20 Grand Slam victories: No tennis professional has won more top tournaments than Roger Federer. Our reporter accompanied him on a trip to Africa.
Two days before he will write tennis history again, Roger Federer is sitting in a white Mercedes van on the way to the Windhoek State House. The Namibian President Hage Geingob invited him for an interview. He wants to meet the greatest tennis player of all time, whom he only knows from television.
Federer wears a white polo shirt from his sponsor Uniqlo, plus running shoes and dark gray trousers, a more casual outfit for a presidential visit.
When the minibus reaches the courtyard of the Presidential Palace, Roger Federer quickly slips on a dark blue jacket and gathers up his sleeves as if he were looking for the right balance between coolness and protocol. Then he gets out. All he has to do is quickly get his gift from the trunk.
The conversation with the President, in which everything is very cheerful and polite, takes half an hour. It is about Roger Federer’s foundation, the strong role of her women and the seven match balls that Federer recently fended off in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. Finally, the president asked that he and the Namibian press come together to give the presents.
