The New Yorker Radio Hour - Roger Federer on Retirement and His Evolution in Tennis

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Roger Federer is playing the last professional tennis match of his career this week. It’s the end of an incredible run. Over two decades, he has demonstrated an unmatchable court intelligence and temperament, winning twenty Grand Slam titles and spending three hundred and ten weeks as the top-ranked men’s player. In 2019, on the eve of playing in his nineteenth U.S. Open, Federer spoke with David Remnick about how he got over an early hot temper and predilection for throwing racquets on the court. At the advanced age of thirty-eight—and as a father of young children—Federer explained what he had to give up in order to keep playing professionally. “I think it’s nice to keep on playing, and really squeeze the last drop of lemon out of it,” he told Remnick, “and not leave the game of tennis thinking, Oh, I should have stayed longer.” This segment originally aired on August 23, 2019. New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you.  We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better.  Take the survey here.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. For anyone who cares about the sport of tennis, it's been a rough couple of weeks. Two of the all-time grades have retired, leaving a hole in the game the size of, I don't know what. Serena Williams has played what's likely her last tournament, the U.S. Open, and Roger Federer is playing his last match at a tournament in London. When I talk with Federer a few years ago, he was 38 and already contemplating what his exit would look like. But he was still playing like a champion at that time. He spent 310 weeks ranked number one in the world and won a staggering 20 Grand Slam singles titles.

Watching him was to watch a magician. And over a long career, he demonstrated an unmatchable court intelligence and temperament. I spoke with Roger Federer in our studio in 2019, when he was here for the US Open. Some fans may not know that when you were a kid, you had a pretty volcanic temper on the court and you whiled that away. When you watched John McEnroe play

or now Nick Curios or somebody like that, you see them lose it on the court, how do you relate to that kind of temperament on the court which is so alien to you? Well, I laugh about it because I think it's actually good. It's good that guys are showing their temper. Well, I can totally relate to it because that's how I felt when I was younger. And it's nice to see it still exists.

I'm also sometimes more like this. I used to smash rackets, throw rackets, but very clever, you know, so I wouldn't break the racket. So I would throw it into the fence or I would throw it over the fence or into the tree or I don't know what I would do, but not onto the ground where it would break. And I would have to explain myself to my parents and my sponsor maybe and ask for another racket because I smashed it. So I don't know. Look, I understand that people get upset because it happens to me still in practice nowadays. You know, when nobody's watching,

I get super frustrated as well sometimes because tennis is just a sport where you're going to make mistakes. I don't care who you are. They just happen, you know. I just didn't want to be that kind of player with that attitude because I just felt like so drained once I was like midway through a tournament. I was so tired from getting upset. from shouting, commentating every ball I missed or, you know, for the sake of winning, I changed

my attitude. I think, basically, that's what I did. Athletes who have a long career change. Muhammad Ali, when he started off as a professional fighter, was just unbelievably fast. He had the speed of a lightweight and the power of a heavyweight. Later on, he changed his tactics. He became more of a, he paced himself differently. as a tennis player and somebody who's 38, what is it that you cannot do anymore?

What have you had to give up? Well, for me, it's been not sad, but a bit unfortunate that I had to give up, you know, in my spare time, going to do other sports. You know, when I was younger, I remember I used to go play squash with my friends for hours after a game, or I would go play ping pong even before a match.

Or I used to go skiing, you know, after the Australian open back in Switzerland. And all of a sudden, like, well, maybe I should stop that just because I don't want to end my career that way. I don't want to break my knee. And then you give it up and actually you realize, well, I can find something else that's a lot of fun. You organize your life differently.

All of a sudden, you have children. So instead of going, I don't know, where we're going to play squash, well, now you maybe go run around in the park and play hide and seek and play catch, you know. So I don't know, it becomes a totally different life that you're living. But, yeah, I mean, I do miss, you know, the years where I was a teenager too. and I just did anything just because I could, and I was still trying to understand what does professionalism really mean.

I notice sometimes at a tournament, you'll drop a set, and pretty decisively in the very beginning. You're almost getting warmed up, and you start to think, well, maybe the difference between Federer and this other guy is playing is not so significant,

and then the tide just completely turns, which leads me to think that maybe the biggest difference between somebody who's at your level or Jokovic's level or Nidal's, and then the next layer down is more mental than physical. Do you see that that's the case? Not so much, to be honest. I think actually margins are much slimmer than people think they are.

If you win 53% or 55% of the points, you are winning the match and actually dominating if you're winning 55 or 60% of the points played. And if I'd ask you now, like, how much do you think I win of all the points played? You would think maybe, yeah, 70% if you're winning 6-4-6-3, but actually it's much less than that, you know. And I think what you want to try to create as a player is

that you're not playing at the limit of things, that your base is so high that you can always rely on it and that you have several strength, you know, in your game, that if one also goes away, that you still can absorb it with a different shot, let's say. And I think that's what separates the absolute great and the best of our game. to the other players, you know,

is that we can rely on several things to keep us alive in a match. What drives your obsession for tennis right now? Is it records? Is it, do you need the thrill of winning a tournament over and over again? Is it money? What is it?

Yeah, I mean, sometimes the motivation can be records. Sometimes it is beating, you know, the new generation, sometimes it is, proving to myself that I can do it again. And, I mean, just in my heart, I just like playing tennis, you know. It may be practice or matches.

I like being out there, you know. And as long as I'm really enjoying myself and I feel that way, I think it's nice to keep on playing and sort of really squeezing that last drop of lemon out of it. You know, I'm not leaving the game of tennis feeling like, I could have, I should have stayed longer, you know, on the tour because, you know, I feel like I've missed out. Now, when you're playing, you've got a life of,

of activity and busyness and and upheaval and attention and press and all the rest. And then when you stop, you stop. When you think ahead to that point, whatever it is, when you're 40, when you're 45, God knows. What will life be like? And are you looking forward to that? It will be different. It will be different for sure. You know, I don't think I will have a major struggle being away from the game of tennis.

I love so much because I feel like I was able to keep really great friendships throughout my career. So I think that's going to catch me in a nice way, coming back to a more normal life, a more structured life. You know, I think I'd be, you know, in business in some shape or form. I hope to be in tennis also. Just at least a little bit, I could see myself in a mentoring role. I don't see myself commentating or coaching per se, but, you know, help. and giving tips and advice. Totally I can see that.

Philanthropy, of course, my foundation is super important to me. So I know I will be doing that in the future. And I know I will be living in Switzerland. My home, where all my friends are. I love my country so much. Now, David Foster Wallace, we remember best as a novelist, also wrote a lot about tennis, and he was a big tennis player.

And he was a fan of yours. And that's putting it lightly. In a piece in The New York Times, he said that watching you play tennis was like a religious experience and that on the court that you looked like, and I'm quoting here, a creature whose body is both flesh and somehow light. How do you respond when somebody writes something like that about you?

Is it thrilling or embarrassing or what? Yeah, it's a bit embarrassing. I remember the interview with him and I walked away from the interview thinking like, oh, I don't know if this piece is going to be a most incredible piece or the worst piece. It was really hard to tell, you know, and he wrote this most unbelievable piece about me that almost got me definitely a bit embarrassed, you know, because at the end of day, I'm just

a tennis player, you know, but I know that tennis in the theater sort of feeling we have, you know, we can hear a pin drop. It can be quite a magical sort of feeling, you know, for somebody who's not a tennis player, and even for us, it's a great reminder sometimes playing this great arenas around the world, what people think and feel watching sports, and I get it, too, because I'm also a sports fan. I also watch it, and I get maybe more nervous watching other sports than actually playing it myself. Roger Federer.

We spoke in 2019. This weekend's Labor Cup in London will be his final tournament. That's The New Yorker Radio Hour for today. Thanks so much for listening. See you next time. The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of Tune Arts, with additional music by Alexis Quadrado.

This episode was produced by Emily Boutin, Breda Green, Kalalia, David Krasnow, Louis Mitchell, and Gophane and Putabwelle. Along with Jeffrey Masters, Will Coley, Jenny Lawton, and Michael May. And we had assistance from Harrison Keithline and James Napoli. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Cherina Endowment Fund.