Roger Federer On Life After Tennis, Performing With Coldplay & More Carpool | 2023 Laver Cup

So Roger you're uh you're really letting yourself go in retirement huh you doing okay you it's just another suit just another suit okay everything's great nice to see you it's great to see you i remember the last time that we spent time on this wonderful court at labor cup was a pretty monumental occasion it was the last competitive match of your career it's been one year what do those memories look like now with a little bit of time to reflect on them it's been uh it's been a great year first and it's nice to see you all thank you for coming to the labor cup and it's uh great to be back at the labor cup uh one year later and if i look back at the at the memories uh i thought the farewell was beautiful it was perfect it was uh emotional there was some proper suffering going on throughout my talk with you and the moment spent with the team and with london the fans the family in the moment i don't think could have been any nicer i was always dreading the moment uh for years because i knew it was going to come and i know that sometimes when we see our tennis heroes we don't remember actually how they went out all we remember is all the great things they did for tennis and i was just worried that my end was somehow going to be not nice and it was the opposite it was great i felt really good about it and very happy and i guess i was very lucky to experience well tennis has been such a big part of your life and you become such a big part of ours as a result of it we miss you do you miss tennis do you miss being out on tour of course i do of course i do guys um i'm yeah in a way i miss everything about uh the game and uh the exciting moments spent on court the break points saved winning match points holding up trophies uh walking past fans taking selfies it's all part of one big happy family on the tour um i still have those moments from time to time you know when i went to wimbledon or i went to halle and i i've made myself a promise that i will be no stranger to the tour i will try to come back from time to time not all the time but from time to time and uh and that's why i'm so happy to be here as well also it's been beautiful to be at home more i mean i've been also been traveling i've been busy but you know it's great to don't have the weight of another match of another practice where maybe the body is not right and uh just spending time with friends and family has been an incredible it's been an incredible year honestly um but sure i do miss a lot of the places that i used to travel to regularly and i have so many friends there and we used to have the best time and um yeah so can't have it all i've had it for 25 years and it was incredible and i would do it all over again but uh it came to an end in a great way you always made it look so easy on the court but we we recognize that you put in a lot of time a lot of effort a lot of work to to reach your greatness what do you do with that extra time in the day now that you're not spending perfecting tennis that there's probably a fair bit of it yeah there's days along um but at the same time i still feel i don't have enough time you know because i packed my schedule up um four kids will do that to you as well so i'm a professional driver nowadays and uh organizer and a logistics man so it's uh yeah it's definitely a test on a completely another level um and then uh i mean there's lots going on i'm still in the gym actually i'm surprised i'm going to the gym i always used to dread the moment of going to the gym so i do that like four or five times a week believe it or not i don't look the part maybe hold on let's stop you for one second now are you still at your playing wake or have you sort of let it go a little no no i'm a little bit heavier unfortunately so i'm working on that right now i'm on a diet no i don't think so no no it's all good but uh no so i'm doing gym and then i got loads of projects and just i don't know there's there's a lot of fun things to be done and to be part of a lot of with my with my partners um yeah i did uh passion projects as well i'm working on stuff i can't reveal quite yet but look good good stuff so it's been great one thing that we got to share uh that's worth applause feel free to any time over the years we've gotten to hear your singing voice a little bit we know you're a little musical maybe not a lot musical but we didn't realize that you actually were part of a of a band at one point in time and and that you got to kind of revisit that moment with with the band i don't know if you guys ever heard of a band they might be playing next door right now coldplay what was this all about where did this happen what were you doing on stage with coldplay look that was yeah i don't know what i was doing i was i was moving my hand and smiling and uh yeah just uh being me but it was uh uh i got the invitation from chris martin from coldplay he said do you want to come up on stage tomorrow i was in zurich at the time i just came back from the elton john concert you know stuff you just do when you don't have much to do anymore and uh and now and i looked at my daughter and she and i told her um do you think i should go on stage and do this and she was half falling asleep after the elton john concert she's like of course papa you only live once of course you got to do it so i'm like okay i'll go on stage i'll do it and of course i enjoyed it after but you know i don't need sometimes those anxiety moments anymore i'm just happy and quite content to be away from it all but uh i finished on top you know this is my music career i ended it right there stadium show i dropped the mic and i'm good fantastic well it's not it's not just me asking the questions up here i'm also a conduit for some of our viewers both on social media and in the audience who want to hear from you so our first one tonight is from nandita who's up in section 118 and the question is professional tennis seems like a lonely journey what do you love the most about the camaraderie in labor cup yeah so it can be very lonely on tour it's true um i've been of course very fortunate to have a wonderful team throughout my career um i feel like at every step of the way the team grew a lot um because that's how the tennis players do it once you make more money you can invite more people around then my parents then would also join me from time to time we had loads of friends like i said before that would always come and visit me on tour and then the kids came so we were a whole traveling circus so it was incredible but um being in a team environment i think for an individual athlete like a tennis player is is a is a great great thing and that's why i've always been a big team player and for me the labor cup i guess um is a is an amazing combination of all that you know being on the team with other heroes and being together having dinner together lunch together talking tennis all day and just feeding off one another and hopefully leaving the labor cup motivated and inspired to go on and you know do great things and and win every tournament you possibly can and i feel like the labor cup did that for me as well it really gave me something to look forward to and then also something to talk about after i had left it so i think for us individual athletes sometimes it's a it's tough you know when you win that's why we just saw the great celebration of francis and tommy you know how they're like jumping at each other i don't know what they were doing but they were doing something and uh you know when you win you're alone on the court right and it's game set a match and you win and you're there all by yourself but you would like to hug the whole crowd but they're tucked away right and that's why i think winning in a team is is a great thing and can release a lot of great emotions like we've seen also again today it's a great question we're gonna keep going with some more audience questions have you screened the questions we screened them they're saved because they could be like tough math questions i don't know no chance answering you think your team's gonna expose you to stuff like that they know you can not the team but maybe jim curry we could like that's possible that's a good point um but this one comes from kelly she's in section 107 so thank you kelly for this one as the father of two teenage girls what is your best advice for staying on their good side i told you there might be some curveballs there you go um they were screamed i'm just happy to being allowed to live in my own house still does that make sense yeah yeah um thinking about this one carefully it's tough times it's tough times they're amazing i love them but my god i can't believe um that they are who they are right now at 14 i i feel like i've taught them everything and more and uh yeah at the moment it's complicated but in a good way you know so i know it's gonna pass but i also like it if it stays because i like that my girls have a have a strong character so it's all good and i think my maybe my two cents of advice is i'm happy that they come and shout and cry at home instead of doing that away like this i know they can still share the all their emotions with me and we talk about everything and i love the honesty so it's all good so uh i'm not sure do we have uh are we able to to get down to uh roger's old team captain okay so we have your old team captain who would like to ask you a question so you have your ears on you can hear this so if you're listening bjorn fire when ready oh there he is the king hello roger roger my good friend uh first of all uh we miss you in tennis the world i have one that's very true i have one question roger in the future would you like to be the team captain for team europe that that position is so locked by you forever and i don't call you a king for any reason because you are the best bjorn i've loved my years with you as a team captain to spend time with you has been incredible just to let you know love you bjorn it's great to see you again and it's great to see you again here this week so thank you again for being here roger we love you yeah thank you and yes i mean why not one day i don't think right away but uh i'm absolutely open to the thoughts and the idea to have great captains good assistant captains or co-captains whatever you wanted to call it but uh just want to uh get back to the game in any shape or form and of course being a captain of the labor cup will be definitely one of those things i think you know the right people to make that happen thanks bjorn thank you thank you all right so we're back to a social media question for you here so we just keep darting all over the place so what is your favorite match ever at labor cup that you watched from the bench that you didn't play but that you were just watching as a spectator on the team oh now i gotta like start saying how much time do i have i mean okay no one's leaving okay so i remember a isner team match that ended really deep in the super in the labor breaker super tie breaker um that one i thought was fun um then i remember did you win is that like the team europe won that one is that why it was so fun no no it was just great tennis and i love big servers i know some people get bored from big service i love it i think it's the best thing ever when just it's just raining aces and stuff like that i don't know i i get a kick out of it so and then dominic was trying to figure it out and it was anyway it's just a great great match for me to watch and then i think francis against titipas last year to clinch it amazing it was a saving four or five match points it was wild we needed it they needed it and they got it done at the end and it was i don't know i thought it was a great match and maybe the last one i remember maybe is the zverev against rayonich match that where i needed to pep talk sasha in the corridor maybe some people have seen it i just wanted more energy out of him and he gave it to us and we ended up winning and that was an epic epic moment for me at labor cup there have been many and there will be many more throughout this weekend we we've got a a viewer question that's been sent in this one by video so let's all watch the video board and see uh see what this is all about who's bsb your i mean i mean i thought it was my wife you know until this guy showed up you know so yeah yeah rafa can have it yeah rafa can have it do you want to wink back at him yeah rafa no problem oh yeah it's been i mean last year was i mean on another level special so yeah we'll share that forever well we have a we have a question coming up now from someone who shared that stage with you one of your opponents in that match has something to say as well so let's welcome in mr tiafoe what's up what's going on what's going on um rog just want to ask you in a hollywood movie about your life who would play you and who might play novak and rafa oh my god you're asking a question here let's just start with you who would play you me i i i'm this is so bad i don't know uh i almost have to give on the question but i don't know leo dicaprio i don't know here's a hint hey wait wait wait here's a hint here's a hint we're in canada let's go with ryan reynolds what about that right yes i'm happy with that too ryan reynolds is good yeah for sure i think that's any ideas from the crowd what are we hearing tom holland tom holland pretty good yeah this is tough i don't know um francis you got any ideas back there we have matthew mcconaughey he was in novak's box yeah francis you have any ideas and maybe one for rafa francis help me out oh for rafa i got nothing for you it's not at all all right it's a bit of a reach that's a tough question that's a tough question like this on the spot he was a tough opponent last year for he's tough again tonight yeah he's annoying for you that's not annoying at all all right this one you're going to like a lot this is from olivia who's over here in section 118 and her question is roger i'm nine years old what advice would you give to a nine-year-old roger federer trying to process yeah um well have fun when you go to practice have a good time listen to your parents listen to your coaches they're right you know and uh maybe you would have had a better career with a double-handed no i'm joking i'm happy with my one-hander but um yeah so that those advices yeah let's dig a little deeper on this backhand crisis we're just now finding out about so your kids i believe they play a little bit of tennis they like it a little bit yeah they have one-handers or two-handers what did you advise them there i mean that's logical right one-hander your one-hander is amazing yeah they but all four of them have a double hand they do of course they do actually i'm going to come home and tell them let's go to the one-hander and i want to see how awful it will be though well actually we should try it out because i don't know if i forever no i played with a double-handed forehand and a double-handed backhand at the beginning because of the heavy rackets yep and then i don't know when i switched to the one-hander completely so and i wonder how many of you know barinka and team and tzitzipas when they switched it's actually interesting uh we should do some research samper's his best shot when he was a junior was his two-handed backhand and he switched because his coach wanted him to be more adept at the net and thought the one-handers had better volleys turned out okay for him turned out okay for you it was okay for us actually right it wasn't that bad yeah not too bad now we're taught we've talked a lot about your amazing past and the mark that you've left on on this sport what about what the future holds for roger fetter you're a guy with lots of goals lots of things in mind what is the next 25 years look like for you oh 25 years well we can start with five and work yeah i know i mean yeah i mean it's a it's a really intense beautiful life that i'm living right now with the with the children and mirka we're having the best time really um a lot of things going on i feel like i'm finally sort of controlling my schedule now because after the labour cup last year there was still so many things organized because i didn't know i was gonna retire in the fall so i feel like midway through this year um i could start to you know dictate my schedule much more and it was uh and it was great so that's something obviously i'm starting to master better now and i think it's going to be important for just the family and my friends and you know where we go how we go about everything because every you know week month changes you know with with the children so it's all good there i mean obviously i've done a lot with the foundation as always i've just been to the un as well you know fighting for early learning again this last monday so that's something i i enjoy a lot in particular i took the kids and mirka we all went finally for the first time as a family to lezouto down in south by just by south africa on a field trip with the foundation that was a dream of mine since 20 years since i started the foundation we're celebrating the 20 years now so i know that that's going to be something that's going to be definitely in my life in 25 years in some shape or form to be able to give back and then um i mean new projects come up you know and you'll see i don't want to be too opportunistic as well i'm saying no to a lot of things at the moment which is not the most fun bit you know because everybody thinks i've got so much time so i get tons of invitations i can't be everywhere but uh i know i know i'll take the right decisions i have a wonderful team around me and a great wife so um yeah i'm looking forward to to what's next and some tennis has to be sprinkled in there somewhere somehow so i'll be around and i'll see you again we're so glad to have you with us ladies and gentlemen a big round of applause he is the one and the only roger very much thank you for coming tonight so appreciate good to see you all been a pleasure to be here again thank you so great to see a roger federer in the house again i'm with jason good old jason we could sit here for another hour or two hours and listen to roger federer