Inside the Glorious Afterlife of Roger Federer

GQ Sports:
Inside the Glorious Afterlife of Roger Federer
Nearly two years after he walked away from tennis, Roger Federer has found a different rhythm to life—and an exciting new set of challenges. Now, in his most wide-ranging interview since his retirement, Federer reflects on his old rivals, his new passions, and the fresh sense of urgency that drives him: “I feel minutes matter more now than before.”

The Sheats-Goldstein House, located high up in Beverly Hills, is a James Lautner–designed marvel, with a tennis court, a koi pond, and, from the living room, a sweeping view of Los Angeles, just now easing into spring. Though the home’s owner, courtside fixture Jimmy Goldstein, pledged in 2016 to someday donate the house to LACMA, photos of Goldstein with various luminaries—Bill Clinton, Karl Lagerfeld, Drake—still line the walls, and a well-worn CD collection (Pure Pacha Summer 2014, Club St. Tropez 2006) sits stacked in one corner of the living room. This is where they shot the scene in The Big Lebowski in which Jeff Bridges sprawls on the modernist couch, drugged into a dream by a particularly potent White Russian. Now Roger Federer is sitting right about where The Dude sat, taking in the view.

He hasn’t seen the film, he says, though he heard it was a “big success”—he’s more familiar with the location because he once shot something here for a Champagne brand, which is a very Roger Federer thing to say. In person, he is slightly taller than you might think, his eyes a touch more hazel-y. At 42, he still moves with the same grace and efficiency as he did when he was a professional tennis player, though when he and I stand up from the couch where we’ve been talking, we both make the exact same involuntary groan. (Nevermind that Federer has played in more than 1,500 professional tennis matches, and won 20 Grand Slams, and I’m just a guy who watched a sampling of those victories from a variety of reclined postures—it was the same exact sound.) “My back was fine yesterday,” Federer says, laughing and patting it gently.