NEWPORT, R.I. \u2014 Roger Federer was brought to tears numerous times during his induction speech at the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.<\/p>\n
As sunset crept in at Newport\u2019s grass horseshoe court at the entrance of the Hall, the 45-year-old Federer, dressed in a tan suit, strolled up to the stage for his speech, kissed and hugged his wife, Mirka, who had just introduced him, and realized what a challenge it was going to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh man,\u201d were the first words from\u00a0the first man ever to win 20 Grand Slam singles titles. \u201cThis is very high level and a tough act to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
He joked: \u201cI don\u2019t know if you have been practicing secretly\u201d before praising his wife\u2019s presentation of the 272nd Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n
Federer was inducted along with Mary Carillo, a broadcaster and former player, who was presented by Hall of Famer Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n
Federer, called the \u201cSwiss Maestro\u201d during the Hall\u2019s first red-carpet show, which began on centre court about 90 minutes before the start of the induction ceremony, told the crowd that he \u201cwas a little stressed to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his nearly 30-minute speech, Federer, who showed fluid movement and a quick approach to the net with a solid one-hand backhand that\u00a0earned him a record 237 consecutive weeks as the world\u2019s No. 1 player\u00a0in the ATP rankings, chocked up a handful of times.<\/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 \u201chappy tears.\u201d<\/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
\u201cNow the Mirka part,\u201d he said, pausing before breaking into tears. \u201cOh gosh, this such a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
He tried to joke, but the tears took over like a quick return at the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need tissues and sunglasses, everything to protect me right now,\u201d he told the crowd, fighting back more tears.<\/p>\n
But, like rallying in winning one of his five consecutive U.S. Open titles from 2004-08 or reaching 10 straight Slam finals, which he won eight, Federer closed by thanking the ball boys and encouraged players to keep taking the game new levels.<\/p>\n
Federer, who celebrated his 45th birthday three weeks ago, won eight Wimbledon titles and is only one of eight men with a career Grand Slam. He captured six Australian Opens and one French Open, in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to have made the journey here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see yourself in a place like this. To immerse yourself in the history of the sport means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carillo, inducted as a contributor, is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
King said: \u201cShe has earned her spot in sports journalism and she has earned her spot in Newport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carillo, 69, was touched standing in front of a handful of Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo walk through these gates here in the company of you people, that was beyond my dreams,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWPORT, R.I. \u2014 Roger Federer was brought to tears numerous times during his induction speech at the International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-876775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876775","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=876775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}