Roger Federer has not always had it easy, as he struggled to persuade his parents to let him focus solely on tennis during his childhood. It frequently required him to juggle between academics and sports, which proved too much for him at times.
In the recent podcast episode of What Now? with Trevor Noah, Federer claimed that in Switzerland, academics are valued more than sports. Hence, it became increasingly necessary to be academically qualified in his country, which proved to be a significant obstacle to his ambition of becoming a professional tennis player.
At the age of 16, he decided to drop out of school to ‘chase his tennis dream’ but his parents made him have language lessons in English, French and German. As it became difficult to manage, Federer’s parents allowed him to drop French lessons but insisted on him learning the other two languages.
Even this did not last long. When he struggled to cope with this routine, he had to convince his parents to let him simply play tennis and not study any languages. They decided to support him but on one condition if he did not perform well in the sport, he would have to return to school and pursue another career path.
“Just give me a chance just to do only tennis. And if tennis really doesn’t work out, I’ll go straight back to school. But please let me go,” Federer had told his parents.
Through this conversation, it became clear that the ‘effortlessly classy player’ had to put in significant effort in his childhood to fulfill his dream. With his success, Federer has been able to gain the love of his country, making him a hero to them.
“Maybe now more since I made it and we have more athletes making it, and it’s a thing and you can see how much emotions actually an athlete can bring, it can be more seen as a career,” said Federer while talking about how things can change for good in the future.
Federer is undoubtedly an inspiration to many in his own country and his success story may influence Swiss parents’ decision to increase their children’s involvement in sports in coming years.
