Before his big breakthrough in tennis, Roger Federer was not yet so professional and also went full throttle on the ski slopes. Almost with disastrous consequences.
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- Roger Federer is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Before his breakthrough, however, a skiing accident almost thwarted his plans.
- Around 20 years ago, Federer crashed heavily in Crans-Montana, but fortunately remained uninjured.
- However, the fall left its mark. As a result, the then mega-talent gave up skiing - and then went from success to success on the tennis court.
When Roger Federer ended his outstanding career in 2022, he made it clear that he was looking forward to one thing in particular: skiing. Due to the high risk of injury, the then tennis superstar gave up his hobby for years. Probably also because he had experienced a scary moment in Crans-Montana when he was young.
Federer was skiing with Marc Rosset in Valais at the time. The 1992 Olympic champion recalled the accident on the "Tennis Legend" podcast in July. "Roger must have been 18 or 19 years old," said Rosset. "He overtook me and drove over a bump. He flew off and I thought: 'Shit! This is a disaster!" Federer flew several meters backwards through the air and hit the snow hard.
"His body was twisted in all directions. I was sure he had broken something. I got scared. Imagine if his career had been over because of that. We wouldn't have looked good and I would have been dead for Switzerland," Rosset continued.
"I drove like a madman"
Federer himself recalled the serious fall in 2019. "I skied like a madman, took a jump, flew ten meters, crashed and found myself 100 meters further down in the snow. Marc laughed, but he was worried about me," said Federer in an interview with "Le Matin". The relief was correspondingly great when Federer was able to get up again. "I was lucky, I could have suffered a serious injury."
After this fall, Federer traveled to Zurich to take part in the Davis Cup. Switzerland lost 2:3 to Australia, but in those days Federer was probably just happy that he was still able to stand on the court at all. A few years later, the Basel native won his first of 20 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon.
Since his retirement, however, Federer has been back in the mountains. In January 2023, he was back on skis for the first time in 15 years, as he recorded in an Instagram video. However, the now 43-year-old is now taking it a little easier than he did as a teenager ...
