Roger Federer in Stockholm: Getting Back to No. 1 “Not a Walk in the Park” [Video]

great interview from Roger. really enjoyed it.

October 22nd, 2010 at 2:11 am

Geeeze, Swedes can’t get enough of Rog!

October 22nd, 2010 at 10:25 am

Fed, class all the way, thanks Tom!

October 22nd, 2010 at 10:55 am

SSOOO TIRE OF FED, SO ARROGANT….

October 22nd, 2010 at 2:46 pm

Mary, sorry you feel that way but I love it. I love listening to Roger. He seems like he’s having fun and that’s the spirit! Don’t know why people think he’s so arrogant (people who have never met him, by the way)…when all the people who really DO know him say he’s great, nice, and they seem to love him. So…. I guess I’ll stick with those fans, people, players, and journalist who have meet him and know him and say he’s a really good guy. That’s how I’m going to think about him.

Thanks for posting the interview.

October 22nd, 2010 at 4:51 pm

Bonjour,

Jaimerai savoir à quel moment joue Roger Federer.
Je ne lai pas trouvé sur le journal tv ni dans le télétexte.
Je vous remercie de me le faire savoir.
Merci et bonne journée.
Meileures salutations

October 23rd, 2010 at 1:27 am

How can that lady Mary Smith (Comment above) make a comment about Roger Federer who is one of the best tennis player that the world has ever produced not to mention his mannerism, charisma, politeness, charm, elegance, talent and many many more qualities. Would it be that she is simply jealous of this young man or would it be the fact that she does not understand and recognize the Talent that He has. Wake up to reality and do not ever comment if you do not understand the game not to mention that you cannot recognize that the young man is born talented for the Game. So all summed up: GO ROGER, WE LOVE YOU ALWAYS, WE WISH YOU ALL THE SUCCESS IN THE WORLD AND YOU ARE ALWAYS “THE BEST” and GOD BLESS YOU ROGER FEDERER.

October 23rd, 2010 at 1:56 am

I loved the interview. I, too, love listening to Roger when he is interviewed. I do not think of him as arrogant. He, of course, has much to be arrogant about but instead I find him very down to earth and a player who has done much for the game of tennis. I came back to watching tennis after leaving it due to John McEnroe’s obnoxious manner years ago.

October 23rd, 2010 at 2:05 am

CANT GET ENOUGH OF THE SWISS MAESTRO… ILL SURELY MISS HIS CLASSY GAME WHEN HE DECIDES TO RETIRE.. 4 WORDS THAT I CAN DESCRIBE FED: ONE OF A KIND.

PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS CRITICIZE HIM ARE JUST JEALOUS OF WHAT THE GREATEST TENNIS PLAYER HAVE ACHIEVED.

GO RODG!!

October 23rd, 2010 at 2:15 pm

fun interview.
One thing about Roger is that he cannot hide his emotions or feelings. good or bad.
He speaks with lots of joy and I like it even if I don’t agree with some of his points.

October 23rd, 2010 at 6:51 pm

I agree with others, I love listening to Federer. He just seems so relaxed and he likes, I guess, conversing with people. He seems to embrace all the questions he gets. Only thing, how come he says “my wife” all the time now? He never really says “Mirka” anymore.

He mentions the slowing down of the surfaces are getting out of hand. Does that mean that tournaments are still in the process of slowing things down further? I thought that the surfaces have been slowed down and just set already.

October 23rd, 2010 at 7:48 pm

Ben,
To understand “my wife” you have to watch Seinfeld!
http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheWife.html

about slowing down the surfaces, honestly I think it is an excuse. Did it slow down just recently? Or was it slow between 2003-2008 as well?

October 23rd, 2010 at 9:01 pm

Roger Federer is definitely making a fool out of himself.
In the past his fans loved him and the neutrals respected him a lot. Now he has only the FEDTARDS on his side. Offlate people have started realizing what a SORE LOSER he has become.

There has been absolutely no slow down of surfaces recently, atleast not after 2003.

Federer is desperately trying to protect his legacy, I guess someone has to tell him that it will be very difficult (almost impossible) for Rafa to beat his GS record. Federer has done a lot to stay at the top of the list of GOAT canditates. He need not back it up with his SOUR GRAPES comments.

As I said before there is no objective reason to state that the surfaces are slowed down after 2003.

October 24th, 2010 at 3:59 am

The only person making a fool of him/herself is someone so bitter and pathetic that they have to take a negative moniker aimed at a specific player. How unhappy must one’s life be if the only joy they get out of the great sport of tennis is delighting when one player falters?

October 25th, 2010 at 10:03 am

Gordo,

As a person with an interest in probability and statistics:

What do you think the odds are that Federer was lying?
(If the thought has never crossed your mind and you do not wish to consider it I completely respect that)

October 25th, 2010 at 11:01 am

I watched the interview twice and cannot see where Federer appeared even remotely arrogant. Oh, I see it…he says Nadal is deservingly number one, and getting the number one ranking back is no walk in the park. How dare he has that condescending air while talking about Nadal…indeed, how arrogant.

But, on the other hand, people like Mary should grow grow up. What a jerk!

October 25th, 2010 at 7:15 pm

zola Says:

about slowing down the surfaces, honestly I think it is an excuse. Did it slow down just recently? Or was it slow between 2003-2008 as well?

Zola,

This issue was discussed at great length in the other thread where Federer originally made the comments that Fedend’s point is based on.
Here is what Federer originally stated:

Federer: Rafa’s goal next year should be to win the grand slam.

Interviewer: Will it ever be done?

Federer: I think it’s possible, because conditions have slowed down everywhere, to be honest

There are many ambiguities in this series of statements including:

1. What was “everywhere” in reference to? This was a casual interview so was Federer using the word everywhere loosely to refer to just those tournaments where they have slowed down or was he referring to all (if it’s all of them and he was discussing the time period beginning since his period of domination he is wrong because the US Open did not slow down in that period) of the slams.

2. From when is he saying that this slowing began? Is he saying that things have slowed down since his period of domination (false) or since the time of Laver’s era (true)

3. Whose chances of winning the calendar slam was he talking about? It seem’s to be Rafa’s but it’s not clear because he does not say so explicitly.

There is a big difference between someone making an honest mistake and someone making an excuse. It all comes down to intentions and the only way we can gauge Federer’s intentions is if there is a REPEATED PATTERN of him making these kinds of statements in public view. Until he does it over and over it is just an emerging pattern that people are picking up on on this blog.

The only thing that I question about his statements that really makes me wonder if he was DELIBERATELY trying to exaggerate how slow the courts really are is his use of the phrase “to be honest” which seems uncharacteristic of Federer to me…the guy has a sterling reputation for being fair, honest, and sportsmanlike so from what I’ve seen he rarely sees the need to qualify his statement in that way. Let me just add that if it was an exaggeration it wasn’t so much Federer’s going out of his way to do it but rather his tacitly going along with the way certain media sources out there are trying to spin things.

October 26th, 2010 at 1:02 pm

Anon,

I love the sarcasm. Brilliant post!

Fedend Says:
Roger Federer is definitely making a fool out of himself.
In the past his fans loved him and the neutrals respected him a lot. Now he has only the FEDTARDS on his side. Offlate people have started realizing what a SORE LOSER he has become.

Sorry fedend. the only person making a fool of himself is you. I’ll say one thing for you though. All you need do is save one post and then keep on repeating it forever and a day – must save you a lot of time!

Great interview from Roger. Yes, he is totally relaxed and I love how he talks about rafa too – I tried to get tickets for the exhibition in switzerland, but it was sold out within hours – I had no chance.

Vulcan,

if you listen to a lot of Fed’s interviews (and I do!), he says ‘to be honest’ a lot nowadays. It’s not surprising to me. I think just his way of using a cliche that we use in the UK quite regularly, to be honest!

October 26th, 2010 at 5:20 pm

madmax,

Thanks for pointing that out, I’ve been slightly out of the loop on his interviews so what you are saying is an important footnote to the lengthy discussion Grendel and I had on this subject.
Intentions are everything and when it comes to gauging intentions in a statement like “to be honest” inflection is important. More important is how often and in what context the person uses the phrase.

October 27th, 2010 at 1:27 pm