Roger Federer is making his way back onto the tennis tour, but that’s not the reason for this GQ profile. The reason for this interview is that Roger was recently named the travel ambassador for Switzerland, and so his country asked him to do some interviews to promote tourism to Switzerland now that people are getting vaxxed and ready to fly places. Unfortunately for Roger, people really just want to ask him about tennis and about when he’ll retire. He’s 39 years old now, and he’ll turn 40 in August. He’s coming off a 14-month layoff due to the pandemic and a persistent knee injury which saw him get two more surgeries in 2020. He’s only won one match in the past year and he’s lost two. He’ll play the French Open, but only to prepare his body for his beloved grass season. You can read the full GQ piece here. Some highlights:
On the retirement speculation: “I don’t know, I’m really relaxed about where my career is, where my life is. And I know that this [moment] is one last big, huge opportunity for me to do something great. I mean, it’s always like this when you have achieved as much as I have.”
The iconic David Foster Wallace profile from 2005: “I remember where we were when we did the interview. It was in an office on the side, like sort of by the green grass they have there. It was an area where we always say, ‘I’ll meet you at the grass’ … So I went to speak there for like, half an hour, and I walked out and I did not know what to think—if it was going to be the worst piece in the world or a genius piece. Because it was different. It was very strange. And then [the piece] came out, and I was like, ‘Oh my god.’”
Losing matches in his attempts to come back: “Don’t get me wrong, I want to win more. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone through the whole [last] year of surgeries and the process of doing five weeks on crutches and rehab. I truly believe I can do it again. [But] I first have to prove to myself that the body can take it. The mind is ready to go.”
His impending 40th birthday: “I can’t believe I’m 39, to be honest. Turning 40, it’s like my life has gone by on the tour. I’ve enjoyed so many moments, I’ve had some tough moments, of course. I’ve been tired. I was hurt. I was sick. I’ve played with all sorts of issues. But I feel like juniors were yesterday. Do I sound like an 80-year-old person who looks back at their childhood as their favorite part?”
He remembers the 1990s well: “I mean, it’s a classic teenage guy having a lot of pimples and wanting all sorts of different hair colors. My next move was going to be the red hair, but then I somehow didn’t do it. And then after that, I let it grow out, I cut it off, and then I had long hair after that. I had Shaquille O’Neal on a huge poster. I had Pamela Anderson because we were always watching Baywatch and 21 Jump Street. I don’t know, this was the time when we were walking around with the Walkman, and a Discman. The ‘90s were good for me. I was just starting to make it on tour.”
Go to Switzerland. “It’s my favorite place to decompress from everything, from all of this. And time stands still there. Life’s normal. I hope you can do it one day.”
I feel like all of the retirement questions are sort of disrespectful at this point, and I feel similarly about those conversations around Venus Williams and Serena Williams, both of whom are having a somewhat bad year with tennis. I think these legends of the sport should be able to play for however long they want. Roger can still beat a lot of guys and be a top player, and although his current form is not that great, all he really needs is some matches (same with Serena and V, honestly). At the end of the day, if someone like Tom Brady can still win the Super Bowl well into his 40s, why not? Why not just be an older athlete, play for the love of the game and make the youths try to beat you?
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
Age shouldn’t matter. If they are winning, they are winning. Period.
I don’t really follow tennis, but why not keep playing? That’s what you do it for, right? If you’re as good as he is, I would think you’d want the chance to play at this level whether you win or lose.
I agree about the retirement talk. People have been talking about Federer retiring for a decade, but he’s always been really open about just loving the game, loving the tour and being a part of it all. He doesn’t need to “retire on top” or “preserve his legacy” if he’s enjoying what he’s doing. And he’s a great ambassador for the game – his PR skills are well-oiled at this point, he knows how to talk to the fans in post-match court interviews, etc, he comes across as a genuinely chill, happy, drama-free guy. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, the machine around him must be huge at this point.
This might be one of those connections only I make because of my weird brain but when you mention retirement talk being disrespectful I thought of Osaka and her take on the post-match pressers. Same old questions about retirement, which are, as you say Kaiser, a bit disrespectful. Why put up with that crap day in, day out? I get why he’s out there – to promote Switzerland – but it reinforced Osaka’s point. The journalists want a “storyline”. Their storyline and they want the athletes to bend into it rather than the other way round.
Serena has made it to the finals of every major she’s played in since coming back from maternity leave, so haters can STFU about her needing to retire.
I know sport is ageist but I’m glad Federer, Serena, and Rafa are showing that age doesn’t matter. They can still beat people 10+ years their junior and they still love playing, so why retire?