When Roger Federer remembered my kid’s names…
It all started when I interviewed Roger Federer in November in London ahead of the World Tour finals. It was the kind of run of the mill interview he’d have done all the time with every local TV station. We had a little chat beforehand, we’d both recently had kids so we had some common ground! In the end, I gave him a bit of a hard time in our interview because he’d just been usurped as the world number one!
Two months later we met again. I was in Melbourne for the Australian Open this time — somewhere in the bowels of the Rod Laver Arena. As I got into a lift, I saw someone approaching, so naturally I held the door open. It wasn’t until the person got in the lift that I realised it was Roger! “Thank you Vassos” he said. He paused, then asked: “how are X and X?” He’d remembered my children’s names precisely. Needless to say, he was pretty chuffed with himself.
