Moet's Roger Federer is the king of courtly style

AS the new ambassador for Moet & Chandon, Roger Federer is enjoying the fruits of his tennis prowess and his hard-won poise on the red carpet.

Roger Federer says he has always enjoyed drinking a glass of champagne with his team of supporters. Picture: Patrick Demarchelier

THERE is no shortage of people prepared to say that Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time: Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Rod Laver have all declared him the king at various points. He holds the record for the most singles Grand Slam wins (17), has spent more weeks at No 1 than any other player (302) and has reached the finals of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times, including reaching the Wimbledon finals eight times. He's also won the most matches (260) in men's Grand Slam tournaments.

In the process he's been well rewarded. He's the first tennis player to earn more than $US50 million in prize money (to date his career earnings are $US78.3m). He is the highest-paid tennis player in the world and the second-highest-paid athlete after Tiger Woods. Forbes, which has been tracking the earnings of athletes since 1990, estimates that he earned $71m in the 12 months to June 30. Only $7m of that came from prize winnings, the rest coming from endorsements and sponsorships. Federer has one of the most impressive roll calls of sponsors in sport, including long-term deals with Nike, Rolex, Credit Suisse and Gillette. Earlier this year he inked a deal with Champagne house Moet & Chandon that has been reported to be worth more than $30m over five years.

On top of all of that he's just a really nice guy as WISH found out when we sat down with him in New York earlier this year, just before an event to mark the 270th anniversary of Moet & Chandon and to celebrate his arrival at the brand. WISH was one of the last to meet Federer that day and he seemed genuinely pleased that he was to end back-to-back interviews with a journalist from Australia.

RF: This should be fun. I know you guys like to joke a lot in Australia, right?

WISH: You're practically Australian, aren't you?

A little bit; I'm adopted almost to a degree. They are good people and I love going back there. I know more about Melbourne but I met my wife [former tennis player Mirka Vavrinec] in Sydney at the Olympics. That's when we kissed for the first time. That was an amazing Olympics - it's still my favourite one to date.

So what do you want to talk about?

You have a lot of endorsement deals and I see a really nice watch there on your wrist - I'm hiding it, but thank you.

What made you say yes to Moet & Chandon?

They have been involved in tennis for some time and celebrating special moments like that moment after a victory. It's in those moments that you would drink a glass of Moet & Chandon and I felt very comfortable because I don't just do it after I win a match or a tournament.

I do it naturally to thank all my team for showing up, for supporting me and I've gotten into fashion more and more because I have to do all these red carpets and awards shows and it dragged me over there as well. So I've always been somebody who enjoyed drinking a glass of champagne, so when they approached me I felt very honoured to be part of the house of Moet. I had to think about it a little bit because of the alcohol issue, but to be honest I didn't see it that way because when I do something I do it in moderation anyway and I know when to do it. I'm a professional athlete and I can control myself and I would not have been able to do this when I was 22 years old - and I was not approached anyway - but today I'm 32 years old and I feel like I am my own man and after a little bit of thinking I was like, you know, I think this could match up quite nicely with tennis because it's a glamorous sport.

You're considered the greatest tennis player of all time. In years to come what do you think will be the elements of your game that will stand the test of time and that people will talk about?

I don't know. It's always a bit challenging to talk about yourself and not be too cocky or too understated about it, but I guess I am maybe a sort of bridge between the classic players and the modern players. I think I play the modern version of tennis today but with a classic style, you know; and I think that's what I will be remembered for mostly because I am one of the only guys left with the one-handed backhand. And I always try to play the game very fair and also never forget to also be tough enough because just being a nice guy and saying sorry all the time ... I mean, come on, you have to be a little tough - you Australians know that.

How do you have friendships with other players and at the same time have rivalry with them?

I love Lleyton's [Hewitt] fighting spirit and I was just talking to him about it the other day. We were practising yesterday for four hours together and I said I feel like the players today, I don't want to say they are too soft, but we are almost too nice to each other sometimes. I think it's nice when players go after each other a little bit but as long as it stays within the rules and it's fair. I'm not sure how close as friends we are because everybody today has quite big teams around them, including myself, so what happens is you hang out with your own team. I do a lot of promotional work with Rafa and Novak and Andy, or whoever it might be, and we are very friendly with one another but we're actually not really going to dinner together because we know we're going to see each other every week.

But the day will come where one of us will not be around any more and that's where I'm interested to see how much we stay in touch once everything is said and done and that's where you see how close you actually were.

If you picked someone out of those three guys, who would you be closest to?

Well, I've done the most with Rafa and lived the most with him and I've done the most with him. I've gone to dinner with him and I know his mum and dad and his sister - I kind of know his family the best as well so, yeah, our rivalry goes further back than the one I have with Novak or Andy and for that reason I probably feel closest and more connected to Rafa, for sure.

You're very calm and composed on the court, but it wasn't always that way. How do you stay cool under pressure?

Well, it came from one day to the next. I smashed a racquet in Hamburg [in 2001] and I remember [when] I was just there in Hamburg, I looked at the place where I smashed my racquet and decided to be quiet and shut up on the court. I said 'This is it; I cannot take my attitude any more - it's too explosive'. And from that moment on I went into a process for two years until I felt comfortable on the court and off the court, and I said, 'OK, that's who I want to be'. I knew I had to change and I had to change quickly.

A lot of people refer to men's tennis now as a golden era -

Yeah, I've heard that too.

Do you think it's a case where people always think the current era is a golden one?

Absolutely. I think tennis is made for good stories. I think, whether you like it or not, there is always going to be a good story but then I don't like to say that our generation is weaker or stronger than another generation. You can only beat whoever is around, really, so for me it's misleading if people say this is the best ever because the generation before were unbelievably good as well and it's thanks to them that we have this incredible platform today.

Has it been tougher this year to find pleasure on the court while there's been less success?

For me pleasure was going away when I was playing hurt. The problem is, when I go out on court and I'm not feeling great, I'm not going to give up, ever - I just won't. I've never given up. I've only ever retired twice once a tournament started and that's when the match didn't start and I've never retired once a match starts. Many times this year I probably shouldn't have played at the tournament because I didn't feel well. So for me that bit of not feeling great physically and still playing is a terrible feeling and that's why the ranking is not something that needs to be at the forefront the whole time. For me the rankings are secondary, really, and then you just go week by week and you have that as a goal or you say 'OK, next year I want to be world No 1 again', or something like that as a long-term goal.

You mentioned that you've had to get more into fashion. Have you enjoyed that?

In the beginning it was kind of hard, the whole red carpet chitchat stuff. It was really awkward for me and really strange to me and I felt under pressure because I was wearing a suit and a tie and I thought 'I can't breathe and I am sweating' and I thought 'Am I looking good?' I mean, don't feel bad for me but it was a lot when you're young. Now all of a sudden I'm wearing the suit and the suit is not wearing me any more. But it's fun to do different things and get out of sweatpants and a tennis shirt and get dressed up a bit, go to nice places and dress for the occasion. I like that part of life today and that's where I find a mental relax. It's fun to get away from the tennis court and thinking about tennis all the time. It's been a good life getting to know myself a bit better through many different languages but also dressing myself. It's been quite a trip.

I guess it helps having Anna Wintour as your No 1 fan then?

Yeah, she's been good. She's coming tonight and I'm very excited to see her again. It's been a while and she's been a great friend.