Roger Federer might be retired from professional tennis, but his legacy lives on in myriad ways. One new way in which he found relevance, is that Roger Federer has been selected as the lead player alongside Serena Williams to feature in the Grand Slam edition of the latest version of the video game, TopSpin 2K25.
The tennis video game, developed by Hangar 13, will return with exciting new features this time. It also has a feature to get direction from tennis legend and rockstar John McEnroe of the TopSpin Academy.
The cover art for the video game was out on 12th March 2024, and it featured Federer and Williams on it. The trailer too had both of them in it. With that in mind, it is tempting to go back to a clip on YouTube, where Federer is talking about his love of video games. The clip is from a post-match presentation of an Australian Open years back. Jim Courier, the famous player-turned-broadcaster, asked Federer the question. This is how the conversation went down:
Jim Courier: “I understand that you like to play video games. Is that true?”
Federer: “Well once in a while.”
Courier: “Did you play any tennis video games?”
Federer: “Sure! Sure!”
Courier: “Do these tennis video games have Rafael Nadal in them or Andy Roddick, or players like that.”
Federer: “Some games do have them as well. Yeah!”
Courier: “Do they have Roger Federer also?”
Federer: “Absolutely”
Courier: “So when you are playing these video games, do you play as you, or do you play as Rafa or someone else?”
Federer: “What do you think? (laughs)”
After this back-and-forth conversation, Federer gave a reply about playing as Rafael Nadal, and why he does that.
Federer said, “Honestly, I do, I do change, you know. I like to play with Rafa just to see what muscle game feels like (crowd laughs).” He continued about Andy Roddick, “For instance, or you know have the big bomb like Andy. I don’t have those things you know. So, its little way of feel like them sometimes.”
While Federer spoke about his love of tennis video games, he also subtly revealed what he admired about his Big Three counterpart Rafael Nadal; and about one of his all-time great opponents, Andy Roddick. Federer opened up about what those players have that he lacks. It was also clear that when he played as Nadal, he must’ve played against himself to try and test out his strength.
How Rafael Nadal was on Roger Federer’s mind for always putting up a challenge
The Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal rivalry is possibly the most iconic and revered in the history of tennis. And this rivalry, which started in 2004, developed fully somewhere around 2009-2011. Nadal is one of the few players who has been dominant against the Swiss GOAT.
In their 40 head-to-head encounters, Nadal won 24 of them and Federer won 16. Nadal started consistently beating Federer in the 2010 Madrid Open, 2011 Madrid Open, 2011 Miami Open, 2011 French Open, etc, among many other times. This got the attention of the tennis world and left an indelible mark on Federer’s mind.
At the time, Nadal was dominating against anyone, including Federer. Therefore, the Spaniard was the first player he became obsessed with. Such was the strength and speed of Nadal, that it was only natural for Federer to feel what it’s like to play as Nadal. Even if that’s inside a video game.
