“Everyone advised Roger against Mirka, but it was the best decision of his life”

Roger Federer has been with his Mirka for 20 years. If they had been the Master’s first companions, the relationship between the two would have developed somewhat differently.

Bad luck in the game, luck in love: this is how Roger Federer’s adventure at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney can be described. Why: Federer, 18, could be quite satisfied with the semifinals. However, disappointment prevailed for the Swiss after losing to Tommy Haas. “I huddled in a corner and cried for a long time,” recalls the Basel bidder years later. As he lost the bronze game against Frenchman Arnaud de Pasquale, Federer unsuccessfully left Olympia.

But that is not entirely true either. Because Federer conquered the heart of Miroslava Vavrinec in Sydney. The same afternoon of his bankruptcy against Arnaud de Pasquale, Roger kissed his Mirka for the first time, at that time he did not know that this woman would become his wife and mother of four children together.

A beautiful love story. At the time, however, the Swiss didn’t seem to be quite sure if Mirka was really the right woman at her side. At least that’s what Sven Groeneveld, the head coach of Swiss Tennis at the time, reports. “He asked everyone if he should meet her,” says the Dutchman in the Instagram chat “Kasi Live” on “tennisnet”.

And in fact, Federer’s Olympic teammates were apparently not really convinced of the Slovak-Swiss dual citizenship, which was active as a professional tennis player at the time. Everyone advised against Mirka. And that Federer did it was the best decision of his life », says Groeneveld, who also worked with Maria Sharapova, Sloane Stephens and Caroline Wozniacki in his coaching career.

When Mirka called Wawrinka “Cry Baby”

Even later, Federer’s tennis colleagues were not always enthusiastic about Mirka. His interruptions in the semifinals of the 2014 ATP Finals remain unforgettable, when he clearly described Stan Wawrinka as “Cry Baby”. And just a few days before Federer and Wawrinka together won the Davis Cup title for Switzerland.

Fortunately, Severin Lüthi was able to smooth the waves in time, although “there were still some internal problems”, as the captain of the Davis Cup Switzerland also recalls in “Kasi Live”: “It is incredible how the two solved this, with what size on Sunday On the train to Lille, Stan was able to laugh at it again. Both have everything subordinate to the goal.