Federer’s anecdote to Alcaraz at Wimbledon: “I made a mistake and I said…”

Roger Federer will bid farewell to professional tennis this Friday in a doubles match at the Laver Cup, after announcing his retirement last week. The Helvetian held a press conference on Wednesday at the O2, venue of the tournament, to detail his farewell and offered a few words to world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, who assured that Federer is one of the idols of his childhood and that he wanted to play an official match against him.

The Swiss said it was unfortunate that he would not be able to play an official match against Carlos Alcarazone of Murcian’s dreams, and pointed out that he closely followed the Spaniard’s victories in the US Open.

“It’s a shame I can never compete with him. I saw what he did at the US Open, it was amazing.. I always say there are new superstars in this sport. The future of tennis is bright. There are people who say it will never be the same when Pete and Andre retired, but there are always people who win Grand Slams,” Federer said.

The winner of 20 Grand Slams He recalled an anecdote with the Murcian when they trained together at Wimbledon 2019before the Swiss faced Rafa Nadal in the semi-finals of the tournament.

“I have a funny anecdote with Carlos, at Wimbledon, when we trained together. This is a good exercise. I remember that Juan Carlos (Ferrero) was very happy to see him training well, because he was his son. Many times after training with someone you are training again because it is easy to call that person back and ask if you want to do it again. So I called them two days later.”

“But I made a mistake and said I wanted to train with Juan Carlos, not Carlos. I was late, but the practice with Ferrero was good, he didn’t miss a ball. I can continue on the circuit,” he said.