Roger Federer has expressed his hope that his formal nemesis and fellow GOAT Novak Djokovic can continue to break the remaining records in the sport.
The Swiss legend also talked about his recently released Twelve Final Days Documentary and revealed that the recording were initially meant for private consumption and he didn’t intend to publish it as a movie.
Over the course of his stellar career, Federer set numerous records and although many of his remarkable records are matched or broken by Djokovic, there are still few left and Djokovic has good chances to shatter them.
The legendary Serbian is a 24-time major titlist which is two ahead of Rafael Nadal’s 22 and four clear of Federer’ 20 Grand Slam crowns. Retired Swiss grass court maestro shared a very intense rivalry with Djokovic who owned him more times than any other player. In their head-to-head series, Djokovic leads Federer 27-23 in their total of 50 meetings that came between 2006 and 2020.
Appearing on the What Now? With Trevor Noah podcast, Federer tipped Djokovic to continue breaking records as he also commented on Nadal and Andy Murray.
“Hopefully Novak can continue to smash all the records,” said the 42-year-old.
“I hope Murray can play as much as his hip allows him and he still has that hunger. Rafa knew he was in a tough situation as well and he hopes he can still win as much as possible.”
The former World No.1 also talked about his decision to record the final days of his legendary career in 2022 for the Twelve Final Days film, which was released on Amazon Prime Video last month.
“I think the best part of it all was that it wasn’t supposed to be a movie,” the 8-time Wimbledon champion explained. “It was just supposed to be for us, to leave for my kids, for my team, for my friends, to be able to watch it again one day.
“The thing is, I’ve been very happy, open with the media, always happy to take pictures and talk to everyone, but private is private. Nobody comes to my house and it’s kind of off limits because I tried to keep my kids out of it as much as I could.
“Of course, they’ve come to watch some matches, people watch them sometimes, but I’ve tried to keep it more of a private thing. When my career was over, the question was, ‘where am I going to retire? ’
“I knew at some point in the summer that my foot wasn’t getting any better. And then some people around thought maybe I should at least have some footage of the end.
“I’ve never wanted a camera crew in my life because I said I couldn’t think of anything worse. I always felt like that wasn’t what I needed in my life and I didn’t want it.
“So, we decided it was going to be in London, playing doubles with Rafa. At that point Rafa called me and I thought about having a camera crew around and, knowing that it was going to stay private, I was going to be relaxed.”