want right and that's then when you realize well okay it's very clear what he wants it's very clear what i want now the question is like are we is one of us going to back out of it or we're just going to say like okay let's see what you got on the day he might not have a best day maybe i don't have my best day so obviously there's this clash at the beginning and then you got to decide that we keep going or do we like start deviating from it and that's where like a skier you know who sees the ski slope yes we see those same patterns i was uh um saying to before like if he goes i don't know short angle cross court do i have to go back cross court and let him try to thread the needle up the line or do i take charge and say like do i go up the line and break break it up but then does it look like an escape from me or is that a specific

play i use you know and then all this also um um statistics stuff came in towards the end of my

career which can really um make your make your how do you say your your mind crazy yeah how do you

feel about that because this is something that i've I've heard from athletes across all disciplines. I remember sitting with a few players from the Premier League and Syria, and they were telling me how in football, in soccer, now it's all become data analytics.
So back in the day, the coach would tell you, this is how you should move, this is what you should do and have fun. And now a coach goes, no, when that player gets the ball, we all move like this.
You come down, you move up, you do that. When that player gets the ball, you do this.
Correct. Because 70% of the time, they're going to cross the ball over here.
That's right. 82% of the time, they're going to pass it across this.
23% of the time, if you press them, they're going to do. Completely.
But it's all stats. That's what's coming as well.
And with tennis, I've heard that this is also increasing where now they give players like a book and they say, study this. These are the percentage odds for what your opponent is going to be doing or not doing in these types of situations.
But like, how do you get that in your head? So that's the thing. I am very much the guy who, you know, likes to go with my power.
I believe that, I don't know, playing attack in tennis, attacking, breaking down my opponent's back backhand is the play so obviously you're not going to just hit into the backhand all the time and try to break it i know you have to open it up through the forehand so then the backhand corner gets bigger and then obviously you can hit it hard into the backhand corner spinny into the backhand corner slice it short long you do all these things and then when let's say the the most important moments come around that's when you then ask your opponent all the questions that you you know you've been massaging that the bad side let's say so many times that he has his doubts that he obviously doesn't want to hit all those different types of backends let's just say yeah now and then you know you thought you think it through with your your coaches and you have a game plan. Then, of course, you can think about all the problems

and all the strength your opponent has,

but I feel like in my best years,

I just focus almost on my own game,

and the rest, I'll wing it, and I'll figure it out.

Towards the end, then, like you said,

this analytics came in,

and then you would hear that, I don't know,

on break point, he would hit 73% chance

that he goes to your back end.

So now, what do you do? Do you say, well, obviously, I'm waiting here on the now what do you do do you say like well obviously i'm waiting here on the backhand side or do you say like well hold on a second he knows that i know so i know he knows and then he actually burns you up the floor through the forehand so you just so that's where i've preferred sometimes not to know i just go with the feeling of yeah how the last game went where he was serving was he making the last serves was he missing them was he going for it what was he doing and i just go with the intuition so that part i enjoyed less you know when it got so so specific like a formula one car everything so everything becomes predictive yeah let me let me ask you this on a philosophical level then you know do. Hearing you talk about this makes me think of how you can apply this to many things in life.
In society, sometimes the downfall of data is that it looks backwards. It doesn't look forwards.
So you go, this has happened. Ergo, it will happen.
As opposed to realizing that if you do something new, you can change the data. You know, in relationships, people will talk about this.
They go like, sometimes when couples are fighting, you go like, oh, why don't you buy her flowers? Oh, she doesn't care. She'll just tell me this.
It's like, well, you're using the data now to assume something about somebody's future action. And it's interesting that you talk about that because everyone who's a fan of tennis and a fan of you has always gone, it feels like you're flowing.
It you it feels like you're walking through it feels like you have this idea you know but i but i like i wonder now what that brain is doing now that there isn't tennis to think about because that brain it's not like your brain just goes away it's not like your brain just turns off so what's what's roger applying that brain to now or do you get to rest that and think of something else?

I have the feeling maybe, like you said, Trevor,

it's maybe a little bit of a holding position,

a little bit of a resting phase,

because I have retired just five minutes ago.

Wait, wait, wait.

Let's pause here.

Yeah.

This is your resting phase?

I mean, resting phase as in, you know.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Yo, yo, Roger, I'm going to call you out.

No one's going to call you out. No, this is your resting phase? Yo, okay, let's go.
Launching a sunglasses brand that was sold out in minutes, all right? Continuing to like blow up one of the fastest growing sports brands in the world, right? Which is on. Traveling around the world still with like as a Rolex ambassador.
Still being the face of tennis. Re documentary going around the world like this is your resting phase well i feel like this i was i say it because this year in particular i was very strong with my wife to say you know let's plan all our vacations super early okay so nobody can say like oh by the way um can you come to um to this one thing okay and i'm like yeah that makes sense i'm in vietnam right now you know or i will be in vietnam at this time or i'll be in bangkok i'll be you know somewhere around the world so i really protected my schedule i feel at a very good level this year i'm really happy we did that i told you we just came back six weeks from uh from asia from an amazing trip in thailand before that we were in j we were in Japan last October and we had a wonderful Christmas in the Maldives, you know, so things I really, really looked forward to for many, many years while still on tours that one day I can go visit places without the stress of having to practice or actually play another match there.
Man, it's so funny you say this. And it's been great for me to do that so i know i'll get back into it and then like you said i have all these projects

you know uh that all of a sudden came about but not almost because i wanted them so badly they

came back organically i mean on they're just around the corner so i go to the offices and

we talk about stuff zendaya just signed with on now so that's been so cool by the way that that

that story is amazing on so many different levels like zendaya is easily i mean she's just signed with on that. So that's been so cool.
By the way, that story is amazing on so many different levels. Like Zendaya is easily, I mean, she's just in the stratosphere of her career.
You know, everything she touches turns to gold. I also love the connection to the fact that like she just put up the movie Challenges.
It's all about tennis as well. It's all about tennis.
But what's interesting, and this is what i love about the serendipity of how some

things tie together the movie challenges seems like it's about tennis but i argue it's not it

just happens in the world of tennis and it's really a movie about relationships yeah it's

really a movie about expectations it's a movie about pressure it's a movie about self-identity

you know what i mean and in that movie in in the movie zendaya's character and spoiler alert if you haven't watched it just skip this part um zendaya's character is probably going to be the best tennis player in the world she suffers an injury she can't play her role changes dynamically and it's all about this and there were people who said, oh man, this sort of reminds me of like Roger and Mirka's story and then the director came out and said, no, that's exactly what inspired me. He said he was fascinated by how Mirka's suffering through the 2019 Wimbledon finals.
Wimbledon was on, you're on the court and the camera keeps cutting to the record

that's what they do

at Wimbledon right

they always go from

from player to team

or player to wife

or player to coach

and it's such a tennis thing

because in

American football

or baseball

or football

they don't always cut

to the team

but in tennis

it's such a thing

don't go anywhere

because we got more

what now

after this. It feels like you've brought your precision, your thoughtfulness, and your joy out of tennis into another idea.
And that is a sports brand. I know you're really thoughtful about why and, you know know why you do or don't do things so i i've been lucky enough to be in switzerland with you and to like feel you moving through space like when we're in the train station for instance this this do you apply that to yourself as well as roger like do you feel that you have you know maybe an obligation is the wrong word but i can't think of a better one right now to really represent swiss identity to really represent switzerland to really represent the swiss people i think we're proud of our swiss made and you know like we do it with precision and well and when you know there's like a swiss cross on something it's supposed to be done to a level that uh not many other countries can bring it to i don't know maybe you know italy when it comes to really beautiful clothes or japan when that you know that the craftsmanship is is really special and i think the swiss angle has that as well you know and we're very proud of it like with our you know watches and cheese and chocolate and and mountains and whatever it is you know we're very proud of it all as you saw you know when the Swiss Tourism Act together.
But on an individual level, though, it hasn't always been that way. No, but in the early...
Okay, this is the way I've perceived it. Having family members in Switzerland and spending a little time out there.
It's like Swiss culture is also a little bit of like, hey, don't stick out too much. We're all equal.
We're all doing this thing. We're all as important as the other.
And so in many ways, the cult of personality. So the beginning, it was funny.
Look, I didn't feel like, yeah, sure, I'm proud to represent Switzerland when it was a team sport. And it's a game Switzerland, you know, like say in the Davis Cup or Olympics and so forth.
But, you know, when I was traveling on my own and i feel like yeah sure i represent switzerland there's a swiss flag but never to the extent towards sort of the second half of my career when i really started feeling the swiss people really proud of me they were very excited for me and every year that went by and the more famous i became yeah the more important was for me to represent switzerland the right way because i know that they care yeah we're subdued about it we're not like let's not make a big fuss about it but we really are and honestly it's hard to get them out of their shells and come say like okay Roger's the greatest whatever he's good we like him and when maybe I'm not around you ask Swiss guy oh Federer he's amazing we're been amazing to hear. You know what's funny? Most of them don't even say Federer.
They always say Roger. That's what I love the most.
Genuinely, everywhere I go, they come up to me and they're like, ah, Trevor. Then they're like, good seed.
Then they're like, we saw your thing with Rocha. Like, yeah, with Rocha.
Yeah, it was very, we love Rocha. How is it? But they all say Roger, which I think is a testament to how they see you.
No, and I've always tried to keep that keep that connection going i've done i mean countless hours of swiss media as well because it would have been easy just to say let's just keep it to english right generic save time and stuff but i always knew i was going to live in switzerland i love the conduit they've been the best so it's been it's been great right could be happier so let's talk a little bit about you know you enjoying this this relative new new freedom. You know, just being able to try everything, knowing there's no match coming up, knowing there's no, you know, even for your body, you just like wake up the way you wake up and do your thing.
You posted a video on Instagram hitting a golf ball, right? Have you played golf, Anon? Say again? Have you played golf, Marcello? I wouldn't say I've played golf. I would i've hit a golf ball okay i don't think what i what i did wasn't playing i i'm terrible i also don't get it to be honest with you i really don't i loved learning tennis and i i still play when i get a chance good i enjoy it yeah golf i never you know but you posted the video yeah and is this what so first of all how new are you at it really because it was flawless no it i know it looked good but it looked very good but those those balls you know they have a they have a way to slide over you know that's funny oh my god but uh no i've i've played throughout my uh my life on the road okay okay and then uh but never to the extent like where rafa or yeah yeah henman and other players you know they played all the time every chance they would go out in the game and me i was especially the last say eight years or so i've maybe played like three four times you know my parents both liked it they'd like to go out so then uh i was like you know i'll never go out there and start golf if my wife's not into it or my kids are not into it.
It just takes me too much time out there and I have other things to do. I'm too busy.
And anyway, my knee was crazy. So I was like, I don't need to agitate the knee.
So now in December, I was in Dubai. I was like, why don't I like take a few lessons and see how it is, you know, for the first time, maybe a lesson.
I don't know. I thought that my technique was okay yeah but obviously i was still very i'm still at the moment very erratic with my shots and i'll never forget the second lesson i take my golf coach he tells me a golf pro i don't know golf coach um he tells me what are you thinking about when you stand over the ball like that i'm like i mean i hope it goes straight you know i mean what you think of something else or what i don't know what else I could think of he goes like that is the holy grail my friend because I mean you have so many things to think about normally about your positioning your backswing impact and follow through so I'm like okay so you're already on the right path just thinking I hope it goes straight for lessons later I stand over the ball and I tell him hey you know what i know what you're saying here i am lining up and everything's like ultra tense it's not relaxed anymore i'm not even thinking about where i'm hitting the ball i just want the backswing to be okay and the impact and the follow-through and it's wild how golf is so technical yeah and you know you stand there you can take so much time so it's actually not, right? And tennis, you're kind of always on the move.
It's like we would be tinkering with our serve for life. I mean, of course you get nuts.
You know, just, you know, doing the same position. You're going to go, no, let's just adjust it ever so slightly.
And every adjustment has an impact. So anyway, why I like golf is going out and then especially everybody started to play as well the kids miracle and everything and i just really thought also for philanthropy you know for maybe the foundation stuff i know that maybe through golf i could be out there because maybe tennis i can't always be out there but it gives me a chance to maybe have some some fun golf events i could join or i could do it with my foundation and i could play for the rest of my life so why not take some lessons and that's what I'm going through right now let's let's talk a little bit about um another aspect of of the film that for me really I think is one of the main pillars of of who Roger Federer is you can't watch this this documentary and not think about how important relationships are you know when you when you're watching the final 12 days of your career one of the scenes that is i mean everyone's probably going to cry when they watch it and it's a good cry is watching you and and and the team and it's like team europe and you're saying goodbye and it's this whole thing

and everyone has cried.

You know, you've taken center stage

and you've spoken

and Rafa's crying

and you're walking

into the change rooms together

and then Rafa goes off

and he goes off into another one

because he's still crying

and he's so emotional.

This maybe is something

that I think is not just

a beautiful testament to you but it's an interesting look at relationships and how we think of them. There is no greater rival in your career than Rafael Nadal.
This is the person who was always between you and another Grand Slam. And obviously Novak came in time, but you and Rafa, we think of as being synonymously you know head to head all the time you wouldn't think in most stories that the person who would cry more than you would be your number one quote unquote rival and yet it seems like it wasn't necessarily a rivalry it seems like it was a competition and there's a love as brothers tell me a little bit about that relationship and and how you were still able to compete at the highest level against somebody like that beat them have them beat you but then still have that love between you so i think what i like about the story of now take tennis as a whole um sure we can take rafa but we can also take novak or marie or vrinka whoever we want to take but let's say take rafa to come through a career of 25 years or 15 whatever it's long a lot of matches um a lot of tough battles like you said you know you you win some you lose some sometimes you don't like them then you like them again and then you don't like his team or you don't like his coach and then they have a problem with you and you said something he said something and you know there's always this agitation but actually there's mutual respect and so forth and then to come out at the end of it all and actually be like high five that was cool that stuff was cool and you know what we can't wait to maybe hang out more in the future or hopefully we'll see each other again down the road and be on a rocking chair one day and we'll look back and go like that was fun and thank you uh and i said that as well in the commencement speak speech yesterday i thanked all the players for making me better and showing me my flaws you know for making me hopefully a better not just a tennis player but also a better person you know so i think this last 12 days you know that we're going to see um uh coming out now is is a beautiful story as a whole i think for that message because i think a lot of time we we tell the other you know the as a coach or a father or whoever it is you have to be you've got to be tough and you got to be taken down and you got to beat him up and you know you got to be now wanting win and you got to show everybody and you can't be the nicest and so i'm like yeah i i get it but it's just tennis or it's just sports and come on let's be friendly and nice to one another and we can do it in a good way in an elegant way i always call it you know so i think that moment uh shows that in in a perfect way like you said the segue from from the court we come into the locker room and i just felt it was very important for me to also tell all the other players that they ended up being this these co-stars in this movie which was never supposed to be one and i just wanted to let them know because i didn't know at the time this was going to be a movie i just wanted to let them know thank you for being here thank you for i hope um you know how much this means to me that you guys were all here and you came to my last game even though at the time when they signed up they didn't know it was going to be my last game maybe yeah we would have to ask them if they how happy they were to be there and i think rafa maybe in particular he was not ready for it to go down so emotional yeah so crazy he just wanted to like i'll play doubles with you going to be there.
And I think Rafa maybe in particular, he was not ready for it to go down so emotional and so crazy. He just wanted to like, I'll play doubles with you and be great.
And we'll be there and it'll be, you know, a tad emotional at the end, you know, but I think we, nobody knew that it was going to be this intense because I think there was this beauty. We had this moment where we could just take it all in and our careers were flashing in front of our eyes, especially for them are still going they're like we are so fortunate i think all of us that we are living as a tennis player we're so fortunate to still be going hopefully you know novak can go on and crush every record i mean hopefully murray can play as long as his uh hip allows him to and he still has the the hunger rafa knew that he was in a tough spot as well and he hopes that he can still win as much as possible yeah and here i am they're one of their big rivals going out and seeing it live in slow motion almost go out and it was tough and that's why i think the movie was it's going to be really beautiful of showing that and i hope actually in many ways that many future great athletes or not so great it doesn't matter will maybe give us that glimpse into the retirement moment because we don't know how maybe a formula one driver, a rugby player, a golfer, how they retire, what they have to go through on that final stretch.
When you head into retirement at a, at a young age, you know, I mean, gymnasts, they do it at 20 something years old. You know, I now had the chance to play till 40, 41, you know? So I think everybody does their way so right i think like you said there's these beautiful moments like in the locker room super raw super um unexpected as well in many ways but uh it was it's again it's that beautiful sign of camaraderie i know we're a team at the labor cup but still uh for me to be able to tell them in a very strong moment uh was actually at the press conference like a couple of days earlier if you remember where i talk about i am so happy where i grabbed the mic one more time and i just had to say it in front of everybody here i am sitting with i mean borg and rafa novak andy and casper and mateo and uh and cameron and everybody was there and i'm just saying how happy i am that i get to, you know? And it's not like Rafa retiring before me or Novak or Andy, but actually I go first.
Like it was supposed to be because I am five, six years older than them. I hear what you mean.
It would have been painful for me to see one of them go first because of injury. So I was supposed to be going first.
I had a career without them in the beginning, early years, and they should have won without me too. So I just felt it was important for them to hear that, the press for them to hear that.
And I just thought it was, for me, a very strong emotional moment. You can see it how then when I walk out from the press conference, I'm like, oh God, this was a brutal press conference.
But, you know, we're getting closer to the match, so we're almost, we're almost done. So, so, so let me ask you this.
When you have that kind of support, you know, when you have that camaraderie, like where do you, where do you find it now? Because while tennis took a toll on your body, it also gave you something on an emotional level, gave you something on a mental level. Where, where, where do you search for that now? Where where do you find it so i'm happy that we always kept a really nice uh group of friends throughout the world but also in switzerland i always have my roots down um i think there i can really thank my wife as well especially to always keep in touch with everybody yeah because i always worry for players and when players ask seek me for advice or you know you mentor them sometimes or they're in a tough spot they always tell me you know remember to keep in touch with your friends because one day you're maybe going to be injured or your career is over you're going to come home what are you going to come home to you know an apartment and that's it a house i mean but a house with no people or an apartment with no friends around it's going to be it's it's not so much fun it's not a home so i feel like that's now where our big focus is as well that's why i was talking about like taking a bit of a break maybe it's not a real break but you know what i'm saying it's actually going on to weddings going to birthday parties going to things that i could never do yeah and actually catching up with that but also maybe giving my friends their time now because they invested so much time in me too i know they love the trip to wimbledon and come to london and then come watch a game of me i know and i organize a ticket and so forth but they still took their vacation or they took time out to come see me play and i now return the favor by going trying to see a lot of my friends and i feel like i get get a lot of energy and a lot of happiness from that well roger before i let you go there's um the question that i love to ask everybody on the podcast is what now and it could apply to everything it could apply to anything i'm selfishly curious about this one is the what now for for for your career when we first sat down and had like a real conversation like this was literally my final 12 days yeah of the daily show that's right you know second last guest yeah second second to last guest actually yeah no i think you were the last you might have been the last guest actually how did that feel for you to like the end then did you also feel emotional were you like so i actually this is great happy so this is the way i think and i would love to know how you view it you know i think any ending that is good should leave you with a little bit of mourning or regret yeah any ending that that is good anything that has ended when it should end should have you just yearning a little bit for more of it.
Yes. When I was leaving The Daily Show, I wasn't like, good riddance.
There was a part of me going, man, maybe I... It would be good to continue.
It would have, maybe I should, just a little bit more, maybe, but I think that's what it should be. If you're leaving anything, a relationship, a job, a career in sport, and you're like, oh, thank God it's gone, then I argue it's too late.
Yes, yes. You've overstayed, yeah.
You know, so definitely for me, it was, and then just like you, you know, there was a whole period in between where we couldn't really do much and there was strikes and everything. Oh, yeah.
And then we won the Emmy for the show. So it was like, we got to come back and celebrate that.
There you go. And it's like, you know, you going back to Wimbledon, being in the space but not being in the space comes with a different feeling yeah you get to feel new

emotions yeah yeah you're super distant exactly exactly and the same way you're talking about

with the documentary now is like you get to live that moment again but not be in it yeah which is

an interesting way to feel so i guess like yeah what now for you as as roger the person like

because really the sky is the limit yeah so what now i think i'm still in a search mode i

I think that's a big deal right now i feel like it's an important time for me to be around and support them help them so going through the schedule uh with mirka and uh with the kids making sure we do all of that stuff as much as we can well right i think is a huge priority for me and then while we do that of course um try to have fun with other projects that we're working on you mentioned so many we're also working on a saline project you know that comes out a table a coffee table book in september okay launch going to be in new york actually um so i'm looking forward to that and then i think as we move forward you know i think um i think i will know more let's say in a year's time or so because i feel like i'm still a little bit in let's relax let's enjoy ourselves but have some cool projects and take that on so that's going to be a definitely you know a priority for me as well um so pretty laid back you know always see what is the tennis space doing for me um problem is i think either you're a coach mentor or you are a journalist or let's say commentator yeah and I just don't see myself doing that quite yet because I just don't have the time you know with next to being there for my children so so really a bit of a transition phase too and I think it's a good spot to be in it's a great spot yeah it's a great accepted it's a great spot yeah exactly and whereas i feel like if i look back maybe nine months ago i wasn't so sure i just felt like i need to dive into the next project yeah maybe not was i did i was i supposed to go there i feel like where everywhere i go right now i feel like i'm happy to be there that's amazing man well great roger congratulations again you know. And thank you for sharing it with us.

I do think it's wonderful for people to see all sides of a career that affected them in such a wonderful way. So this is really great.
Thank you, my friend. Thank you.
Love being on the podcast. Well done.
Happy for you too, man. Thank you very much.
Thank you. What Now with Trevor Noah

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