Roger Federer receives honorary Swiss award: ‘Unlike at Wimbledon, at least I was let in here without any problems’
He admits he would have liked to win an award for his achievements on court, but Roger Federer says being celebrated in Switzerland with a lifetime achievement award “fills me with joy”.
Having played very little tennis over the past few years due to his long-standing knee injury, the curtain came down on the 20-time Grand Slam’s career in September with his Laver Cup doubles match alongside Rafael Nadal his last ever as a professional player.
His career spanned 24 years and he set numerous records and collected hundreds of titles and awards during that period.
Federer had won the Swiss Sportsman of the Year seven times, but this year he was recognised for his career achievements as he was given an honorary lifetime achievement award at the Swiss Sports Award.
It is the first time since 2009 that the award has been handed out with politician Adolf Ogi the last man to pick up the accolade in 2007 while the U17 world champion football team were honoured two years later.
“I have always been supported by my country, and that has really counted in my career. I’ve always been thrilled to get those seven Sportsman of the Year titles here. And to be celebrated again today fills me with joy,” Federer said.
The 41-year-old was a surprise guest at the gala event in Zurich and they even had a placeholder keeping his seat warm before he finally made an appearance.
He later joked during an interview with Blick TV: “Unlike at Wimbledon, at least I was let in here without any problems.”
The 41-year-old was referring to his recent misadventure at SW19 when a securing guard refused to let him in despite his incredible Wimbledon record.
The Swiss great has been busy since retirement as he has made trips to the Uniqlo headquarters in Japan, visited the Rolex HQ in Geneva watched an NBA match in Brooklyn and filmed the Daily Show with Trevor Noah in New York.
After picking up the award on Sunday, Federer also talked about retirement and how it has gone “better than expected”.
“I’m happy to have made the transition after my retirement. It was something I was dreading. But it went better than I thought,” the former world No 1 said.
“There’s more going on since I’m not playing tennis any more, and especially I don’t have any excuses to turn down an invitation anymore. I can no longer say that I have a match, a training session, an injury, a rehab to do. As a result, the demands are greater than when I was active.”
