The most important member of the “Federer Team” must be Mirka Federer, his wife. Recently, during a performance tour in Brazil, Federer emphasized that “the person he owes the most to is Mirka, who has been by his side throughout his career, from when he had no titles until now, nearly 80 years old.” champion title, share everything with you and give you twin girls.”

Tennis and love can be “the perfect couple”

Like Martina Hingis, Miroslava Vavrinec, Mirka’s maiden name, was born in Slovakia and moved to Switzerland with her family when she was 2 years old, in 1980. In 1987, her father took her to Germany to watch a tennis tournament. Here, she met the legendary Martina Navratilova. Impressed by Mirka’s athletic body, Navratilova advised her father to send her to tennis practice, gave Mirka her first racket and gave her her first lesson. Mirka quickly showed her talent, winning the Swiss youth championship at the age of 15, first met Federer in 1997 and turned professional in 1998.

The highest point of Mirka’s career was in 2004 when she reached the third round of the US Open, losing to Justine Henin, rising to her career-high ranking of world number 76. In 2000, she represented Switzerland at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, lost in singles to Elena Dementieva in round 1, and in doubles with Emmanuelle Gagliardi also lost to a Venezuelan pair in round 1. Unsuccessful on the court, Mirka was successful… off the court. . Her relationship with a boy 3 years younger than Federer grew stronger during her days in Sydney. “I didn’t understand why he wanted to talk to me so much then. Then near the end of the tournament, he kissed me.”

Federer, then 19 years old, once said that he “prioritized tennis before his girlfriend”. However, since the first day of establishing a relationship with Mirka, he has proven that tennis and love can be a “perfect couple”. In January 2002, they played doubles together at the Hopman Cup, but 3 months later, Mirka ended her career at the age of 24 due to a serious leg injury.

Since 2003, Mirka started going to tournaments with Federer with the task of helping him with media work, arranging travel schedules, accommodation, and occasionally being his soccer practice partner. Of course, everyone knows Mirka’s other “mission”: being a girlfriend. The fact that Federer won his first Grand Slam championship at Wimbledon 2003 proved that their love had sublimated into victory. Later that year, Federer moved out of his parents’ house in Basel to an apartment in Oberwil that he shared with Mirka.

Mirka protects her man very well. She can interrupt the media’s interview with Federer if it is too long, or goes into too personal matters, so that he can rest. Some people may think that Mirka is quite cold, inflexible and tough, but most agree with Mirka’s very professional approach. Mirka also protects her family’s private life very carefully, only family members or very close friends are invited to their home. Very few people knew about their engagement and wedding on April 11, 2009…

General managers are dedicated to their work

In later years, the “Federer Team” had new people, in charge of each specific job. Mirka did not specialize in any job anymore, but she was still the “general manager”, looking after the general work, helping the ministries. parts connected to each other. There are rumors that it is Mirka who has the decisive say in which coach Federer should hire or terminate, and who he should bring into his squad.

“She still plays the most important role among us, she understands very well everyone involved in tennis, from sponsorship to competition, unlike me who only knows coaching. Giving us full freedom to do our own thing and keeping everything in line with each other in an orbit proves that Mirka is someone who is very good at keeping balance,” commented Paul Annacone, Federer’s coach.

His wife and children always follow Federer

Last year, after Federer was defeated by Tsonga and then Djokovic came back (after 2 sets leading) at Wimbledon and the US Open, Mirka told Federer during his 6-week break after the US Open that he needed to find an explanation. to the bottom of this problem. “Mirka said: it’s okay to lose 1-1 narrow matches but you can’t start losing like that anymore, there’s something wrong with you, you need to question yourself and check the whole team Let’s see what they think,” Federer recounted. After that 6-week break, Federer won 3 consecutive championship titles in Basel, Paris and ATP World Tour Final.

After giving birth to two girls in July 2009, Mirka had a reason to stay home and take care of her children. But she decided to take the whole family on tour (and bring a babysitter, of course) with Federer. Rarely is Mirka absent from the tournament Federer participates in, and she is always busy with her smartphone to control her “overview”. Federer said that without such support, it would be difficult for him to feel secure in pursuing titles around the world from January to November of the year.