Roger Federer will retire when he’s no longer happy to leave home

Rogerer Federer GQ Cover

Roger Federer is having a hell of a comeback. Federer’s 2016 was pretty rough, when he messed up his knee, had surgery and basically had to miss more than half the year. While Federer has had physical issues before, he’d never taken that much time off the ATP tour. The 35-year-old arrived in Melbourne for the Australian Open looking and feeling fresher, and he seemed to have made his peace with the fact that he wasn’t going to win any big prizes, but he still wanted to play just for the joy of playing. Then he won the Aussie Open, beating Rafa Nadal, and picking up his historic 18th Slam title. Then he just won the Indian Wells title on Sunday, beating his friend (and the actual #1 Swiss player in the world) Stan Wawrinka. And so… Federer’s comeback is happening. People are already wondering if there’s a real chance he could be #1 in the world yet again. And no comeback is complete without a sexy, suave GQ cover profile. This issue comes out nationwide on March 28, but they released the profile online – go here to read. Some highlights:

When he knows he should retire: “Let’s say I have a tournament. I ask myself, how happy am I to be leaving home? Because it’d be so nice to stay. So am I happy to pack my bags, and walk out the door, and put them in the car, and get in the car, look to the house and say, Okay let’s do this––am I happy in that moment? Or do I wish I could stay longer… Every time it’s been: I’m happy to go. I’m still doing the right thing in my heart. It’s a test.”

What it was like to win another Australian Open title: “Winning Australia, it solves so many problems. I think a lot of people were hoping that I’d win. It seems like a lot of them were super happy.” Federer describes himself as feeling “very humble” in the last moments of the Australian Open, before the finish was decided. “Even then I thought it could still be turned around by him [Nadal], I could still lose it,” he says. Despite Federer’s other big wins––the 2009 French open when he clinched the Career Grand Slam and tied Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Slam titles or when he beat Andy Roddick at Wimbledon a few weeks later––he admits that the Australian open “feels very different. You have a better perspective when you’re older. You’re more at peac. Sometimes you want it more because you know time isn’t on your side.”

His life as the #GOAT: “Tennis brought me these things,” he says emphatically, referring to pretty much everything around him. “That’s why I’m so thankful to tennis. It broadened my horizon. If I hadn’t been a tennis player, I’d probably be living life in Basel, doing some sort of job. I’d have a smaller perspective.”

Playing Peter Sampras in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2001. “I was 19 years old. I realized, Oh My God. There’s so much more to tennis than just practice in a cold hall somewhere in Switzerland. This is what tennis could be about,” he says reflecting on the match. “I realized, I want to be back on the court one day, I’d love to compete with these guys on a regular basis, I’d rather play on the bigger court than on the smaller courts… And all of a sudden it started to make sense. Why you’re doing weights. Why you’re running. Why you arrive early at a tournament. Why you try to sleep well at night. We just started to understand the importance of every single detail. Because it makes a difference.”

On his 17-year relationship with his wife Mirka: “Here we are, 17 years later, and we did it all together.”

[From GQ]

The whole piece is absolutely worth a read, even if you’re just a casual tennis fan. Even if you don’t care about tennis or sports, it’s still a good read as well, because Roger Federer is more than (arguably?) the greatest men’s tennis player of all time. He’s a celebrity, he’s a style icon, he’s a loving husband and father and he’s just an all-around cool guy. He’s a rock star. He loved La La Land except for the ending. He watched Lion the night before the Aussie Open final and he cried and cried. He’s afraid of horses. He loves to laugh and be a normal person. He loves movies. He writes thank-you notes to everybody. He’s also incredibly sexy.

WHY IS THIS PHOTO SO FUNNY??? And why am I so turned-on as well? Like, he’s really sexy but I’m laughing too.

Roger Federer 6

Photos courtesy of Craig McDean/GQ.

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13 Responses to “Roger Federer will retire when he’s no longer happy to leave home”

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  1. Beatrix says:

    I think there may have been a better way to say what he meant. Right now, it sounds like a diss to his family. Bet his wife wishes she could go off and do her own thing for stretches of time…

    • QQ says:

      right?? LMMFAO.. Glad to see I wasnt the only one that said WAIT!.. Wait wait.. also imagine the ever loving flack a woman would catch for saying this.. . say a Zoe Saldana or whomever saying she Still loves to go work cause it makes her happy when she packs her bags to leave her babies LOLOLOOL

      Also I love me a hairy dude

    • oooo says:

      He doesn’t leave his babies behind. He takes his whole family with him to every tournament. His wife is always there. His girls and his wife were in the stands as always when he won on Sunday. He’s talking about not being settled at home, about travel.

      • Ophelia says:

        Has he ever said anything about the possibility of retiring or semi retire once the kids start schooling? Or are they going to have home school teachers follow them around like La Familia Jolie Pitt.

        Life on the road must not be good for the kids who need to put down roots rather than being dragged around like pieces of luggage.

        But being a man, it is possible to have children and still only concentrate on the game and nothing else.

        How many mothers still compete at the highest levels of sport? Or how many mothers don’t get side eyed if she were to concentrate on one thing only and that one thing is not family?

  2. Luca76 says:

    I love him so much. As someone who’s watched tennis my entire life its such a joy to watch him play and I love that still finds so much beauty in the game

  3. slowsnow says:

    That photo is HILARIOUS and HOT. I totally see it. And usually he does nothing for me – I’m a Rafaist.

  4. Ophelia says:

    Easy for him to say when his family basically moves around with him like a movable city.

    I’m always in awe at how patiently Mirka Federer follows him and until recently managed his business. Which unfortunately earned her a reputation for being a b!tch. Ye, right!

    So she heckles (that beef with Stan the Man was funny as all hell), so what? Fans heckle all the time, and her being his number one fan? Doesn’t earn her all the mud slung her way. But that’s life as a woman, I suppose.

    I still remember her sitting courtside for 5 hours, 8 months pregnant, cheering his final Wimby game. That’s dedication. I’d sooner just stay home with my feet up, even if it were my ownhusband slugging it on court. I’d sooner say: “Well okay hunny, best of luck. Come back soon”.

    No way no how. This guy seriously is lucky to have his family the way it is.

  5. Aviva says:

    Roger doesn’t leave home unless a tournament director guarantees him a seven figures appearance fee. That’s what gets him out of the door.

    Everything he says or ever does is calculated and probably rehearsed but it looks so, so smooth. Pure PR genius.

    • peanutbuttr says:

      Not quite true. Masters tournaments (like Indian Wells) are mandatory for top 50 players and there are actually penalties for skipping without a good reason. The top guys like Federer and Djokovic only play the slams, masters, and two or three ATP 250 tournaments. These guys do not need to be at every tournament for ranking points and they often end up playing more matches per season than the guys who go to 30-40 tournies a year, because they actually win their matches.

  6. Patty says:

    I love him. Always have. I am so glad that he is doing well so far. I really hope he wins at least a couple more Grand Slams. I’ve always found him dorky hot but not he is just hot. Maturity does wonders for men. Ha.

  7. Jessica says:

    When Roger finally does retire, I’m going to cry. I’ve been a fan since the very beginning and it’s going to be hard to imagine tennis without him. I’ll still have Andy Murray and some others to root for – although not Nadal or Djokovic, I’m not fans of theirs – but it won’t be the same without Roger.

  8. emilybyrd says:

    Not my cup of tea. Countless years of his trash-talking other players, even when completely unprovoked, have rubbed me the wrong way. He has a reputation for being a classy guy, but among the other players, people know him as a constant trash-talker. Not particularly classy in my book.

    • nishu says:

      get your facts straight he has won Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award 12 times in last 13 years and if you know something about tennis then you must know that’s an award voted by other players .