Roger Federer is in the conversation of tennis' Greatest of All Time and recently made it to the Top 20 highest earning athlete of 2023.
None of these would have been possible if he stayed in school, at least according to him.
Federer shared in an interview with GQ how he fought for a chance to pursue tennis against his parents, who naturally were not amenable to the idea.
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He negotiated for his dreams when he was only 14, and good thing for him; the parents agreed.
"When I was 14, I left home and attended a performance centre," Federer said.
"Those were probably the two most important years of my life. I learned so much about life. At the age of 16 I decided to stop school. I tried online classes for a few months, but then realized pretty quickly that both weren't possible and that I had to put everything on one card."
Federer, third in most Grand Slam wins, bet on himself, and now he continues to rake in the rewards of that bet.
Federer happy he no longer has to train
Another juicy bit from the interview is when Federer said he enjoys slacking now that he is retired.
Federer stopped playing competitive tennis in 2022, although he continued to appear as a guest in different tournaments.
"To be honest, I'm totally relieved to no longer have to train and play matches every day," he said.
"When you notice that your body is no longer working as well as you would like, it can be very stressful. I still feel like I only put the tennis racket down five minutes ago (laughs)."
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