Roger Federer makes admission about Novak Djokovic ‘smashing all the records’
Roger Federer has expressed his hope that his former rival and fellow tennis great Novak Djokovic can continue to break “all the records” in the sport.
The Swiss legend also revealed his recently released Twelve Final Days documentary “wasn’t supposed to be a movie” as he had originally planned for it to be kept for private viewing.
Federer set numerous tennis records during his remarkable career, although many have since been matched or surpassed by Djokovic, who is still going strong at the age of 37.
Djokovic has won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, while Rafael Nadal and Federer sit second and third on the all-time men’s list with 22 and 20 respectively.
Federer shared an enthralling and intense rivalry with Djokovic, who defeated him more times than any other player. The Serbian compiled a 27-23 record against the Swiss from the pair’s 50 matches between 2006 and 2020.
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Speaking on the What Now? with Trevor Noah podcast, Federer backed Djokovic to continue breaking records, and he also commented on Nadal and Andy Murray.
“Hopefully Novak can continue to smash all the records,” said the former world No 1.
“I hope Murray can play as much as his hip allows him and he still has that hunger. Rafa knew he was in a tough situation as well and he hopes he can still win as much as possible.”
The 42-year-old also shed light on his decision to record the last days of his tennis career in 2022 for the Twelve Final Days film, which was released on Amazon Prime Video last month.
“I think the best part of it all was that it wasn’t supposed to be a movie,” Federer explained. “It was just supposed to be for us, to leave for my kids, for my team, for my friends, to be able to watch it again one day.
“The thing is, I’ve been very happy, open with the media, always happy to take pictures and talk to everyone, but private is private. Nobody comes to my house and it’s kind of off limits because I tried to keep my kids out of it as much as I could.
“Of course, they’ve come to watch some matches, people watch them sometimes, but I’ve tried to keep it more of a private thing. When my career was over, the question was, ‘where am I going to retire? ’
“I knew at some point in the summer that my foot wasn’t getting any better. And then some people around thought maybe I should at least have some footage of the end.
“I’ve never wanted a camera crew in my life because I said I couldn’t think of anything worse. I always felt like that wasn’t what I needed in my life and I didn’t want it.
“So, we decided it was going to be in London, playing doubles with Rafa. At that point Rafa called me and I thought about having a camera crew around and, knowing that it was going to stay private, I was going to be relaxed.”
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