‘Today I Feel Great’- Roger Federer

Roger Federer has a gentlemanly-like attitude on and off the court. However, it was not always the case. Federer revealed that he often used to get nervous off court. “Off the court, no”, says Federer, “I think that’s something I grew into because I was very outgoing and energetic off the court when I was younger, but rather on the shy side if it came down to ceremonies, let’s say, of award shows, or maybe signing autographs, taking pictures.”

Federer says that when he started off on the tour, he had just thought of it as playing matches. However, he grew into the press conferences, and autographs and handling his life off the court with just as much elegance as he does it with on the court.

“For me, I didn’t think that was sort of part of the whole pack, so I didn’t kind of figure that out early on. Of course, it was nice when it happened, but I didn’t know really how to handle it”, recalls Federer. “Also at the beginning, you get mixed up. They ask you if you’re another player”, jokes the Swiss maestro. “So that doesn’t help your confidence sometimes. Today I feel great. On and off the court, for me, it’s a lot of fun. Now it’s for me natural to feel good everywhere I go and everything I do.”

Federer also spoke about how the change from wooden to graphite racquets has brought more power into the game and has produced more baseliners in today’s sport. “I just think it’s become so much more athletic,’ Federer revealed. “Before it was more guiding the ball around, because with the wooden racquets you couldn’t really generate a lot of pace”.

However Federer says that the versatility in tennis will be maintained even in the future. “I think today we’re seeing incredible plays. No, I think the game has evolved actually quite nice”, says the Swiss maestro. “You’ll always go through patches where you have big servers or then you have baseliners. But I think throughout the tennis history we’ll always see a good mixture.”