When you’ve been following tennis as long as I have, only one word comes to your mind when you hear the name Roger Federer- elegance. If there was a textbook to learn tennis, you could have pictures of Roger Federer playing on all the pages. The Swiss maestro is has often mesmerized the world with his perfection and business like attitude on the court.

“For many people I own my elegance to my slice”, said Federer. “There is also my footwork that many people praise. I owe it to the hard work I did in the past. I worked a lot on the movement “, he added.

Federer says that the elegance part extends off the court as well. “The efficacy comes ahead of everything but everything is connected”, Roger Federer said. “The way I play, elegantly, it allows me to save much energy and so it makes me win. I do not play being strict.” Federer also went on to say, “The elegance is also about the personality. For some people you are an idol as well, so I stay humble in front of the crowd, because in the end I always say, “Hey, you are just a tennis player”.”

Federer also revealed that the players that he used to idolize and revere, were the ones who inspired him to play the kind of tennis that he plays now. “As a kid, I got inspired and motivated by Edberg, Becker or Sampras“, says the Swiss maestro. “This is so important. All of them were very elegant. It could be that I liked this aspect about them and unconsciously my game was based on their style.’ Does his game-style help his elegance? ‘definitely.”

Federer is currently participating in the Shanghai Masters 1000 event, where he will be looking to close in the gap between him and Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic will look to stop that from happening as he closes in on the second spot of the ATP singles rankings.