Roger Federer once shared how his wife Mirka ‘mocked’ him after witnessing him throw a racket during their first encounter.

Federer and Mirka first met during the 2000 Sydney Olympics while representing Switzerland, three years before the Swiss Maestro secured his first Grand Slam title at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.

The couple started dating in 2000 and tied the knot in April 2009 in Federer’s hometown of Basel, Switzerland. They have been blessed with two sets of identical twins: daughters Charlene and Myla, who are now 15, and sons Leo and Lenny, who are 10 years old.

In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Roger Federer reminisced about how when Mirka first met him, she witnessed him throwing a racket and shouting while playing club tennis. She playfully mocked him, wondering what was wrong with him.

“I was playing club tennis in Switzerland and everybody said, ‘Go see this guy, he’s super talented, the future of tennis.’ And the first thing she saw was me throwing a racket and shouting, and she was like [in a mocking tone], ‘Yeah! Great player, he seems really good! What’s wrong with this guy?'” Federer said.

Mirka Federer was a former professional tennis player herself and achieved her career-best singles ranking of World No. 76 in 2001. Her most notable Grand Slam result was reaching the third round of the US Open in the same year.

However, the 46-year-old hung up her racket in 2002 due to a persistent foot injury.

In the same 2016 interview with The Guardian, Roger Federer, who is four years younger than Mirka, shared a humorous anecdote about how his wife felt after their first kiss.

Federer said: “She’s always been older than me. When I kissed her for the first time, she said, ‘You’re so young.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m almost 18 and a half.’ You know how you try to shove another half year in? And she was like, ‘OK, you’re a baby.'”

The 20-time Grand Slam champion then expressed his gratitude to his wife for always supporting him, even when he had zero titles under his belt: “When I met her I had zero titles, today I have 88, so she’s been on this ride for the whole time.”