Roger Federer, the tennis legend, recently spoke about his first encounter with pickleball in an interview with ExtraTV. Although he can't be seen playing himself, he gives some interesting insights into his experience of the popular new sport.
Federer describes pickleball as a mixture of different sports and compares it in particular to ping-pong. During the interview, he emphasizes how unusual it was to play in temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. These extreme temperatures made it difficult for him to concentrate properly in the first singles match.
Despite these challenges, Federer was curious and open to pickleball. "It feels like PingPong, only much bigger. It was incredibly hot and I could hardly concentrate on the game," he said. This statement makes it clear that even top athletes like Federer find new sports and unfamiliar conditions challenging.
Federer's interest in pickleball underlines the growing popularity of the sport worldwide. His participation could help to make pickleball even better known and get more people interested in it.
You can watch the entire interview with Roger Federer and his first impressions of pickleball in the video below. It will be exciting to see whether the maestro swings the pickleball racket more often in the future!