‘It was like being on a speed train,’ he recalled. ‘I was learning so much: how to deal with TV shows, red carpets, pressure, press, travel. This is where my fitness coach, Pierre, and Mirka, my wife, have been unbelievable. They were the rocks behind the whole organisation.’
Admittedly, the train began to decelerate towards the end of the decade, thanks partly to the emergence of Rafael Nadal, and partly to glandular fever. (‘It made a big dent in my career; in 2008 I felt a step slower.’) But Federer was about to enter a new phase of his life. ‘The beautiful times came in 2009,’ he said, ‘where I finally won the French, Mirka got pregnant, we had the kids, I won Wimbledon and broke the record [Sampras’s 14 grand slam titles].