A wonderful episode involving Federer and Kunieda
I would like to share an episode I love about Federer and Kunieda.
It came up when they were asked a question by a Japanese reporter.
By the way, Federer is a former professional male tennis player from Basel, Switzerland, who is a star player with 103 singles titles and 8 doubles titles on the ATP Tour.
He has won 20 Grand Slam titles, the third most in history, and is the sixth player in history to achieve a career Grand Slam.
Furthermore, he has won a record eight Wimbledon titles, achieved five consecutive wins starting in 2003, is highly regarded as the "King of Grass," and retired from professional play in 2022.
To return to the story, the question a Japanese reporter asked Federer in 2007 was as follows.
"Why haven't any world-class players emerged from the Japanese tennis world?"
Indeed, at that time, there were no world-class players in the Japanese men's tennis world.
Kei Nishikori, who would later climb to world number four, had just turned professional that very year.
While the other Japanese reporters around him did not particularly question this, Federer answered as follows.
"What are you talking about!? You have Kunieda in Japan!!"
By the way, Kunieda is a former Japanese professional wheelchair tennis player and holds the record for the most Grand Slam wheelchair titles in men's history, with a total of 50 (28 in singles, 22 in doubles).
Furthermore, he competed in every Paralympic Games from the 2004 Athens Games to the 2020 Tokyo Games, winning three gold medals in singles and one in doubles.
Incidentally, on January 22, 2023, he announced his retirement while still ranked world number one, and on March 3 of the same year, the Japanese government decided at a cabinet meeting to award Kunieda the People's Honor Award.
I was moved when I heard Federer's answer.
Federer, a top-tier player, had brought up the name of a Japanese wheelchair tennis player.
By the way, when Kunieda retired, he sent a message of gratitude to Federer, saying, "Because of Federer, I came to love tennis this much. Being able to play with you is a treasure for a lifetime."