Reflection and helping others were the two dominant subjects for Roger Federer during his latest Match For Africa exhibition.
On Monday night the world No.1 graced his presence at the SAP Centre in San Jose, California. An indoor arena that is the home to NHL team San Jose Sharks. He was joined by Microsoft founder Bill Gates as well as Jack Sock and American news anchor Savannah Guthrie.
“I don’t use this as a preparation for the tournament,” Federer said. “I see it very isolated as just doing good. We just raised over $10 million, all the Matches for Africa that we did. That’s more than $2 million on average that we’ve done, which is phenomenal. That’s what I see. This is about lighting it up for the crowd and making them leave the arena really happy.”
The charity extravaganza proved to be a hit with locals with 15,000 tickets for the event selling out. It featured Federer going head-to-head with Sock as well as a doubles clash. At the end of the night $2.5 million was raised with all of the proceeds going to the Roger Federer Foundation, which supports children across Africa.
“It was a good one,” Federer concluded. “I really enjoyed myself. The crowd’s great because you’re always a bit anxious to find out if they’re happy to see you. Are they excited about tennis? What is it going to be like? It’s not like Wimbledon where you know how the crowd is going to be. I felt they were wonderful. I had a great time.”
#Federer playing on his knees 👌#MatchforAfrica
He is definitively the most relaxing player on the tour 😌 pic.twitter.com/wRxJjY5pCL— We Are Tennis (@WeAreTennis) 6 March 2018
At the age of 36, life as the oldest-ever No.1 seems a bit surreal for the 20-time grand slam champion. He return to the top spot with the help of winning three out of the past five grand slam tournaments. As some his rivals struggle with injury problems, he continues to defy the odds. Bouncing back from a six-month injury spell during 2016.
“Those are definitely special times in my life and my career,” he states. “The dream as a little boy was to make it one day to world No. 1, but not at 36 years old I can tell you that. It was probably at some point at 25 maybe if things went really well.”
“I had a tough year in 2016 with my knee and stayed positive, was resilient and fought to come back and really believed I could actually win again. I didn’t think it was going to be at this level. It’s been an unbelievable journey the last 14 months and my team has been incredible. I’m loving every moment that I can still stay on tour because you never know when it’s going to end.”
Praise for Sock
During the event, 25-year-old Sock was hailed as an ‘explosive player’ by his Swiss rival. The American claimed his first Masters 1000 title last year in Paris before making his debut at the ATP World Tour Finals. However, he has endured a sluggish start to this season by winning one match on the tour so far.
“Jack always plays his best tennis in the US. He’s one of the most explosive players out there.” The Express quoted Federer as saying. “I always enjoy watching him play and playing against him.
There may be another reason as to why Federer likes playing against the American. He currently leads their head-to-head 5-0 and is yet to drop a set against him. Although their three most recent meetings has featured at least one tiebreak.
“This match for Africa is something extraordinary,” Sock said.
The focus of Federer and Sock now switches to California as they prepare for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
