Roger Federer has had a long, romantic and admirable relationship with former tennis player Mirka Vavrinec. Federer met Mirka at the 2000 Olympics when they were both playing for the Swiss tennis team. They shared their first kiss on the final day of the Olympics after Federer suffered two bitter defeats in the semi-final and the third-place match, two matches in which he had many chances to win but missed.
In an interview in 2005, when asked what was the happiest day of his life, Federer surprisingly answered not the day he won Wimbledon for the first time or the day he became world number 1, but the day he first met Mirka in Sydney.
In 2002, Federer and Mirka played doubles at the Hopman Cup, a tournament where Federer won the title in 2001 with his compatriot Martina Hingis. Despite the early defeat, 10 years later, when looking back, Federer said he had the honor of playing doubles with 3 women. With Martina Navratilova, she is a legend and a great player in the history of tennis, with Martina Hingis, she is a player he admires and has achieved achievements since she was very young, something Federer has never achieved, and with Mirka, she is the one who brings him the most emotions, always crying after the matches they lost, and she is the one who made him understand that the important thing is not winning or losing but being together on the court.
Also in 2002, Mirka suffered a foot injury, after several unsuccessful surgeries, she had to retire early. Since then, Federer invited her to be his public relations manager, to help her recover from the shock of the injury, to help her continue to be attached to tennis and on the other hand, so that they could travel together instead of having to be apart.
After 9 years of dating, they got married in Basel on April 11, 2009, in a simple, intimate ceremony without the presence of the media. Federer confided that he was moved to tears when he walked down the aisle with Mirka. On July 23, 2009, Mirka gave birth to twin girls: Myla Rose and Charlene Riva. During Christmas 2013, on his personal page, Federer announced that his wife was pregnant for the second time. On May 6, 2014, the couple welcomed their second set of twins, this time two boys, Leo and Lenny Federer. Federer called this a miracle for him.
Regarding his relationship with Mirka, Federer once said: Mirka has been with him since he had not won a single title, she is the person who has had a great influence on his career. In a documentary about Federer produced by BBC called Roger Federer: Spirit of a champion, he shared: People often think it’s crazy that we are together every day, but I don’t want to wake up anywhere else but next to her.
Similarly, in an interview with American Vogue magazine, when asked what the most important thing Mirka has given him, Roger replied: As long as I wake up every morning and she is there with me, that is all that matters. In the 2006 Masters Cup final, after defeating James Blake, on the podium, Federer also expressed his love for Mirka: Some people say I am the best, but I need Mirka to be the best.
When asked: “How much has your wife helped you during your professional career?”, Federer replied: “I don’t know exactly, but a lot. She would answer this question: “Not much, maybe just 1%. But she has given me a lot of strength, she has given me peace.”
“She was always there for me. My wife got along very well with my parents, and so did I with her parents. With Mirka, life was simple. We loved each other very much. After all these years, with four little ones (twin boys and twin girls), things are still going well. I was a little over 18 when we first met.”
“At that time, she was about 20 years old (Mirka was born in 1978, while Federer was born in 1981, he is nearly 3 years younger than his wife, if it were today, people would jokingly call this a love affair between a pilot and a granny plane). She thought that the love affair would not go anywhere. As for me, I didn’t know what to do either. Luckily, we both fought for our love, and that was wonderful,” Federer confided.
