Serious fall in Crans-Montana: A skiing accident almost cost Roger Federer his career

Before his big breakthrough in tennis, Roger Federer was not yet a professional and also went full throttle on the ski slopes. Almost with disastrous consequences.

When Roger Federer ended his outstanding career in 2022, he made it clear that there was one thing he was particularly looking forward to: skiing. Because of the high risk of injury, the then tennis superstar gave up his hobby for years. Probably also because he had experienced a moment of shock in Crans-Montana when he was young.

Federer was skiing with Marc Rosset in Valais at the time. The 1992 Olympic champion recalled the accident in July in the “Tennis Legend” podcast. “Roger must have been 18 or 19 years old,” said Rosset. “He overtook me and drove over a bump. He flew off and I thought: ‘Shit! This is a disaster!'” Federer flew backwards through the air several meters and hit the snow hard.

“His body was twisted in all directions. I was sure he had broken something. I was scared. Imagine if his career had been over because of that. We wouldn’t have looked good and I would have been dead for Switzerland,” Rosset continued.

«I drove like a madman»

Federer himself recalled the serious fall in 2019. “I was driving like a madman, took a jump, whipped ten meters, fell and found myself 100 meters further down in the snow.” “Marc laughed, but he was worried about me,” Federer said in an interview with “Le Matin”. The relief was correspondingly great when Federer was able to get up again. “I was lucky, I could have sustained a serious injury there.”

After this fall, Federer travelled to Zurich to take part in the Davis Cup. Switzerland lost 2:3 to Australia. In those days, Federer was probably just happy that he was still able to be on the court. A few years later, the Basel native won his first of 20 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon.

Since his retirement, Federer has been back in the mountains. In January 2023, he was back on skis for the first time in 15 years, as he recorded in an Instagram video. The now 43-year-old is now taking things a little more leisurely than he did as a teenager…

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