Roger Federer’s tennis retirement was another form of death, doc directors say

Roger Federer is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, so to be there in the final days of his career felt like “witnessing him dying”, documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia tells Yahoo UK.

Kapadia and Joe Sabia spent time with the sportsman for Prime Video’s Federer: Twelve Final Days which examines the end of Federer’s career that culminated in a Lavers Cup doubles match beside his longtime rival Rafael Nadal in September 2022. It charts the prolific player’s journey from his retirement announcement to his last moments on court, which proved an emotional experience for both him and the filmmakers.

“That was really what made me interested was just the idea, the emotion of it,” Kapadia explains. “You know the sportspeople die twice line, and [it’s] the idea that we’re witnessing him dying, one of his lives is dying, and he’s not sure what [he’s] gonna do now, what comes next, is quite powerful.

“All of his rivals, you can see in their eyes them knowing ‘it’s gonna be me soon’. It’s actually probably sooner than you’d think. It’s really the end of an era but that’s what the film is about.”

Sabia met Federer when he did an interview with Vogue, and little did he know that soon he would be tapped to work with the sportsman again — but he reveals it wasn’t initially the plan to present the final product to the world.

Read more: Roger Federer feels ‘really relieved’ to have retired from tennis (Bang Showbiz, 2-min read)

“Three years later is when the opportunity came around to go and shoot a fly on the wall documentation of his experiences that were never going to see the light of day,” he says. “So it was in that context that I met Mirka [Federer’s wife] for the first time, his kids for the first time… and what I realised immediately is that it is a very small circle, and to be in that circle there obviously needs to be trust.

“There needs to be an awareness discretion, but there’s nothing but warmth once you’re there and that’s that’s what I felt the entire time.”

The director adds: “It was emotional for me as well, I didn’t go into this experience thinking I was a documentarian doing a project that a studio had green lit, or everyone was on the same page that this is going to be a film [and] that we need to be thinking about audience.

“So it allowed me to go on this journey where I’m just a member of the small circle making home videos, that allowed me, I think, to appreciate it from an emotional standpoint where it felt like I was just going along on the ride with him and his family.”

He and Kapadia were impressed by the way that Federer held himself throughout the twelve days they spent together, with the latter calling him a “gentleman” both before, during and after shooting.

Saba says: “This is a man who had a lot on his mind when declaring that he’s going to retire multiple days in advance meant he had those butterflies in his stomach completely until then. But, on top of it, having to do 40 interviews in two-hour blocks, speaking four different languages, being pulled in all directions and having had conversations with his hero Björn Borg, having all these young players look up to him.

“[He was] worried about his knee the entire time, and worried if Rafa was going to be able to arrive on time [to the Laver Cup] because his wife’s about to have a baby.

“There was so much on his mind, but he did it all with poise and the typical Federer class. I got exhausted watching him, I was completely worn down by it!”

As well as explore Federer’s personal journey to accepting the end of his career, the film also features the other members of the Top 4 of the golden age of tennis: Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Read more: Andy Murray: ‘I feel for younger players like Emma Raducanu — there’s less pressure on me now’ (Evening Standard, 16-min read)

“We’re coming to the end of his career, it’s all about him and his rivals, it’s all about the people that were this incredible golden age of tennis, and it’s all ending,” Kapadia says. “He’s the first, he’s the first to arrive and he’s the first to go, and what made it interesting was just being in the locker room with them.”

As mentioned, the film ends with the Laver Cup where Federer and Nadal —as part of Team Europe— faced American players Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe who represented Team World. The tennis giants lost their match by a narrow margin, and famously sat crying together afterwards because they realised they would never play together in a professional capacity again.

Sabia filmed the players in the locker room after their tearful displays on the court, saying: “I thought it was even more moving because in that last scene I wasn’t supposed to go in that locker room, but I’m really glad I did.

“For the camera to witness Rafa privately crying with his head in the towel, I thought was just particularly emotional because it showed that he still had some tears left in him and he needed to go to the locker room to get it out. So I thought that was a very moving moment as well.”

Kapadia adds: “The last act, in a way, is the tennis match where he’s playing with his great rival and playing together and more of it being about this camaraderie between the two of them. But because real life is not like the movies, they lose the final match.

“He’s on match point on his serve, and that’s the movie version, isn’t it? You win by hitting an amazing [serve] and actually, no, the reality is they lose. Federer couldn’t quite reach the ball, or Rafa doesn’t.

“He says it to Borg: ‘that’s why I have to stop’, and I think the film is really about that. It’s about getting old and [how] actually you can’t do what you used to do. Your brain’s still there, but he can’t physically quite do it. That was the idea, that the tennis match isn’t the greatest ever Wimbledon final… the truth is they lose.”

Roger Federer: The Last Twelve Days is out on Prime Video now.