The former world number one Roger Federer has talked candidly about his wife Mirka Federer’s early departure from the WTA Tour due to a recurrent foot problem.
Mirka started playing tennis professionally in 1993 and reached a career-high ranking of World No. 76 in September 2001. However, she was forced to stop a year later due to a persistent foot injury.
Federer talks about Mirka’s difficulties with her foot issue.
Federer discussed a variety of subjects during her visit on Trevor Noah’s What Now podcast, including dating Mirka and the difficulties she encountered while recovering from a foot ailment. The 20-time Grand Slam champion recalled telling Mirka to quit if she felt pain while playing, and he pointed out an instance in which she had to use crutches.
“Have to go back to the early days you know when we got together pretty much at the Olympics in 2000,” Federer said. “I was young at the time, and Mirka was in the thick of her career when she began to experience Achilles problems and struggled to recover from the operation. I recall seeing her travel across Paris on crutches.
“Very difficult times, she spent a lot of time on crutches. I believe more than a month. I told her, “Why don’t you just retire? This isn’t the idea of playing tennis with pain all the time, and then we can be on tour together?” when she was undergoing rehabilitation and in constant pain.
The Swiss Maestro proceeded to jest about how hard it was for him to accept his own retirement, whereas Mirka made the same decision with minimal hesitation.
“And now, here I am… Federer remarked, “Ah, I don’t know if I should retire. I’m 36, you know, 37, 38, and it’s so hard to retire.” “She simply said, ‘Okay, I’m done, it’s no problem, what’s the big deal?’ while I was thinking of her. And I think, “This is the biggest deal ever—retiring, I’m getting really emotional, I love this game so much.”