Roger Federer Doesn＇t Get Mad When He＇s Playing Golf, Either－By Jason Gay,WSJ

He still hasn’t played pickleball.

“Haven’t played pickleball, padel, at all,” Roger Federer says.

What kind of retirement is this?

At least there’s golf. The tennis legend reports he’s “actually good off the tee.” The short game…needs work.

“My putting lets me down the most at the minute,” he says.

Does golf make him lose his cool? That was part of Federer’s tennis mystique: the elegant, imperturbable calm, the way he almost never let the pressure boil and send him over the edge.

Has Federer ever chucked an unreliable 7-iron into a shimmering Swiss lake? Does golf drive him batty, like it does to everyone?

“No, it doesn’t,” he says. “I’m able to absorb bad shots with ease.”

Sigh. Oh well.

He looks exactly as we remember him. Like he could dust off one of the old bandannas and knock out a best-of-five.

OK, maybe best-of-three. He is 45, after all.

Federer is 45? Where did the time go?

This Monday morning, he’s in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, at the flagship store for On, the sleek Swiss apparel brand for whom he’s both an investor and spiritual embodiment. Tuesday, he’ll be across the East River at Arthur Ashe, on the court, mixing it up at a U.S. Open tribute and exhibition with old pals Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and Andy Roddick.

Then over the weekend, the big one: up to seaside Newport, R.I., where he’ll be formally inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Yes, Roger Federer made the Tennis Hall of Fame. Shocker.

The speech is near-ready. “Worked on it yesterday, for two and a half hours,” he says, proudly. We’re sitting in the back of the store, and he’s dressed head to toe in comfy blue On gear that makes him look like a yoga mogul.

It’s been a good retirement, since Fed formally hung it up in September 2022, at that Laver Cup finale where he and Rafa Nadal cried and pretty much everybody else did, too.

There’s been no sign of a middle life panic, no whispers of a comeback, no social media meltdowns or slap fights with Jake Paul. His exit has been as graceful as his one-handed backhand. He became a Forbes billionaire. He did a Super Bowl commercial . He’s resisted the ritual of an unkempt retirement beard. (“My wife [Mirka], doesn’t love it,” he says of his forays into facial hair.)

He remains close to the game, hovering like Zeus. He turned up for Rafa’s farewell lap and you can still see him at courtside at major tournaments. Perhaps his most viral moment came this summer, when he found himself the only member of the Royal to stick around for the start of a late match. He remembered what it was like to see rows of empty seats, and he didn’t want to do that to his brethren.

He honors the game, still.

It’s one of a zillion reasons he’s sailing into Newport, alongside fellow inductee Mary Carillo. Fed wants to resist making his speech “one big thank you note,” but sees it as a chance to be “grateful to the people who brought me here.”

It’s hard to remember, but early on, Federer’s tennis career wasn’t about records or impeccable style and certainly not the Hall of Fame. Teen Fed was a Swiss talent with frosted tips and an attitude. “My international junior career was not extraordinary,” he said. “I mean, I was OK.”

“My goal was like, Top 100 would be great,” he says. “Top 50 would be fantastic.”

He got there and far more. Federer may no longer have the most major tournament victories—both Novak Djokovic and Nadal put his 20 in the rear view for men’s singles—but his leaping, balletic style remains the sport’s aesthetic ideal.

Let’s put it this way: If you had to win one match, you could pick Fed, Djokovic, Rafa, Borg, Laver, or hey, why not Pancho Gonzalez. Pick anyone! If you wanted to play tennis for the rest of your life that looked like one person’s, there’s no debate.

Federer’s.

He still plays, he says, around twice a week, a little more if an exhibition’s coming up. He hits with his kids, twins Charlene Riva and Myla Rose, and Leo and Lenny, who are getting “older and better.”

Later in the day, he’ll go for a practice hit at Ashe. Another U.S. Open awaits. Like many, Federer was disappointed that his about-to-retire countryman, Stan Wawrinka, didn’t receive a wild card to play the tournament.

“It’s a shame, obviously, because he’s one of the guys that deserves it,” he says. At the same time, he’s exasperated by the endless debates on how to award them. “Wild cards in general are, what do you call it, a can of worms…every week we have these problems.”

When Federer left the sport, he knew he didn’t want to “disappear,” but there’s no chance of that. He is busy. Four kids would keep anyone busy. There is his business life, his philanthropic work, plus the Laver Cup, the tournament Federer and agent Tony Godsick launched in honor of the great Aussie Rocket. He hasn’t slammed the door on coaching or commentary, though neither seems imminent (he was once stopped in his tracks by a reporter who asked if he could be critical on TV—“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I haven’t thought of that.’”).

Outside the store, a crowd snakes up the block, and it’s barely 9 a.m. The Fedheads are as devoted as ever. Roger Federer may be retired from playing, but he still means everything to tennis. Pickleball can wait.