So as you walk through the halls of the museum, how do you reflect on yourself and history?

Um, I mean, I feel a bit, uh, dwarfed by the legends, you know, that have come before me, and the, the game of- Tennis is a, it, it's a beautiful game, you know? And, uh, I'm very privileged, uh, that I have been able to play in it and take part in it, 'cause the game will always be bigger and greater than every, any individual.

Um, but I hope through my personality and my playing style, I, uh, I made some people happy along the way and we've shared some memories, moments, you know, good and bad.

And, uh, and this is what, uh, sports can do to you.

So it's been an absolute, uh, a wonderful journey, and, uh, this weekend, uh, gives me a chance to kinda look back and be grateful to everything that I have, uh, experienced.

It's been, it's been amazing.

I'm curious what greatness means to you.

Um, I mean, of course, it's, uh, defined by some sort of a success, uh, I would imagine, you know, at the highest of levels.

[gentle music] When I'm, we make it onto the tour for the very first time, very quickly media asks you, "So what are you gonna do with all that money?" I was doing a lot of kids clinics instead of doing big, uh, media shoots and media stuff.

It was more like, "Okay, Roger, go play with the kids," and I loved that.

[clapping]

I started my own foundation back after I won Wimbledon, and of course, my mom being from South Africa gave me that feeling that if we do anything, it has to be South Africa.

And then that's how we started the foundation, just helping small projects, early childhood education, and giving kids a chance to have better quality in school.

We have high goals for the Roger Federer Foundation to reach, uh, one million children that can benefit from the foundation, because children are tomorrow's future.

And here we are, you know, many, many years later, and we've been able to support so many children and teachers to have better quality education, send more kids to school, improve the quality of the, the schools, et cetera.

And my absolute favorite thing to do with the foundation is field visits, where I can be there and show them who supports them, and maybe also see for myself how we're doing on the ground.

[gentle music] 2016 was a super tough year.

Had my knee surgery, then went into a just tough year where my knee never really felt good.

I am getting older, and I think my ranking had dropped to 17 because of the injuries, where you have the self-doubt.

You don't know if you're ever gonna win again.

I decided to take a bit of a break and give my body and my knee a proper rest, and I ended up having three incredible months of training with no problems.

My coach Severin told me, "I mean, I think you could win the Australian Open the way you're playing." I'm like, "Okay, let's not get carried away." And I got into this Australian Open feeling great.

There it is

... going into the match, with the rivalry that we had, the history, and then there was this crazy long rally.

[instrumental music] It was in 2009.

I had been world number one for many years, and I did believe I could win the French Open at some point.

The only real problem for me was Rafa.

He was reigning supreme on the surface.

[tennis ball thwacking]

He's making it look awful easy right now.

Tiebreaker second set, which obviously was massive.

[tennis ball thwacking] [crowd groaning] And then going into it with a two sets to love lead into the third set, I mean, come on.

[lively music] I feel like I entered 2003 Wimbledon with quite a bit of uncertainty, to be quite honest, because I had lost first round the year before in Wimbledon, a shock loss, so I had that looming over me.

[lively music] The hype was all around Andy.

Yeah, he was the big favorite.

So I remember it was, you know, Roddick was gonna win the Wimbledon.

Only when we had both made it to the semis, and then I was like, "Okay.

I mean, I feel pretty good myself." [tennis ball hit] [crowd cheering] And I played this most dream of a match for me in the semis.

[crowd cheering]

Regardless almost of what happens after that, I'm Wimbledon champion for life.

[instrumental music] 2001 was a good year for me.

I just reached my first quarters at the French Open, so my ranking was now at top 25 maybe.

So once, uh, sort of Wimbledon came around, I feel like I could maybe have a bit of a run.

[crowd cheering] When I saw the draws, I thought maybe there is a chance to play Sampras in the fourth round.

Sampras, to me, was one of those heroes.

Was actually also compared to quite a lot because of the one-handed backhand, just the way I guess we played and, but he had all the records, I had none.

The champion is out.

[crowd cheering] I ran to the net, didn't know how to shake his hand, and we had this awkward handshake.

Can you tell me about your, uh, local convention?

Uh, yeah, when probably in '91, four addicts were sitting together in the middle of the winter, and if you've been in Missouri in the winter, it can be cold and bland.

And, uh, one of the addicts just happened to pop up that he had cabin fever.

And, uh, it's had ...

Because basically there's nothing going on in NA at that time during the wintertime, so it was a whole blank season.

And, uh, they talked about it a little bit and came up with the idea that maybe we could prevent cabin fever.

So the idea of having Cabin Fever Prevention Convention came up.

Okay.

the game

um i see what you're saying uh i get it um but i do think it's important you know because everybody consumes the the game in a different way and if it's maybe just only about 400 back ends and saving break points and and all that stuff for some people maybe that's not enough so they want to see the people they want to see the do the people watching they want to talk about maybe the fashion element as well i think also You see it with the on-court interviews after.

We used to not have them at all, then we added a little bit of it, and now it's more of a chat with the players, getting to know the characters behind the player, actually.

And I think it's a good thing overall.

I mean, I obviously also tried to push the envelope when it came to on-court style, and I think we'll see more of it, because I think the players are having fun with it, the fans like it as well, and then when people show up to tennis, tennis has a very strong heritage and you know we've always been had good looks you know as a tennis as a tennis as tennis brand so i think we need to celebrate that and that's where often also we we forget sometimes how strong we can be also for the as streetwear you know in shoes and in clothes as well so um I think it's fine, but I see the element of it being too distractive.

But I mean, you go to the big matches, usually it is about the game.

And I love that because I've also been to Super Bowls and look, I love the NFL and all that.

How hard was it to make that leap? Do you remember thinking, I don't know if this is going to work? And did you ever think it was going to work this well?

(laughs)

I just had this conversation this morning, you know, with Reilly Opelka.

I told him it's not okay, and I fault myself because, uh, I part of the decision making of the court surface speed here.

But it can't be that he's kick serving on the ad side, uh, indoors against Casper Ruud.

Casper Ruud actually can go back, even has that- has that option indoors to go return Reilly's serve, which is, you know, probably arguably one of the best serves-

Sure.

... making the- the- the- the surface slower, uh, is for the weaker player.

He has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner.

People like Carlos coming through and, and, and filling that void.

Very much so.

Yeah, um, look, I'm obviously incredibly pumped up that, uh, Carlos is here, uh, right after winning the US Open.

I mean, it's amazing for the people here in San Francisco to get a chance to see him and, and being on the team.

(cheering) It really...

I mean, it means a lot because as we know if you're a tournament organizer, you know, anybody can pull out last minute.

There's no guarantees, you know.

Yeah.