![\"Tennis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5487b9e01333752dffda6c0529de8401.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAn emotional Roger Federer said he was still writing his love letter to the sport that “meant the world” to him as the 20-time Grand Slam champion was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
Federer, \u200bwho was inducted alongside broadcaster and journalist Mary Carillo, reflected on his storied career in a speech that brought him to tears a few times.<\/p>\n
“This is one of the greatest honours of my life,” Federer said. “They call this the Hall of Fame, but fame was never the goal.<\/p>\n
“My goal was to spend my life doing something \u200bI love \u2026 with people who love \u200cit as much as I do.”<\/p>\n
His opening words, after his introduction speech from his wife Mirka, were: “Oh man. This is very high level and a tough act to follow.”<\/p>\n
He joked: “I don’t know if you have been practising secretly” before praising his wife’s presentation of the 274th Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n
It began to get tough for him about halfway through, when he talked about his childhood hero, Stefan Edberg, when he said these are “happy tears.”<\/p>\n
Then he was brought to tears again when he spoke about his longtime coach Severin Luthi, before he wanted to thank Mirka for helping him on his journey.<\/p>\n
“Now the Mirka part,” he said, pausing before breaking into tears. “Oh gosh, this such a mess.”<\/p>\n
He tried to joke, but the tears took over like a quick return at the net.<\/p>\n
“I need tissues and sunglasses, everything to protect me right now,” he told the crowd, fighting back more tears.<\/p>\n
The Swiss captured a men’s-record eight Wimbledon titles and spent 310 weeks as the world number one. He also won six Australian Open crowns, five US Open titles and one French Open title.<\/p>\n
And he did it all while playing with elegance, a signature \u200cheadband \u2013 apparently wearing more than 5,000 of them during his career, he quipped in his address \u2013 and almost always two pairs of \u2060socks.<\/p>\n
“Tennis meant the world to me. Not just playing, not just winning, but creating something \u200cnew,” said Federer, who retired in 2022 with 103 \u200bATP Tour titles.<\/p>\n
“It’s a mentality I have. \u200cI used to play serve and volley, I had a transition game, I played way beyond the baseline sometimes, or on top of the baseline.<\/p>\n
“And I would even try to sneak up on my opponents on my return, and some call it the SABR [Sneak Attack by Roger] today.<\/p>\n
“This is what was important to me on the court, but so much of what \u200bwas \u200creally important happened off the court.”<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old got emotional while thanking his coaches, doctors and family, including wife Mirka, who praised Federer for his character off the court as husband, father and friend.<\/p>\n
As his name entered the Hall of Fame, Federer \u2060said he was proud that Switzerland was coming with him, recalling how \u200che loved watching tennis as a 13-year-old \u200cball boy in Basel.<\/p>\n
“I’m still writing my love letter to tennis, and my time as a player is done, but tennis will always stand \u200cat the intersection of everything I care most about,” he said.<\/p>\n
“My family, our friendships, the past 40 years, the future we’re building \u2013 tennis, for me, is responsible for it all. So this is not a goodbye.”<\/p>\n
The \u200cSwiss said he \u200bwas “incredibly lucky” to have played \u2060with different generations of tennis players, from Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt to Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
But he added that his induction was not only an opportunity to look back on his career, but also ahead to the future of the game.<\/p>\n
“We all leave the court eventually, but the sport keeps evolving,” Federer said.<\/p>\n
“And as the \u2060pace of professional tennis speeds up, as the sport becomes even more global, I so hope it will keep some of that amateur spirit. Keep the camaraderie among the \u200cplayers.<\/p>\n
“I hope the players \u200cwill stay young at heart and stay true to their authentic selves, and always remember, never stop \u200basking questions or taking risks.<\/p>\n
“Do things with the game we’ve never seen before. Keep pushing this sport we love to the next level and keep getting better, better, and better.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Billie Jean King (left) introduced Mary Carillo for her induction to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. (Getty Images: ITHF\/Clive Brunskill)<\/p>\n
Carillo, inducted as a contributor, is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
King said: “She has earned her spot in sports journalism and she has earned her spot in Newport.”<\/p>\n
Reuters\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emotional Roger Federer said he was still writing his love letter to the sport that “meant the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,1804,442692,67786,415743,173308,965,588,85,747],"class_list":["post-873827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-billie-jean-king","tag-induction","tag-international-tennis-hall-of-fame","tag-mary-carillo","tag-mirka-federer","tag-roger-federer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873827","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=873827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}