Roger Federer Lets Reddit Users Ask Him Anything
World number three-ranked Roger Federer hopped on the Web site Reddit at 1:30 p.m. EST on Friday, May 24 to answer questions posed by fans of Reddit’s tennis community. With questions ranging from the basic, “What Grand Slam was the most important or memorable?” to the absurd “How do you style your hair?," Federer answered as many questions as he could in 45 minutes.
Which Grand Slam meant the most you?-xBardown
“My first one. It was a dream come true.”
How do you keep your hair so perfect?–Federer45
“I really don’t. I fight it every day like everybody else. But thanks.”
(Asked in Swiss) Do you think precision flows through our Swiss veins?–hueypriest
(Translated to English) “I believe so, we are generally raised to be exact and precise. I think, it is a quality of us.”
If you could play doubles against player, living or dead, who would it be?–EvilNeville
“My three choices would be John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, and Rod Laver. From a historical perspective it would be really fun to play doubles with them as they are all legends."
What are your thoughts on restructuring the tennis season to allow for a slightly longer grass court season and possibly having a Masters 1000 event before Wimbledon? – LogelFedelel
“The Tour is adding a week of grass before Wimbledon starting in 2015. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll have a Masters 1000. I clearly would love more tournaments on grass 🙂 Let’s not forget 3 of the 4 grand slams used to be on grass.”
Dear Roger, if there was one rule of tennis you could alter, what would it be?? – Brendinio
“A rule that would only let ME serve from the service line. Whenever I want. Seems fair to me 🙂 On a serious note: we should get some more Best of 5 set finals back (like at the ATP World Tour finals).”
Federer didn’t answer every question posed to him. In a surprising turn of events, Federer kicked off the AMA (Ask Me Anything) by answering only a few of the questions posed by Reddit user Disastrously_Dazed. Federer dodged questions regarding doping and drug testing, while focusing on a racket question, followed by a nutrition question. Federer also ducked the question of why he backed out of the Sony Ericsson event in Miami.
Federer highlighted his pre-match rituals to Reddit user Pantoner: “Arrive on time at the courts. Pretty crucial so I don’t miss my match. Warmup and hit for 30 min. Go for lunch or dinner. A light meal (pasta, for instance). Get my ankles taped. Stretch.Warm up and match time.”
Federer also voiced his opinion on the decline of the one-handed backhand: “I would love to see more one-handed backhands but the trend is clearly going two-handers because we see more baseline tennis.”
All in all, Federer handled the Reddit crowd pretty well. It was surprising that he didn’t get in front of some of the questions posed. However, the questions he did tackle were insightful and interesting. Check out the full AMA here.
