Roger Federer, Wimbledon 2003 – © Fotosports / Panoramic
Roger Federer is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The recently retired Swiss won 20 Grand Slam titles during his long and illustrious career at the top of the men’s game. Federer was officially ranked as the men’s world No 1 for 310 weeks and holds the record for consecutive weeks at number one. Now retired, Federer will be looking to fill his time with other activities and could turn back to his favourite childhood video game.
Reports suggest that “Tekken 3” was Federer’s favourite video game as a youngster. Tekken 3 was released in 1998 for the PlayStation, a console Federer enjoyed using to play video games in his free time. Federer would have been 17 years old at the time Tekken 3 was released, so as a young male, he was the target market for the game. The fighting game included several characters and players could fight against the computer or against a friend.
Jin Kazama, Hwoarang, Eddy Gordo, Ling Xiaoyu, Bryan Fury, and Julia Chang were among the popular characters in Tekken 3 and it would be interesting to find out which character Federer chose to use most often when playing the game. If the creators of Tekken 3, Namco, knew Federer was playing their game and he was going to become one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, they could have setup a sponsorship deal. Federer could even have become a character in the video game but at the time, he was an unknown player. Still, it is an interesting thought to have Federer as a character in a Tekken game, using his agility to avoid blows from opponents.
Many sports stars seem to enjoy video games in retirement, some choose games that have spice of wagering included. As those offer an extra dimension of entertainment. Thrilling the players with the possibility of winning the prize. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if popular “Fedex” tried some of those himself. For example lately popular crypto slots, which are gaining sympathies among players of all branches.
PLAYING TEKKEN WITH CHIUDINELLI
One of the beauties of playing Tekken 3 on the PlayStation is the two-player mode and this is something Federer used often when playing the video game. When he was training at Old Boys Tennis Club in Biel, Federer met fellow Swiss player Marko Chiudinelli and the two became friends. One of their common interests away from the tennis court was video games and they would play Tekken 3 together. Chiudinelli has spoken about the time he spent with Federer when they were growing up and how he knew he was going to become a great player. Chiudinelli also talked about the times they would play Tekken 3 and how Federer would usually beat him at the game. In The Roger Federer Effect (written by Simon Cambers and Simon Graf) Chiudinelli said, “We played maybe 200 times, he won 198 times, but I kept trying.”
REMAINING FOCUSED
Despite enjoying late night Tekken 3 gaming sessions with his friend, Federer was never late for training the following day. As a youngster, it is easy to be caught up in something away from your studies or in Federer’s case, tennis practice.
However, the Swiss did not allow his video gaming to get in the way of his tennis career. Chiudinelli on the other hand, did report late to training on occasion, having played Tekken 3 with Federer late into the night. Perhaps playing Tekken against another player helped to build the competitive nature Federer took to the tennis court throughout his career. Back in the 1990s, playing video games was often seen as being lazy, with parents often telling children to stop playing and go outside. The right balance between playing video games and maintaining an active lifestyle is important but video gaming has become a competitive sport.
The leading esports events come with huge prize money and the top players can become millionaires from being good at a video game. It takes a highly focused and competitive individual to rise to the top of esports and playing Tekken 3 may have helped Federer with his focus and competitiveness on the tennis court. It may seem far-fetched to link the astronomical success achieved by Federer to playing a video game when he was a youngster. However, remaining competitive both on and off the court when he was growing up could have helped him become one of the world’s best tennis players.
