Roger Federer announces his retirement from the ATP Tour and grand slams
The day has finally come and it is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from professional tennis.
As the saying goes, “at some point, the good thing about this game is that it’s a never-ending journey to a better player and playing well is the best way to go through that journey”
After spending nearly 20 years on the hard court, the dream of many of us would have been to return to professional tennis and experience the journey of competing on the tour again. In my case, I am proud of how I have approached this period in my life in some ways. With an ambitious project in the back of my mind, I started a charity project back in August which aimed to build a tennis facility in the local community in my home state of Western Australia to take tennis to a new level. With this I hoped to help many children and families across our country to get involved in the growth of tennis. For over a year, I have worked hard on this project and whilst I don’t have all the answers to what the future of tennis could be, I have learnt some valuable lessons from the past in the past 15 months and I am now ready to take that new journey with my family.
One of my most proud moments was the day I met my wife in 2015 and we have been married since. At the time I was still competing at a high level and was trying to make my way back through the ranks. She was a student at the time and not able to travel to training. I had been playing a lot of tennis myself over the past few years, and had a lot of time on my hands. She had a full-time job, so I set up a time for her to come and train with me, and then we made the move to be together, and the rest is history.
In September 2015, I won the Australian Open title for the first time in 13 years, only to be defeated in the first grand slam final in 11 years. With just 36 matches played, I finished in the top 10 for the third time. At my peak as a player, I was ranked 1st in the world on hard courts and I was one of