Roger Federer has recounted the challenges of sharing the dressing room with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi as he termed it the \u201cmost difficult thing\u201d for him in his career.<\/p>\n
Tennis legend Roger Federer has given a rare sneak peek into the \u201cmost difficult\u201d phase of his career, which came early on while sharing the locker room with legends like Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Tages-Anzeiger after his STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADFedereer: \u2018It\u2019s not all fun and games\u2019<\/p>\n Federer said that while he was excited to share the locker rooms with the best players of that era, their ruthlessness and competitiveness soon became too much to handle for him at times.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most difficult thing for me was the transition from juniors to the pros. At first it was super cool. Suddenly I was in the locker room with Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Tim Henman, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Carlos Moya and others. And I thought: This is the best! But then everything got so serious. One guy wraps the grip tape around his racket with a grim expression, and you think: Oh God, he\u2019s intense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother walks past you without giving you a glance. And you think: He wants to win at all costs! And yet: Is it really that important? That phase was tough for me. When you travel a lot, lose often, and are as emotionally charged as I was, you think: I didn\u2019t read the fine print in the tennis contract. It\u2019s not all fun and games. This seriousness got to me. The years from 18 to 20 or 21 were hard for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Also Read | Federer, however, added that a strong support system around him, including Mirka, his wife and then girlfriend, allowed him to stay mentally resolute.<\/p>\n \u201cNot anymore. I had good perspective then, and I had Mirka and my team around me. We always had fun. When things got a bit too serious, we fooled around even more than usual. And then it was okay again,\u201d Federer added.<\/p>\n In sports, they often say adversity shapes champions, and it seems the same happened with Federer, who went on to win multiple major titles, besides being the world No 1 for 310 weeks in his career. He retired from the sport in 2022.<\/p>\n STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADHome<\/a>Sports<\/a>Tennis<\/a>Federer admits sharing locker room with Sampras and Agassi pushed him to breaking point: \u2018This seriousness got to me\u2019End of Article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Federer has recounted the challenges of sharing the dressing room with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,133603,133606,133608,133607,133602,133605,133604,133600,133601,82,593,621],"class_list":["post-296889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-federer-early-career-struggle","tag-federer-international-tennis-hall-of-fame","tag-federer-mirka-support","tag-federer-news","tag-federer-sampras-agassi","tag-federer-toughest-years","tag-pete-sampras-andre-agassi-locker-room","tag-roger-federer-interview","tag-roger-federer-news","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ninduction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame<\/a> was announced, the 20-time Grand Slam winner Federer opened up on a tough period in his career that he had to endure at the start before ascending to the top of tennis.<\/p>\n
\nRoger Federer hailed as ‘most important sportsman of all time’ after Hall of Fame induction<\/a><\/p>\n