Federer remains the consummate professional. He took two years to fully adjust to life off the court, following a farewell at Laver Cup alongside Nadal, and has no regrets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way my end unfolded with injuries and playing less, I got a sense of how it\u2019s going to be without any matches and practice sessions. I was really super ready for retirement, so when it happened it was a relief,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just like I don\u2019t have to play along with the media. Not tell lies but like, \u2018How are you feeling? I feel great,\u2019 and oh my God I feel terrible. My parents calling me and saying, \u2018When are you going to announce it? Your Godfather is asking me how are you feeling, and I know how you\u2019re feeling, but can I tell him, because it might leak.\u2019 These things, you\u2019re just happy when it\u2019s all sorted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI achieved way more than I ever thought I would. It\u2019s been so much fun. It\u2019s been a dream, truly. If I would have won half of what I\u2019d done, I\u2019d be equally proud sitting here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer still clearly keeps tabs on the game, however, recalling the Paris Olympics and last year\u2019s French Open vividly.<\/p>\n
When asked for tips on AO 2026, he did not offer names but did provide a glimpse into the mindset that no doubt made him an international sporting champion. Asked if Brazilian Jo\u00e3o Fonseca could become the third man in the men\u2019s singles hierarchy, joining Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Federer was quick to counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be third guy, you want to be the guy,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s hopefully what he\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike in our time when people said, \u2018I\u2019m going to try win the Australian Open\u2019 but, you know, there\u2019s all the other legends in the room, sometimes I felt the media didn\u2019t allow them to speak up,\u201d Federer continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like anybody in the draw should come here and say, \u2018I want to win the Australian Open.\u2019 It should be totally allowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s favourites, obviously, but once the draw is out every player shifts their view to that one player and nothing else. \u00a0You enter the zone, okay, the next three, four days, however long you have before, that first round starts mattering clearly. Momentum shifts towards the first round, and then it\u2019s point for point mentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federer remains the consummate professional. He took two years to fully adjust to life off the court, following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-414884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}