Video: Roger Federer’s children expected Rafael Nadal to win the Swiss Sportsman of the Year award
It’s certainly tough to impress your own kids. One of the biggest legends of the sports world, Roger Federer learned this the hard way recently.
The maestro added yet another accolade to his name when he was crowned the ‘Swiss Sportsman of the Year’ at the Credit Suisse Sports Awards held on Sunday night. This was the seventh time in his career that the tennis ace won this award.
Federer was the overwhelming favourite for it after a season that witnessed him winning the Wimbledon Championships for the eighth time and the Australian Open for the fifth time, among other accomplishments. Having garnered 36.88% of the votes, he beat cross-country cyclist Nino Schurter and alpine ski racer Beat Feuz.
The 19-time Grand Slam champion was not present at the awards ceremony but delivered his acceptance speech in Swiss-German through a video link. After thanking his parents, who were present in the audience, and his coach Severin Luthi, Federer revealed an anecdote from a conversation that he had with his children that had the gathering in splits.
Federer’s kids -- twin girls Charlene and Myla and twin boys Leo and Lenny -- were quite bewildered that their father was going to win an award, despite the fact that Rafael Nadal is the numero uno player in the world.
“After dinner, my kids asked me where I was going. I told them there is this awards gala where I could win a prize,” the World No. 2 described.
“Then they said: ‘But isn’t Rafa No. 1?’” the 36-year-old said, bursting into peals of laughter.
Federer’s two sets of twins certainly do have a point. After all, he is not the best player in the rankings, no matter how brilliant his season was.
However, his family members were the last people he was expecting to remind him of that!
Watch the hilarious video here: