Arguably the greatest player to have graced the court, Roger Federer is celebrating his 36th birthday today. The legendary Swiss master will not only go down in history as one of the best tennis players to have played the game, but also as one of the greatest champions that the world of sport has ever seen.
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Federer commands a legion of fans, who support and follow him wherever he goes. An icon for his country, Roger Federer has achieved things that most men can only dream of. On his birthday, we look at some of the most bizarre facts about the great man that we all love and adore.
Here are some of the most bizzare facts about Roger Federer.
In 2007, Roger Federer became the first Swiss person to be featured on a Swiss stamp
At the very peak of his powers, Roger Federer was deemed worthy enough to be the first Swiss man to feature on a Swiss stamp.
His profound impact on the nation and the adulation and respect that he receive from the world were seen as the reasons why Roger was given this honour.
Listens to ACDC as his pre-match ritual
All players have their own unique pre-match rituals with Federer being no different. The Swiss master had once revealed that he listens to the rock band, ACDC before stepping out on court.
It does seem funny that the man listens to metal rock before he goes out and carves out opponents on the tennis court.
His pet cow Juliette
After winning his first Wimbledon title in 2003, Federer was gifted a pet cow back in Switzerland. The cow was named Juliette, and was a huge surprise to Federer.
This is what he said upon receiving the gift,
“Now I need to find a garage for a cow, although I have no idea what a cow garage looks like”.
His sister also had twins
Maybe twins run in the Federer family.
Roger Federer famously has two sets of twin kids, two girls and two boys. But they are not the only twins in the family, as Roger’s sister Diana is also a mother of twins.
Which is why Roger became a double uncle in 2011!
The 47 second game against Djokovic
In the 2014 Shanghai Open, Roger Federer served an incredible 47 second game to the then reigning world number one, Novak Djokovic. Federer served four back to back aces and took the game in under 50 seconds.
Relatively, Rafael Nadal takes about 20 seconds between each serve!
Never retired midway through a tennis match
In spite of playing over 1000 matches, Roger Federer has never retired hurt from a match.
When you compare this with the other greats of the game, Nadal has retired 7 times, Djokovic has retired 11 times, Sampras has retired 7 times and Agassi has retired 11 times after playing the same number of matches as Roger.
